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HP’s closing-down sale continues. Yesterday UK retailers dropped the price of its discontinued TouchPad tablet to just £89, and now it’s done the same with its forthcoming Pre 3 smart phone, slashing £250 off the RRP and selling it for a bargainous £49 SIM-free. Everything must go!
The price cut will apply to the whole of Europe, according to the Telegraph, though retailers are yet to confirm this. We’ve asked Carphone Warehouse, Amazon, Play.com and HP, and are waiting to hear back — we’ll bring you their response as soon as we can. At the moment it’s listed at full price for an early September release on Amazon, Play.com and Carphone Warehouse. The Pre 3 won’t go on sale in the US.
The price cut certainly makes sense, with the Pre 3 running the same webOS software as the TouchPad — HP announced it would stop making webOS devices at the end of last week. It brings the phone into the same price bracket as the budget Android devices aimed at teenagers that do social networking but very little else. (That’s the phones, not the teenagers.)
The Pre 3 has a slideout Qwerty keyboard, runs the aforementioned webOS software, and is powered by a 1.4GHz processor, though it is only single-core. It’s a big beast, no mistake, as you’ll see in our hands-on video, with a 3.6-inch screen, but at this price it seems an absolute steal. And it could see the kind of uptake that would get developers keen to do something about the paucity of apps available, even if there’s no more hardware forthcoming.
So, would you buy a Pre 3 for £49? Let us know on our Facebook page or in the comments section below.
