Remember when we saw the video of HP stating webOS in smartphones, tablets, and netbooks? We’re shock about the netbook, but there’s no mention of a webOS tablet before too. Now it’s time to talk about it. HP Slate running Windows 7? Meh, that’s old news. This time they’re (yes, there’s not one, but two) coming in the form of some gems.

HP is running an event in Feburary 9th with a tagline of “Something big, Something small, Something beyond”. Looks like it’s literally something that’s big and something that’s… well, slightly smaller. HP is rumoured to be announcing a 9-inch Topaz and a 7-inch Opal, both are webOS tablets. Engadget’s tipster gave them a render of a webOS tablet, and it seemed to be very sleek in design.

There’s no home button there and according to the render, those buttons are touch-sensitive, and there’s a front-facing camera, a micro USB port on the button, and a strange three-speaker arrangement of tiny stereo speakers, probably for better audio experience in both landscape and portrait mode. The back indeed looks glossy with the stamped HP Palm logo, but there’s no way to tell if it’s plastic or glossy metal. Of course, these are early speculations based on renders alone, so anything can change once it hits production stage. There’s no mention of specification too, other than an unspecified 1.2GHz processor for both Topaz and Opal.

The source told Engadget that units will start to arrive at Palm HQ as early as June, and there are a few models available according to an internal marketing slide that lists WiFi-only, AT&T 3G, and Verizon LTE versions of the Opal arriving in September 2011, and on AT&T LTE in July 2012. The slide also indicates the Opal will have a particular e-reading focus, which makes sense for a 7-inch device, and there’s a mention of “premium audio,” though I’m not sure what that means. It’s said that the Topaz will arrive first before the Opal, but don’t you think a launch date of September would be rather late? By then, there’ll be the XOOM, the iPad 2, the PlayBook, and tons of others to compete with.

SOURCE via Engadget