Pre 2 Sports HVGA? In 2010?

HPalm let the cat out of the bag today on Palm 2.0 and their long awaited Pre 2. Always curious, I took a look at the specs and here’s what you get with their new flagship product “3.1-inch multitouch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color, 320×480 resolution HVGA display”. I was done reading at that point. I mean, HVGA on your latest product in 2010? I know the iPhone used that resolution, but notice the use of the past tense. That’s why they doubled their resolution. Android supports that resolution but mostly let it at Android 1.5 (the Hero did use it…last year). Even the Fuze was bumping full VGA. But this resolution is like putting a Porsche engine in a VW Beetle and telling me it’s a high end sports car.

Didn’t they learn anything from the launch of the Torch? Yup, the Torch is sporting a slightly higher screen resolution (HVGA+ at 480×360 as opposed to 480×320) and it got hammered for its mediocre screen.

Anyway, with a launch on Verizon “soon” are any of you into it? I presume if you’re big enough into WebOS 2 then you’ll look past this but my concern is that when your average consumer picks up this phone for the first time next to almost any other smartphone will quickly see the difference and won’t make it to the OS. You?

By the way, the complete PR release is here covering the benefits of WebOS 2.0.