Some people want larger devices but others want the power of a bigger device in a more compact design - that was the message from HP, which has just announced a range of tablets and smartphones based on the Palm webOS platform.

The first to be announced was the HP Veer, which is a tiny 2.6-inch slider/touchscreen device, with a QWERTY keyboard and 5 MP camera. It runs a Snapdragon processor and will be available in the spring.

Getting bigger

The other smartphone announced was the Pre 3. It uses the same physical slider/touchscreen form factor as the Veer and the previous Palm Pre range,.

With a 3.6-inch 480x800 WVGA screen, it has the largest QWERTY keyboard of a Palm device. Running a 1.4 GHz Qualcomm processor, it has two cameras, with the rear-facing 5 MP camera shooting HD video. It will be available in the summer.

Biggest best

The main news however was the announcement of HP's TouchPad tablets.

The first (and as yet only) device to be revealed in the range is much like an iPad in physical size, having a 9.7-inch 1024x768 display, weighing 730 grams, and being 13 mm thick. It's supported by a wireless keyboard too.

With a dual-core Snapdragon processor rated at 1.2 GHz, the TouchPad has a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, a 1.3 MP camera for video calls, comes with wi-fi and Bluetooth, and in 16 GB or 32 GB options.

Added extras

Of course, it supports Flash - something iPad doesn't - and will have integration with web services such as Google Docs, QuickOffice and DropBox.

It will run HP's Synergy software, which handles issues such as firmware updates, notifications between users and cloud services. You can also sync contacts and calendars between Pre devices and the TouchPad.

The devices will run the new version of the OS, webOS (2.2 for the smartphone and 3.0 for TouchPad), which uses an HTML-based user interface to enable HP to deploy it within different form factors. It's also designed to be a platform that links together all your different cloud-based consumer devices.