We already know that HP has something cool in store for us on February 9th and now a render of the 9-inch Topaz has surfaced, giving us a pretty good idea of what this device will look like when it’s launched. Aside from that, it seems that the 9-inch tablet isn’t the only thing that HP is working on, as there is also a 7-inch tablet in the works, dubbed Opal. A quick glance at the render shows us that the device doesn’t have a button on the face of it, and we’re offered a front-facing camera, microUSB port at the bottom and possibly a three-speaker arrangement. There were also whispers about a 1.2GHz processor, and that sounds useful. It was also noted that the back of the tablet seems to have a glossy finish, so it might rule out inductive charging via the Touchstone charger, since it always required a matte back, though things might have been tweaked since then.
The reports claim that the tablets will begin to arrive at Palm’s HQ in June before production starts to gear up for a launch later this year. Previous leaks hint that Wi-Fi only, AT&T 3G and Verizon LTE versions of the Opal are slated to arrive in September 2011 with an AT&T LTE version to arrive in July 2012. There wasn’t any specific mention on pricing or features just yet, but with February 9th just around the corner, we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer. We’ll be at the event itself, so stay tuned!
