HP Speculated to Re-Enter Smartphone Market With New Phablet

A new HP Slate 6 Voice Tab is now listed over at the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) awaiting certification which could suggest that the PC-maker is planning a re-entry into the smartphone market with what looks to be a 6-inch phablet.

HP had not released a smartphone on any platform since the company had exited the market when it shuttered its webOS division. Since then, the predominantly Windows PC-maker had released a number of tablets running Android, but has been missing from the phone space. Given that the Bluetooth SIG listing shows that the device is a “Voice Tab,” this is a positive indication that HP is working on a device that could handle voice calling capabilities.

Though details aren’t available right now, it looks like Phone Arena is reporting that the device has shown up on benchmarking site GFXBench with specs such as Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, quad-core Marvell CPU, and a 720p HD display.

It’s unclear which markets the HP Slate 6 Voice Tab will hit or if it will come to the U.S., but the device could help HP compete with rival PC-maker Lenovo’s recent ambitions to bring its smartphones outside of China and to Europe and the U.S.