Palm PVG100 Escapes Smartphone Purgatory Running Android Oreo
Now, we're receiving more evidence that a smartphone launch is imminent. The PVG100 smartphone manufactured by the TCL subsidiary Palm Ventures Group has been certified by both the Wi-Fi Alliance and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). One of the interesting things gleaned from its Wi-Fi Certified Interoperability Certificate is that the device only supports the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band, and not 5GHz. That's pretty disappointing news and leads us to believe that the smartphone could linger down in the budget arena. After all, most mainstream and flagship devices carry 5GHz 802.11ac Wi-Fi radios.
The only other thing that is confirmed by this info dump is that the smartphone will be running Android 8.1 Oreo. If you recall, Palm's latest major software release was webOS, which has since been gobbled up by LG for use on its Smart TVs.
That leaves us to speculate as to what other features may be coming to the PVG100. After all, today's TCL-manufactured BlackBerry devices have been offered in both touchscreen-only and keyboard-equipped variants for quite a while. It's sometimes a bit jarring to see an Android device equipped with a physical keyboard, but it does hark back to the early dates of Android and the BlackBerry smartphone craze that preceded it.
Whether the PVG100 adopts a physical keyboard like many Palm devices that came before it remains to be seen, but its [likely] lower-end specs may put a damper on that wish. However, when it does arrive, it will likely be a Verizon-exclusive according to our earlier report.
