A new Palm smartphone is in the works, according to FCC documents

Image: Gian Cescon/Unsplash

Remember Palm? Originally marketed as a smartphone better than the iPhone, running software called webOS and featuring a physical keyboard.

Ultimately its demise was a buyout by HP, which resulted in the short-lived HP TouchPad (a webOS tablet). However, Palm fans shouldn’t give up hope: TCL acquired Palm from HP in 2015, but without the rights to webOS as LG took ownership of it in 2013. Now, three years later, a new device is on the horizon.

First spotted by Android Police, new filings show a device called the Palm PVG100 has passed through the FCC and WiFi Alliance. Yes, a Palm smartphone submitted by the Palm Ventures Group just showed up in 2018.

Not much is known about the device, but it is an Android 8.1 Oreo smartphone with WiFi 2.4GHz and quad-band LTE support. If you went “huh” after reading 2.4GHz, you are correct with that reaction as this device will not support the faster 5GHz band, common in most devices now, by the looks of this filing. 

While this device is running Android 8.1 Oreo, an upgrade to Android Pie 9.0 would give it a webOS feel with the gesture support. Unfortunately, as with most regulatory filings, photos and other information has been scrubbed from the public record.

And so far there’s no confirmation that it is really coming. But if it is, TCL will likely try to revamp the Palm brand in the same way it did with BlackBerry. The original report from Android Police says Verizon might be home to a Palm smartphone by the end of 2018. 

Mashable has reached out to TCL and Verizon and will update when we hear back. 

In the meantime, the PVG100 has already passed through the FCC and the WiFi Alliance, so the chances seem high for Palm phone to launch by the end of 2018. The question then becomes: What reason could there be to go for a Palm smartphone over the likes of an iPhone, Pixel or Samsung, besides nostalgia?