The rivalry for Apple’s beloved place of tablet computer overlord seems to be heating up. The HP Slate is said to be released before the end of this year and now HP are stating that early 2011 will see the release of the HP Slate.
The HP Slate will run Flash, incorporate two cameras and Windows operating system. However, HP have been helpful enough to describe the differences between the Slate and the iPad. However, there are places which HP wins such as processor speed, expandability and a webcam but the iPad wins on screen resolution, battery life and bizarrely price.
Nonetheless, the HP Slate is certainly impressive. A 8.9 inch screen sporting a 10.24x600 resolution, powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Menlow processor with 1GB of RAM and 32 or 64GB of memory which is expandable via the SD card reader and will run Windows 7 Home Premium operating system.
In addition, the Slate comes with 802.11bg wireless, Bluetooth, GPS, pen and digitiser support and optional 3G. It doesn’t stop there either, the Slate incorporates a VGA 3 megapixel camera, a USB port, a dock connector that doubles as an audio interface and a HDMI port as well as a multi-touch panel, light sensor and accelerometer and the graphics are handled by the 1080p HD capable Intel UMA.
For all of this the price is certainly going to be steep and it sure is, the cheapest HP Slate PC will be around about £410, which is still £19 cheaper than the lowest iPad. However, compared to the ten hours of the iPad the Slate sports five but this is rivalled by the Slates ability to support Flash.
Things got interesting this year when HP acquired Palm which gives it access to Palm’s WebOS which is the equivalent of the Apple OS that’s runs on iPhones, iPads and iPods. As a result everyone is expecting HP to dump the Windows 7 operating system and opt for the WebOS or at worse release the first generation Slate running Windows 7 and the second generation running the newly acquired WebOS from Palm. Nonetheless, if HP do get rid of Windows it certainly removes the PC appeal of the Slate.
However, if HP stick with Windows then overall, the philosophy of the Slate is different and more user friendly. In essence the HP Slate is a computer without the keyboard as a result there is the ability and freedom to download software from wherever you wish, multi-task, add your peripherals and the other things that PC users are accustomed to.