HP Slate specs leaked
HP's Slate has some advantages over the iPad - but the smaller screen and lower battery life could put buyers off.
First there was a promotional video, spotted by the guys over at UberGizmo, which quietly points out all the features the HP Slate has that the iPad doesn't: mostly concentrating on the device's USB port and SD card reader. The video - entitled "HP's Slate Device: A Full Mobile Experience" - even manages a few digs at Apple directly, showing the Slate running iTunes and with what appears to be an iPhone USB cable connected.
Promotional videos are all well and good, but it's specifications that count - and HP's next leak provides that in spades. According to a slide designed to provide retailers with a blow-by-blow comparison between the Slate and the iPad, there are some upsides and some downsides to HP's upcoming device.
As can be seen in the copy of the slide over on Engadget, the good news is that the Slate will come with a 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor - likely to perform faster than the 1GHz custom ARM-based processor found in the iPad, and compatible with alternative operating systems should you choose to replace the included copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. This processor is backed up by 1GB of DDR2 RAM - "not consumer upgradable," apparently - and either a 32GB or 64GB SSD.
The Slate also wins in the connectivity stakes, with an SDHC reader supporting cards of up to 128GB, a single USB 2.0 port, support for a desktop dock providing HDMI, power, audio, and additional USB ports, and a standard SIM card slot for the mobile broadband enabled edition.
Sadly, it couldn't all be good news: the smaller 8.9" display runs at a 1024x600 resolution compared to the iPad's larger 9.7" 1024x768, although HP is quick to counter with the fact that its screen has "pen/digitiser support." Battery life is also an issue, with the HP Slate managing a mere five hours to the iPad's ten.
Although the leaked slide doesn't provide a launch date, it does offer a suggestion of US pricing: the base 32GB model is expected to cost $549, while the 64GB edition will set you back $599 - both coming in cheaper than Apple's equivalent iPad.
Has HP's Slate got you interested in the form factor, or has the company failed spectacularly to come up with the promised iPad killer? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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49 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyThey could improve that, but I suppose it could be worth it, seeing as you don't get the heavily restricted Apple operating system.
That said I would probably buy something like this over an iPad.
£500 I recon. Z-series Atoms are expensive and it's a bespoke design, not normal laptop tooling.
Proxess: Atom graphics. You'll be lucky to run Aero.
Since I got iPhone 3GS, the only thing i'd want would be a bigger one - I just love to browse the interwebs from my bed or sofa. Apple has really got things right with their touchscreen an OS, and imho these two are the things which will define the given device as a success or a failure. A slate-sized device would only suffer if it's forced to choke on a fullblown Windows.
I forsee this device being a failure just like HP totally screwing the Envy release with misinformation, hardware and software failures
Will this or the iTampax fill in any of the gaps that I may unforeseeably have? I can see the additional benefit of the HP working such as the extra connectivity but is that enough?
I'm no cheapskate but I really would need to seriously justify the outlay on one of these instead of desktop upgrades.
But why not buy a convertible like the Eee PC T91MT (or something similar) with the same hardware for less money, and have an additional keyboard?
Lmao, you'll be able to run flash videos showing crysis
I thought the video chip makers, (ATI Nvidia), made a huge push over the last 2 years to enable their chips to go to ultra low power when idle. Why can't they get it together for the netbook generation?
It will be interesting to see where the tablet martket goes but I don't think it'll be an imediate success. While this has me kinda excited Ill wait until the 5th gen ipad before I start looking at them. After all it'll take apple that long to include all the features of the iphone
5hrs battery life is lol In this day and age
if ipad really does get 10hrs of life that's a good days usage
Niether will replace the laptop and I would never buy a netbook
ipad gets more and more tempting. Wonder why it supports the pen feature surely it's fully touch compatiable
600mhz on win 7 vs 1ghz on ipad custom built os dout it will be faster if anything it willl be slower
uk price will be above £400 for both I guess
the iPad is a very good implementation, although limited, it offers everything the device is capable of, nothing more. the HP Slate offers so much more, tried to pack a netbook into such a small package, but due to technology is not ready yet, it feels clumsy and runs out of battery really fast.
there ought to be a half way house, a redesigned interface that offers more than the iPhone OS by taking advantage of the full screen and possible peripherals (USB, SD reader) but doesn't require as much battery as Intel Atom running full Windows.
I thought Nvidia was pushing it for just such products like this.
More to the point though, more netbooks with swivel touch screens please
as its a mobile OS done right same with andriod convert either into this and id buy it. Instead what you have is windows 7 which doesnt run well on anything below 2gb of ram.
And if you want a realistic idea of the battery life on the HP Slate, think of that of the Archos 9 PC Tablet.
At the end of the day though, I don't see myself owning one anytime soon. It would be nice to have a desktop for gaming and regular use, a smart phone for use on the go and a tablet for use sitting on the sofa, however my smart phone can do that anyway so I don't see how it's really necessary.
First off, has anyone ran win7 on a 1.6ghz cpu and 1gb of ram, if so wth were you trying to do, I can run win7 home edition on my 1.2ghz atom with 1gb of ram surf the web, watch iplayer (and the like) use basic word processing programs and access iTunes from my server, now been sat on my bed and to be able to do that is great in the morning. Yes its not going to run crysis but why would I want it to, Ive got a power sucking demon to do that.
Im very interested in the slate purely as it offers freedom in which OS I would like to use that and I will actually be able to PRINT from it unlike the iPad sure.
Sure the battery is only 5hrs, but in this day and age when are you going to be away from a power socket for more than 5hrs, I only get 2hrs on my net-book which is more than enough.
For basic usage on the web, tv catch up, word processing I think it will surprise a few, have an open mind jeeez.
And yes sure its a tad smaller than the iPad, but use an 8.9" screen for long enough and you get use to it, its not a desktop replacement people get use to it.
Blame Intel they set the requirements for the Atom and what other hardware would be spec for it.
I want a bigger screen and better battery life, or it is i want better hardware and have it cheaper... The problem is folks, at the moment, most technology has all been aimed to one particular market, so it wont appeal to certain market 'groups' Those wanting a bigger screen or bigger res need to go to netbooks and laptops. Those looking for better hardware that is cheaper are desktops. Those wanting portability are in the laptop section. Its simple, any device released from now to the past has concentrated on one market segment. This is simply like the netbook, just you hold it rather than rest it on your lap, the only advantage is you can walk with it, and look like your from the future... Ipad and HP unfortunately are selling big in the U.S. only because its 'different' but exactly the same as their netbook equivilants. Mac OS is fast yes, but limited if you want certain software, Windows 7, like vista is still slower than XP, and as such the hardware is not really upto to the task.
The end.
Next month the Iflop and the HP 7.1/2inch floppy. Purpose: Expensive load of non-sense that you already have, but you physically hold or use it differently.
In summation, you needn't be surprised at the readership on bit. People can have requirements that are occasionally perfectly met by your neighborhood Devil's Workshop (Apple Store). Live and let live.
-Runs a real OS. We all want our devices to be as capable as possible, a full fledged OS is a part of that.
-Greater I/O options. Again, we want to be able to do anything our desktops can, only from a portable device.
-More powerful hardware. Always a good thing when price allows.
-Less price. Always a good thing when hardware isn't compromised.
Unfortunately, current technology does not allow these features without cutting back on the battery life. But that does not mean a device shouldn't try and pave the way for future devices to follow.
The iPad will likely appear to be better than this simpily because it does not multitask. Start up email and an excel sheet and it will likely start to slow down. Unless they implement that into win 7 there really is no competition in percieved responsiveness. Maybe they could stick a netbook remix of linux on it. That might help somewhat.
My netbook is N450 based, running XP on 1 gig of ram, with a 10" 1024x600 screen runs for 8 hours with WiFi on.
Doesn't have a touchscreen though, does that eat power?
Multitasking is something essential...surfing and having skype in the background for instance...try that with an Ipad.
Read this review and you'll see why I can.
It is kind of funny. Apple releases a less than perfect product and everybody gets out the pitchforks and torches. HP
releasesannounces a less-than-perfect product and everybody says: "Hey, it's a step in the right direction... at least it is trying to pave the way...".BULLSHIT. Apple got there first: it has a working product, on the shelf right now, at a fairly keen price, with all the media delivery infrastructure already in place. Y'all are staring yourself blind on the hardware. The hardware don't matter dick if it does not have decent software to run on it, and a battery life that doesn't turn the concept of portability into a joke. Two hours? I might as well use my desktop machine.
And what's really annoying is that you don't realise that Apple has the hardware --only it is so well-designed that you aren't even aware of its existence. You think touch screens are simple? You think the algorithms required to make sense of your chubby fingertips trying to poke, scroll, drag and pinch are easy? Try working on a Motorola touch-screen phone and you'll see what I mean.
While I see you point, and do agree, you can't deny that notifications work just as well.
Hot damn Nexxo, if I didn't know better I'd say you were an iPad fanboy. :p
Actually I don't really see how either are a step forwards. More like a blast from the past.
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/fujitsu-lifebook-t4215-tablet/1707-3126_7-32136365.html
From 2006, lasted over 3 hrs on video playback running xp. 4 years later and a chopped down version is the best they could come up with? Someone call fujitsu and get them to update that model and release it again. Maybe lose the keyboard.
HP FTW due to :
- Multitasking
- Proper PC chip
- Camera/webcams
- Full 1080P Output with HDMI(iPad struggles @ 720P and has no external output)
- iPad is just a big iPhone 3GS, exactly the same CPU just overclocked, why not just buy an iPhone 3GS or wait for the 4G?
Have you even used the iPad?
Yes he is wrong, but anything other than h264 on the iPad and it simply won't play it due to Apple Quicktime fussyassness.
Ah good! There hab to be a workaround, it'd bug people with an iphone too.
I thought that only worked for email?
Well, they couldn't have shipped the IPad with this now?
It's not REAL multitasking, but it's serve it's purpose.
There's speculation that they had the same teams working on the iPad and iPhoneOS 4, so the iPad came out first, then they wrapped up iPhoneOS 4 and then they port it over to the iPad.
Sort of like how most dev work on TF2 stops when Valve is working on some other game. :p
I'm just not an Apple hateboy.
The people who criticise the iPad have no clue. They have never owned a Tablet, but I have used one on a daily basis for six years --a top-of-the-line model, at that. I know its strengths and weaknesses, and I know how much it costs to build one and moreover, why. I know what is important on a tablet and what is trivial, based on how it is used. I also have owned an iPhone for nearly two years now, so I like to think that I can make a fairly decent comparison.
But all I get is people whining about what the iPad can't do or hasn't got and what it should have, without the barest realisation of what that would cost or what the technological compromises are that have to be made. They don't even understand how the thing is used. There is absolutely no vision: just boxed-in thinking that can't get beyond the laptop.
As soon as a non-Apple manufacturer releases a product that is at least as flawed, if not more so (HP Slate) everybody goes: "Oh, well, it's not perfect but it is a step in the right direction." This about a product that is, frankly, a joke compared to the iPad. This is not unlike the mindless bleating we get about Microsoft from time to time. People who criticise Windows have simply no idea what it takes to make an OS that is idiot-proof and works on all possible weird and wonderful configurations of PC out there.
Stop with the hatin', and start being sensible and informed consumers who know what they want and why. It is difficult for any company to release a sensible product a bunch of fickle emo's.
And seriously: if any manufacturer thinks they can do better than Apple, let them put their product where their mouth is. So far I've seen independent reviews on four alternative tablets, all carrying an architecture suggested by Apple hateboys (Atom, sometimes on nVidia Ion platform), all with the features they want to see (camera, USB, in some but not all cases multitasking, Flash support) and they are all deemed execrable. They are all utter pants.