HP Slate hands-on: it's just a netbook without a keyboard

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Matthew DeCarlo

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Spanish blog Conecti.ca has published a "mini review" of the HP Slate, a soon-to-be-launched tablet whose fiercest competition is thought to be Apple's iPad. The conclusion? "Meh." The reviewer notes that while he only had a small window with the Slate, one thing is clear: it's apples and oranges. Apple's iPad was deemed a better "gadget package," while HP's device belongs in an entirely different category.


The Slate is essentially a "whole PC," capable of running software such as Microsoft Office, Google Chrome, and Adobe Flash. That comes with a major caveat, though. While there is arguably a higher degree of functionality, performance is sacrificed. For instance, the reviewer noted lengthy OS load times. Because of that, Conecti.ca believes the Slate is more of a netbook alternative than an iPad killer.

You can read the full five paragraph hands-on summary of the Slate here, or check out our comparison table of 2010's hottest tablets here.

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wow, what biased covered. The Almighty Steve Jobs himself said the iPad was a netbook alternative!! While the iPad may have 30,000 apps, most of them are useless! iFart, WhipCrackers, lightsabers and soundboards are fun to play with, but useless.
 
Yah that's an unbiased review on their parts. The person doing said review is taking pictures with an iPhone, and has a Macbook in the background of the picture. And they take the most unflattering pictures possible on its edge even though the iPad is .5" and the slate is .57".
 
I'm confused. Isn't this great news for the HP Slate? I think the people who are unhappy with the iPad are the ones who actually want a netbook in a tablet form factor. The iPad is fine as an entertainment gadget, but it is poor as a productivity tool. It replaces neither a netbook nor a smartphone. If HP simply cranked out another iPad-like product, it would likely not fare well. But as a netbook replacement, it could rock (but only if it performs)!
 
Wonder how fast that Slate would run if it had a nice tight Linux distro on it instead of Win7? Or even just Android, so it could be truly compared to an iPad on even footing? Although, a little lag in loading times is a small price to pay for full-on operating system convenience...
 
I'd be interested in this more than an iPad, but I'm just not interested in that range of devices right now.
 
So, a netbook is a crippled laptop. The HP Slate is a crippled netbook.

[sarcasm]Yep. Sounds like a winner to me.[/sarcasm]

Put Android, or some other touch based OS, and I bet it would be really good. However, being seriously crippled, like it is with a full desktop OS, will make it a niche product like all the tablets before it on Windows.
 
Seriously. Such obvious bias invalidates the writer's opinions into mere propoganda, and the facts into half-truths. Who, being willing to pay such a high premium on a Powerbook, is going to explain the reasons why the Slate is better than an iPad?
 
Damn, he really did took the photo with an iPhone (very professional) and has a MacBook Pro next to the HP Slate.

Surely this is not a biased review by an Apple fanboy -_- I mean, he says this is not an iPad killer, because this is meant to be a netbook replacement. Get it? Netbooks are not even close to being in the same class of computing as the iPad. Most probably nothing is, as every Apple product is a category of it's own, thus iPad > Netbook, iPhone > Smartphone, Mac > PC, etc.

Plus, who needs the ability to natively run x86 software, when you can buy all the gimmicky $.99 apps and games from the censored app store.
 
There is no need to build a "iPad killer" since that pice of crap commited suicide at launch, touting no useful features at all, no multitasking, no expansion slots, crap sceen to read on during daylight and a fragile design.
 
I really hate people who say that this would be great if it were using a OS that was build as a touch OS and not a dekstop OS, well let me put it to you this way when windows 7 was built they created a touch OS of windows 7 SIDE BY SIDE with it people windows 7 was meant to be used on touch devices they intended to put it on touch devices so im sure the operating system may have a 30 second boot time but you can always just put it into sleep mode or if they felt the need to implement a lock screen feature so you can power it up quickly when you want.
 
I really hate people who say that this would be great if it were using a OS that was build as a touch OS and not a dekstop OS, well let me put it to you this way when windows 7 was built they created a touch OS of windows 7 SIDE BY SIDE with it people windows 7 was meant to be used on touch devices they intended to put it on touch devices so im sure the operating system may have a 30 second boot time but you can always just put it into sleep mode or if they felt the need to implement a lock screen feature so you can power it up quickly when you want.

People are so soon to forget many things that have happened in the past. Microsoft actually made a Windows XP Tablet Edition in 2002, then released another 2005 edition, but it just never went anywhere. Still, plenty of experience at touch interface to draw on with Win7.

I'd think the "wouldn't it be great" crowd would be more interested in a lighter footprint touch OS. Yes, Win7 has touch OS capabilities, but it's still a bit of a system hog when compared to something like a tight Linux distro or Android. They want to see the responsiveness of something like the iPad with the functionality of the full OS, but with the hardware that is being presented in these slates, you won't get that with Win7 - you'll get lag, you just have to decide if that's an acceptable sacrifice for functionality.
 
"The Slate is essentially a "whole PC," capable of running software such as Microsoft Office, Google Chrome, and Adobe Flash. " WELL, who in the world would want that when I can have NONE of the above and run only one application at a time, take that hp.
 
There is no need to build a "iPad killer" since that pice of crap commited suicide at launch, touting no useful features at all, no multitasking, no expansion slots, crap sceen to read on during daylight and a fragile design.

Yeah, that half a million units sold in the first week multi-million dollar "suicide"
 
The Slate was always marketed as being a 'fully functional' computer, in that it runs Windows 7 so could technically run all Windows 7 applications that it has the hardware specs to run. That makes it a regular tablet, which is fine, but doesn't do anything to fix the interface problem that's always existed with tablet PCs. The iPad is more of a large iPhone with little apps that are designed for the touch-interface. It's designed with a purpose in mind. The Slate is designed to be a tablet PC. But hasn't done anything to address the biggest issue that's always existed with tablet PCs. Most programs are brutal to use with a touch-interface.
 
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