A pint of wine to a vintner is as a pippin to a costermonger
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HP introduces its Slate 2 business tablet
BARGAIN BIN tablet seller HP has released a tablet into the market in which it recently flared out spectactularly.
For a brief period HP had all eyes on its Touchpad tablet, but only while it had extremely low prices. That tablet ran WebOS, the Palm smartphone and tablet operating system that HP also flirted with and has seemingly all but abandoned, but this new tablet, the HP Slate 2 Tablet PC uses the Windows operating system, for better or worse.
This is a tablet, so we get to talk about better touch capabilities, improved multitasking, and embedded security, the last of which is possibly of most interest to business users. If, that is, they aren't continually beset by requests for Ipads from employees.
"HP is dedicated to the tablet PC category and continues to listen to customers and improve the product in ways that best address their business needs," said Dan Forlenza, VP and general manager of HP's Commercial Managed IT Segment.
"The HP Slate includes the right mix of rich features, support for custom-built applications, and the security and connectivity needed for today's highly mobile and rigorous day-to-day professional environment."
The tablet has an 8.9in multitouch display and a Swype keyboard, The firm said that you can use either touch or pen keyboarding. Regular typers will probably prefer the Swype option, however.
An Intel Atom Z670 processor with mSATA SSM technology promises faster boot times, battery life of up to six hours and, of course, increased performance for business customers.
Normal punters that might somehow end up as a confused owner of the tablet will possibly enjoy its 3MP camera, VGA video, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI port and SD card slot.
Business people to whom it is aimed get HP's Protecttools for embedded security, BIOS support for Computrace data theft software, and a connection manager tool.
The HP Slate 2 Tablet PC starts at $699 and is expected to be available worldwide later this month. UK pricing is not yet confirmed. µ
Tags: Hardware
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I'm guessing a sort of mangling of "mSATA SSD", not necessarily intentional. Whatever it is, it rather seems that only this thingy has it?
I can use a portable Windows tablet, and I make that £525 after VAT is added: I'd take that. But there seems to be doubt both about the UK price, and about whether the stylus actually is included, or is another $50. And, yes, as a PC it's about a tenth of the power of an ordinary desktop machine, and its maximum RAM is the usual Windows 7 acceptable minimum.
Dell's similar Latitude ST is around £650 not including 3G - that's extra - which is with an introductory "Instant Savings" of £25 off, so I'll wait for HP's offer, if any. And maybe for the Lenovo IdeaPad P1.
There are other such machines around - Acer W500, Fujitsu Stylistic Q550, and more - but I don't like what I hear about their performance. But ths could be the one. Or the Dell could, if they drop the price. Why are we paying more than in the U.S., anyway - besides VAT? Is there an EU import tax as well?
Wow, a starting price of ONLY $699? That should sell like hotcakes - once the product is canceled and sold off for $100ea.
Screwed up on WebOS after spending truck loads of bucks on Palm.
Decided to quit the PC business. Then decided not to.
Now, when no tablets run Windows, they launch a Windows tablet.
Whatever happened to 'invent'? Oh, yes, it never meant anything anyway.
These folks are looking like the village idiot.