HP Slate

source – liliputing.com

HP is working on a slate PC with an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor. We’ve known that much for ages. What we haven’t really known is how the Windows 7 tablet will stack up against the competition, because all we’ve seen to date is the information HP wants us to see. But the folks at Conecti.ca got their hands on a real, pre-production model and the verdict is… that it’s alright, but nothing too special.

I have to say, I’m disappointed but not surprised. I’ve spent some time with a number of convertible tablets with Intel Atom processors and various versions of Windows, and they tend to suffer from a couple of problems. The operating system just isn’t that easy to navigate using touch-only controls — even with Windows 7 Home Premium’s advanced multitouch gesture support. And they tend to feel sluggish when performing some tasks, such as auto-rotating the display. I suspect this is at least partially due to the low power processor.

What is interesting is that the Spanish site conecti.ca has removed their early review of the HP Slate from their site by a direct request of Hewlett Packard Mexico. What this could mean is lets hope HP will do a little more work to improve the performance of the Slate. It turns out in the end that close cooperation between Software and Hardware producers is vital for delivering a good product in the end(as is the case with Apple and the iPad).