14 DAY TRIAL // HP's presence on the smartphone market is very limited, due to the flop that Palm's acquisition turned into, not many years ago. However, there are some borderline smartphone devices in its lineup, like the Slate 6 VoiceTab.
A 6-inch device, the product is a smartphone or a tablet, depending on whom you ask. It is also obsolete now, thanks to the release of the VoiceTab II.
Not obsolete because the VoiceTab II is so much better than it, but because it isn't, other than a new operating system. So you could say it's a replacement that will soon replace the original ViceTab altogether.
Kind of an odd move this one – to launch a product with a new operating system and nothing else, but that's what HP chose to do.
Admittedly, there is one more change: the camera on the back is now an 8-megapixel model as opposed to a 5-megapixel one. Whether or not this qualifies the tablet as a new product, I'll let you decide.
The specs of the HP Slate 6 VoiceTab II
A 1.2 GHz Marvell PXA1088 processor, backed by 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable storage space, runs the 6-inch smartphone/tablet hybrid. The LCD has a native resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels.
Inside and/or peeking out through the case are a 2 megapixel front camera, a 3G module, and the control buttons you'd expect to find on a mobile device.
Moving on, the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system is installed on it, instead of the Jelly Bean Android 4.2. Something that could have been done through a software update easily enough.
Still, HP decided that a new camera and the better OS gave it a good launch ramp for a “new” product. And we do see stranger things on the tech market all the time, like robot worms and patent wars that mostly never achieve anything.
Digression aside, the HP Slate 6 VoiceTab II gets energy from a 3000 mAh Li-Po battery.
Availability and pricing
Currently only available in India, the HP Slate 6 VoiceTab II bears a price of $259 / €259. No clue when the product will reach the rest of the world, or if HP will just provide that software update to the existing VoiceTab.
On that ever so encouraging note, HP may or may not release a Slate 6 VoiceTab III with Android 5.0 Lollipop at some point in the future.
