14 DAY TRIAL // The Easter Holidays appear to have been a good period for a number of leaked reports to surface on the Internet, giving us a glimpse of some of the upcoming products that will be available this summer. One such device is the HP Slate that the Palo Alto, California-based PC vendor showcased early this year, at the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This portable computer system will be part of a new line of devices that are expected to be focused on providing users with a rich Internet experience. While details of the device have been scarce so far, it now looks like we have more details on HP's Windows slate PC.
Our colleagues over at Engadget have managed to get their hands on an internal HP presentation that basically compares the company's much-anticipated slate with the now-famous iPad from Apple. The presentation offers a number of rich details regarding the specifications of the device, but also highlights the pros and cons of the Slate, when compared with Apple's 9.7-inch iPad.
As it turns out, the HP Slate will be featured with a 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor, coupled with the integrated Intel UMA graphics and an accelerator for 1,080p video playback. The device offers an 8.9-inch WSVGA 1,024 x 600 display with a wide viewing angle and capacitive multi-touch capabilities. There are 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, which can be upgraded via an SD card, for up to 128GB of capacity. The unit comes with just 1GB of RAM, which won't be upgradable, at least according to Engadget.
Featured with Microsoft's Windows 7 and HP touch-optimized UI, the device does have a series of drawbacks, when compared with Apple's solution. First of all, we are talking about the resolution, where Apple wins for supporting a 1,024 x 768 one. There's also the matter of the wireless connectivity, where HP's Slate only features 802.11 b/g, compared with the 802.11 b/g/n on Apple's device. Finally, because of the ARM-based processor inside, the Apple device offers a better battery life, while also providing the end-user with a smaller starting price tag.
Sure, there are advantages to HP's Slate, which include the 1,080p support, the digitizer support, the USB 2.0 port, or the SIM card support, for optional WWAN connectivity. Also, there will only be two price points for the said device, at least according to what is revealed by the leaked presentation.
