14 DAY TRIAL // In the history of Christmas presents, one might say that some come earlier than others, and it appears that HP decided to have a certain device of its become such an early present.
As some may remember, HP was among the first to preview its tablet, though said media slate underwent an odd string of death and rebirth events, so to speak.
The original HP slate was known to be in development as soon as the Apple iPad came out and was supposedly going to use the Pine Trail platform.
Said plans were scrapped, rebooted, changed and adapted over the next months, until they finally settled into the HP Slate 500.
Said device still went through its own episodes of no longer being guaranteed to come to market, but it seems it finally has.
Last time anyone heard of the HP Slate 500 was back in November, when it was delayed yet again, even though pre-order had been set as early as the previous month.
Now, as a certain poster on the tabletpcreview forums claims, Hewlett-Packard has started to send e-mail notifications to those whose shipments have been sent out, mostly those that pre-ordered it on launch day.
For those interested in a reminder, the device is an 8.9-inch tablet whose configuration is built around the Intel Atom Z540 central processing unit, which operates at 1.86GHz.
There is also a 64 GB SSD, as well as 2 GB of memory and the Broadcom Crystal HD media processor, which can play videos in a quality of up to 1,080p.
Other specifications include the expected connectivity and I/O options, plus a pair of webcams, a VGA on the front and a 3MP one on the back.
Since the launch date was October 22, 2010, one can expect HP to start carrying out the orders on a first come first serve basis. Regardless, early applicants will be glad to know their Windows 7 tablet will reach them in time for the holidays.