14 DAY TRIAL // Now that HP discontinued the Slate 500 in the favor of the much newer Slate 2, this Windows 7 tablet has made its way into the bargain bin over at B&H Photo Video which sells it for $499.95 (385 EUR), from its original $799 MSRP.
Compared with the $699 (roughly 510 EUR) Slate 2, HP’s original Windows 7 tablet sports a slower Intel Atom Z540 processor and a slightly less refined design, but other than that the two slates are surprisingly similar.
For $499.95, B&H is offering the Slate 500 equipped with 2GB of system memory, a 64GB solid state drive and with a Broadcom Cyrstal HD video accelerator to provide hardware 1080p video decoding.
The rest of the features list includes Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Bluetooth connectivity, a front-facing VGA webcam, a 3-megapixel back-mounted snapper, and an SD memory slot.
Various security features like TPM and Computrace Pro are also included, the latter being specially designed in order to protect against data theft by allowing customers to remotely delete data at the file, directory or operating system level.
Another interesting addition to the Slate 500 is the HP Slate Cradle Dock, which comes bundled together with tablet, and provides users with two extra USB 2.0 ports as well as with an HDMI output for connecting it to a larger display or HDTV.
The 8.9-inch screen of the Slate 500 has a native resolution of 1024x600 pixels. HP says the starting weight of the tablet is 1.5lb (0.7kg).
Right now it isn’t clear if HP will officially support Windows 8 on the Slate 500 (we believe that the new OS won’t be supported), but according to liliputing some users have already installed the developer preview of Microsoft’s upcoming tablet-friendly operating system.