5 ms·

HP Slate Officially Launches for $799

16 points by jrwoodruff 16y ago

thedeuce 16y ago
wow what fail..
BigZaphod 16y ago
Here's one of their promo videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xX-B2wG1e4&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xX-B2wG1e4&feature=playe...
- cryptoz 16y ago
  That video makes it look even worse. Don't they realize that people can type faster than they can write with a pen? It took that guy a long time to pull out the pen, write "Rear Light" and put the pen back. Should have been <2 seconds with a touch keyboard.
  - BigZaphod 16y ago
    It's just so weird! It's like they are advertising to an alternate universe where the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch don't exist. I can't believe how slow and laggy it looks in their own video. How can they not see this?
    - acabal 16y ago
      I actually laughed out loud when the doctor zoomed in on the x-ray and there was visible lag and tearing as the screen refreshed. That's the best shot they could come up with to show off zoom!?
      - a-priori 16y ago
        At least you know they're not faking the video...
  - larsberg 16y ago
    Evidently you've never tried to write something like "Rear Light" one-handed on the iPad keyboard. Or, you don't have ogre fingers like I do. More seriously, the pen is pretty fantastic for things like reviewing papers. Having used tablet PCs for years and now having used an iPad for a while, I can say it takes significantly longer to annotate PDFs via iAnnotate or goodreader and either my finger or the iPad keyboard than it did with Acrobat and the pen+tablet pc input panel.
    - BigZaphod 16y ago
      I just tried typing "Rear light" on my iPad with one finger of my right hand while holding the pad itself with my left hand. It took about 2 seconds. On my iPhone, with only my left hand holding it and using my left thumb to type leaving my right hand doing nothing, I can bang that phrase out in about... 2 seconds. In the promo video, it took the guy just about 5 seconds with the pen. Not that this matters a whole lot - just adding my own data points to the discussion. :)
    - kristiandupont 16y ago
      I agree that the keyboard on the iPad is hard to type on, but from the looks of the video, the latency with pen writing would be even more annoying!
    - mitchellhislop 16y ago
      Have you looked at the Pogo Sketch?
- yequalsx 16y ago
  Thanks for the promo link. It appears their target audience are people who need to write things while having a full blown OS. I teach math and tablet PCs have been a great help. People simply do not type math or read typed mathematics well. I'm a heavy user of Captivate and Camtasia and this is the sort of tablet I need.
- endtime 16y ago
  Wow, it lags when zooming a picture (0:17), in their promo video. Not inspiring.
  - callahad 16y ago
    At the same time, kudos for showing actual product performance. Thanks to their advertising, I feel like I can make an accurate judgment of the device's performance. Contrast the Slate's ad to the overly-aggressive critique of Nokia's advertising for the N97 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJpEuMidcSU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJpEuMidcSU
    - endtime 16y ago
      Fair enough - I guess I was taking the perspective that since things are usually portrayed unrealistically in a promo video like this, the perf must really suck.
cryptoz 16y ago
Fantastic. A touch-screen with small buttons, stock Windows 7. Ships with IE8. $200-$300 more than an iPad: you could buy a netbook and an iPad for the same price. WTF? Total shit. Who wants Windows 7 on a tablet?
- endtime 16y ago
  Actually, I kind of do, but not for $800. Not everyone likes the constraints of iOS, you know.
  - babeKnuth 16y ago
    Right. So you just reinforced the original comment's point. You don't want one because it's too expensive.
    - endtime 16y ago
      Well, I was responding to this part: "Who wants Windows 7 on a tablet?"
      - babeKnuth 16y ago
        ok, sorry. i misinterpreted it as "who wants win7 on a tab for $800?"
- yequalsx 16y ago
  I'm a heavy user of Captivate and Camtasia and I teach math. I need digital ink for my classes. It allows me to markup graphs and all other documents. I would be a user of this tablet. I think the greatest shortcoming of the iPad is the lack of digital ink and native pen support. Also, screen recording apps. From the promo videos it seems that this device is targeting vertical markets.
  - chollida1 16y ago
    > I would be a user of this tablet. I think the greatest shortcoming of the iPad is the lack of digital ink and native pen support. My wife agree's. She's also a teacher of math and physics and she was excited to get an iPad until she found out she couldn't use a stylus to mark with. if this tablet fulfills that need then this may be the tablet for her.
angstrom 16y ago
One thing going for it: They almost resisted putting intel/windows stickers all over it. http://goo.gl/vXKi http://goo.gl/vXKi
- sorbus 16y ago
  Please don't use URL shorteners here. Space isn't a constraint, and lots of people like knowing where a link goes to (in this case, it's just an image of the tablet, so it's safe, but it could lead anywhere).
- glhaynes 16y ago
  See the link elsewhere on this page to the slide-out plastic drawer whose only purpose is to carry the rest of the stickers on it. WTF.
kyleslattery 16y ago
You gotta love the slide out licensing tab: http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-slate-hands-on/#3494156 http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-slate-hands-on/#3494156
patrickgzill 16y ago
I can predict the market response: "meh". EDIT: I figured I should add that I have looked at the large touchscreen PCs as sold in Best Buy, etc. and while the concept looks very intriguing, playing around with them for even a few minutes shows why they would be frustrating in practice. The UI requires too much precision - for instance, to close an application you have to stab precisely on the X in the upper right corner - there should be a modification that is either more forgiving or the X should be larger, etc. Further, higher resolution (which should be nicer) is just as bad if not worse - as the need for precision increases. Lastly, the focus by the big manufacturers still seems to be "stack em deep and sell em cheap" - leaving little $$$ or motivation to improve the UI to a level as good as an iPad. I think that NotionInk.com is on to something, though when shipping product will arrive, I don't know.
SandB0x 16y ago
Can't see this doing well: - Uncompetitive price. - No 3G. - Odd quilted effect on rear. Nobody's going to buy it because of that, and it will only look tacky in the long run. - Distracting HP logo at the edge of the screen, looks bad when held vertically. From the video linked to by BigZaphod, a lot of it is a guy working on a spreadsheet or presentation everywhere he goes. It's not exactly an inspiring scenario - there have even been cases of people choosing holiday locations for their lack of BlackBerry reception. http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_wrestle_with_the_constant_pull_of_24_7_technology/ http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_wrestle_with_...
narkee 16y ago
With the Galaxy Tab and now the HP Slate priced the same or higher than the iPad, I wonder if the "Apple tax" meme will give way to a "non-Apple tablet tax".
- dgabriel 16y ago
  If history is any indicator, it's only a matter of time before the pc tablet prices drop below the cost of the iPad.
  - babeKnuth 16y ago
    ummm, what history of pc tablet prices dropping below ipad prices is this? the history i'm aware of is when mac products start out fairly expensive then slowly drop in price over new generation releases.
acabal 16y ago
I remember some time ago seeing a Youtube video of a leaked testing version of the Slate. The reviewer flipped it over and pointed out the hardware ctrl+alt+del button on the side. Everybody thought the video and device were fakes or a prank, because who in their right mind would include a hardware ctrl+alt+del button? But now I see according to this Wired article that it is indeed for real: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/hp-slate-official-800-business-netbook-without-keyboard/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/hp-slate-official-800... The article mentions the button though I can't see the button myself in the pics. Way to go, HP!
- ahi 16y ago
  I think it's the button to the left of the home button in this : http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-slate-hands-on/#3494151 http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-slate-hands-on/#3494151
coreyrecvlohe 16y ago
Windows 7? HP, come on, you're better than that.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
fragmede 16y ago
Cool, so it's got a 1.8 gigahertz processor, and 2 gigs of ram and... and.... What's the battery life? Unless HP is aiming for people to run Solidworks on this, a nominal amount of processing power is a given these days. The truly important question is battery life, more so for a 'business tablet' than an iPad 'toy'. (I don't think the iPad is a toy, but HP's position that theirs is for business; they're saying that the iPad's a toy)
IgorPartola 16y ago
Great. When can I get Android on it?
pyeek 16y ago
I don't understand why it is priced so high. If you look at a similarly spec'd netbook for $400-$500, plus a touch screen (say +$100), you should still be under $799. Does Windows 7 really cost that much more? What on earth makes it that much more expensive when it doesn't even have 3G?

16 points by jrwoodruff 16y ago

wow what fail..

Here's one of their promo videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xX-B2wG1e4&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xX-B2wG1e4&feature=playe...

cryptoz 16y ago
That video makes it look even worse. Don't they realize that people can type faster than they can write with a pen? It took that guy a long time to pull out the pen, write "Rear Light" and put the pen back. Should have been <2 seconds with a touch keyboard.
- BigZaphod 16y ago
  It's just so weird! It's like they are advertising to an alternate universe where the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch don't exist. I can't believe how slow and laggy it looks in their own video. How can they not see this?
  - acabal 16y ago
    I actually laughed out loud when the doctor zoomed in on the x-ray and there was visible lag and tearing as the screen refreshed. That's the best shot they could come up with to show off zoom!?
    - a-priori 16y ago
      At least you know they're not faking the video...
- larsberg 16y ago
  Evidently you've never tried to write something like "Rear Light" one-handed on the iPad keyboard. Or, you don't have ogre fingers like I do. More seriously, the pen is pretty fantastic for things like reviewing papers. Having used tablet PCs for years and now having used an iPad for a while, I can say it takes significantly longer to annotate PDFs via iAnnotate or goodreader and either my finger or the iPad keyboard than it did with Acrobat and the pen+tablet pc input panel.
  - BigZaphod 16y ago
    I just tried typing "Rear light" on my iPad with one finger of my right hand while holding the pad itself with my left hand. It took about 2 seconds. On my iPhone, with only my left hand holding it and using my left thumb to type leaving my right hand doing nothing, I can bang that phrase out in about... 2 seconds. In the promo video, it took the guy just about 5 seconds with the pen. Not that this matters a whole lot - just adding my own data points to the discussion. :)
  - kristiandupont 16y ago
    I agree that the keyboard on the iPad is hard to type on, but from the looks of the video, the latency with pen writing would be even more annoying!
  - mitchellhislop 16y ago
    Have you looked at the Pogo Sketch?
yequalsx 16y ago
Thanks for the promo link. It appears their target audience are people who need to write things while having a full blown OS. I teach math and tablet PCs have been a great help. People simply do not type math or read typed mathematics well. I'm a heavy user of Captivate and Camtasia and this is the sort of tablet I need.
endtime 16y ago
Wow, it lags when zooming a picture (0:17), in their promo video. Not inspiring.
- callahad 16y ago
  At the same time, kudos for showing actual product performance. Thanks to their advertising, I feel like I can make an accurate judgment of the device's performance. Contrast the Slate's ad to the overly-aggressive critique of Nokia's advertising for the N97 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJpEuMidcSU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJpEuMidcSU
  - endtime 16y ago
    Fair enough - I guess I was taking the perspective that since things are usually portrayed unrealistically in a promo video like this, the perf must really suck.

cryptoz 16y ago

Fantastic. A touch-screen with small buttons, stock Windows 7. Ships with IE8. $200-$300 more than an iPad: you could buy a netbook and an iPad for the same price. WTF? Total shit. Who wants Windows 7 on a tablet?

endtime 16y ago
Actually, I kind of do, but not for $800. Not everyone likes the constraints of iOS, you know.
- babeKnuth 16y ago
  Right. So you just reinforced the original comment's point. You don't want one because it's too expensive.
  - endtime 16y ago
    Well, I was responding to this part: "Who wants Windows 7 on a tablet?"
    - babeKnuth 16y ago
      ok, sorry. i misinterpreted it as "who wants win7 on a tab for $800?"
yequalsx 16y ago
I'm a heavy user of Captivate and Camtasia and I teach math. I need digital ink for my classes. It allows me to markup graphs and all other documents. I would be a user of this tablet. I think the greatest shortcoming of the iPad is the lack of digital ink and native pen support. Also, screen recording apps. From the promo videos it seems that this device is targeting vertical markets.
- chollida1 16y ago
  > I would be a user of this tablet. I think the greatest shortcoming of the iPad is the lack of digital ink and native pen support. My wife agree's. She's also a teacher of math and physics and she was excited to get an iPad until she found out she couldn't use a stylus to mark with. if this tablet fulfills that need then this may be the tablet for her.

angstrom 16y ago

One thing going for it: They almost resisted putting intel/windows stickers all over it. http://goo.gl/vXKi http://goo.gl/vXKi

sorbus 16y ago
Please don't use URL shorteners here. Space isn't a constraint, and lots of people like knowing where a link goes to (in this case, it's just an image of the tablet, so it's safe, but it could lead anywhere).
glhaynes 16y ago
See the link elsewhere on this page to the slide-out plastic drawer whose only purpose is to carry the rest of the stickers on it. WTF.

kyleslattery 16y ago

You gotta love the slide out licensing tab: http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-slate-hands-on/#3494156 http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-slate-hands-on/#3494156

patrickgzill 16y ago

I can predict the market response: "meh". EDIT: I figured I should add that I have looked at the large touchscreen PCs as sold in Best Buy, etc. and while the concept looks very intriguing, playing around with them for even a few minutes shows why they would be frustrating in practice. The UI requires too much precision - for instance, to close an application you have to stab precisely on the X in the upper right corner - there should be a modification that is either more forgiving or the X should be larger, etc. Further, higher resolution (which should be nicer) is just as bad if not worse - as the need for precision increases. Lastly, the focus by the big manufacturers still seems to be "stack em deep and sell em cheap" - leaving little $$$ or motivation to improve the UI to a level as good as an iPad. I think that NotionInk.com is on to something, though when shipping product will arrive, I don't know.

SandB0x 16y ago

Can't see this doing well: - Uncompetitive price. - No 3G. - Odd quilted effect on rear. Nobody's going to buy it because of that, and it will only look tacky in the long run. - Distracting HP logo at the edge of the screen, looks bad when held vertically. From the video linked to by BigZaphod, a lot of it is a guy working on a spreadsheet or presentation everywhere he goes. It's not exactly an inspiring scenario - there have even been cases of people choosing holiday locations for their lack of BlackBerry reception. http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_wrestle_with_the_constant_pull_of_24_7_technology/ http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_wrestle_with_...

narkee 16y ago

With the Galaxy Tab and now the HP Slate priced the same or higher than the iPad, I wonder if the "Apple tax" meme will give way to a "non-Apple tablet tax".

dgabriel 16y ago
If history is any indicator, it's only a matter of time before the pc tablet prices drop below the cost of the iPad.
- babeKnuth 16y ago
  ummm, what history of pc tablet prices dropping below ipad prices is this? the history i'm aware of is when mac products start out fairly expensive then slowly drop in price over new generation releases.

acabal 16y ago

I remember some time ago seeing a Youtube video of a leaked testing version of the Slate. The reviewer flipped it over and pointed out the hardware ctrl+alt+del button on the side. Everybody thought the video and device were fakes or a prank, because who in their right mind would include a hardware ctrl+alt+del button? But now I see according to this Wired article that it is indeed for real: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/hp-slate-official-800-business-netbook-without-keyboard/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/hp-slate-official-800... The article mentions the button though I can't see the button myself in the pics. Way to go, HP!

ahi 16y ago
I think it's the button to the left of the home button in this : http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-slate-hands-on/#3494151 http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-slate-hands-on/#3494151

coreyrecvlohe 16y ago

Windows 7? HP, come on, you're better than that.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

fragmede 16y ago

Cool, so it's got a 1.8 gigahertz processor, and 2 gigs of ram and... and.... What's the battery life? Unless HP is aiming for people to run Solidworks on this, a nominal amount of processing power is a given these days. The truly important question is battery life, more so for a 'business tablet' than an iPad 'toy'. (I don't think the iPad is a toy, but HP's position that theirs is for business; they're saying that the iPad's a toy)

IgorPartola 16y ago

Great. When can I get Android on it?

pyeek 16y ago

I don't understand why it is priced so high. If you look at a similarly spec'd netbook for $400-$500, plus a touch screen (say +$100), you should still be under $799. Does Windows 7 really cost that much more? What on earth makes it that much more expensive when it doesn't even have 3G?