HP Slate: First Look at New Tablet

The HP Slate — Hewlett-Packard’s answer to Apple’s iPad tablet — has made it into the wild. There isn’t too much back story, but basically, a Mexican website named Conecti.ca got hold of an HP Slate before the rest of us and gave it a look over. Here’s the full story…

The verdict from Conecti.ca? “Meh” — the internet colloquialism used frequently in English to describe general disinterest or apathy.

We’ve already discussed the details of the device, so we’ll cut to the bottom line.

Conecti.ca says they only had the device for a short amount of time, but Google Translate quotes them as saying “the problem [is that it’s] a whole PC.” The general feeling was that, in response as an iPad killer, the Slate is not.

The article states “You have Flash, but unfortunately this means you have a long and annoying load time…” and state that the only device that will be competing against it is other netbooks, not tablets.

It comes with a fancy HDMI / USB dock for your enjoyment, along with an apparently brighter screen than the iPad. Plus it includes a custom media management suite. The plastic design feels “dense and tough,” though the review concludes that Slate is the “smallest complete netbook” they could find.

Despite all the general malaise regarding the product, Gizmodo seems upbeat, noting that “it’s way too early to dismiss its chances against the iPad and its upcoming wave of challengers.” They also dismissed the ‘netbook without a keyboard’ observation with “well…yeah…[duh].”

On paper, there’s a lot of devices that are ‘technically superior’ to the iPad, iPhone, etc… but if they don’t do something spectacular or offer something different, unique, easy etc… the way Apple does, then it doesn’t stack up.

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