The HP Slate

iPad

Well, it has a better name.

This somewhat forlorn HP marketing piece is meant to buck up the salesmen at HP.

Some issues with the Slate:

  • HP uses the Atom CPU I used in my netbook the past two years (recycled two days after getting the iPad). I overclocked it from 1.6 to 2.0gHz and it was still slow. Not too bad (OS Leopard 10.5.6) but the A4 in the iPad is really special. Fast. (“Wicked fast” as Mossberg of WSJ put it). The iPad surfs almost as fast as my desktop which has thermonuclear power, five big fans and a Core2Quad CPU running Snow Leopard 10.6.3. The iPad’s apparently slow 1 gHz CPU speed does not make for meaningful comparisons – I know, I have used both CPUs.
  • The Atom CPU runs pretty cool but uses much more power than the A4. The result is a much lower battery life. 5 vs 12 hours. Huge difference.
  • The HP’s screen is same as on netbooks – 1024 x 600 vs. 1024 x 768 pixels on the iPad. You will be amazed how much difference those extra 168 pixels make – the iPad screen shows 28% more. Non trivial.
  • No 802.11n wifi on the Slate.
  • No App Store for the Slate.

The HP has a camera, SDXC card reader and USB port. Very nice. The iPad really needs a card reader built in, not as an add on. The HP can likely multitask (my netbook did) – multitasking is coming to the iPad soon with tomorrow’s announcement of iPhone OS 4.0. The Slate’s price seems far too high – aren’t Apple products meant to sell at a premium?

But the real deal killer is the OS. Windows 7, even it is better than Vista and XP, was not designed for touchscreen use. HP has rushed this out in 6m whereas AAPL has been developing the iPad with a ‘ground up’ designed OS for 5 years and has millions of users’ experience from the iPhone/iPod Touch (85.5 million to be exact). HP make nice pro printers. They should stick to that. The Slate looks like a very costly netbook to me.

I would hate to have to compete against the iPad with all that patented technology and wish HP well. They make some great hardware.

Update April 30, 2010: The rumor mill is reporting that HP has decided to cancel the Slate. No surprise there. Windows and 5 hour battery lives just don’t cut it any more.