Well, it’s official: as rumored, HP’s own would-be iPad killer, the Slate, is basically just a keyboard-less netbook turned inside out.
In fact, it’s such a underwhelming, bog standard effort compared to the iPad that in a leaked internal document, HP saw fit to highlight the iPad’s advantages over the Slate in red.
Compared to the iPad, the Slate has a tiny, 8.9 inch display packing a WSVGA, 1024 X 600 resolution, and its WiFi maxes out at 802.11 b/g without any N support in sight. Moreover, its battery life is halved over the iPad’s, and even the cheapest Slate costs $50 more than the iPad (albeit for 32GB of internal storage).
That’s not to say it’s all in the iPad’s favor: those who value USB connectivity and expandable storage will prefer the Slate, and 3G capability comes without a boost in price. The Slate also has both front and rear-mounted webcams for video conferencing, which is a depressing omission in the iPad’s feature list made all the more inexplicable given the empty iSight slot built into the iPad’s frame. It also supports a stylus or pen digitizer… but if you want to use one with your iPhone, most people can probably get by with a pocket full of sausages.
I have to give credit to HP here: this internal sheet indicates that they are very well aware of their device’s strengths and shortcomings when compared to the iPad, and are prepared to market to them.
That said, perhaps the biggest shortcoming of the Slate is its choice of Windows 7 as the operating system. HP has chosen not to highlight it, but it bears repeating: Windows 7’s multitouch support is a last minute hack, and simply can not compare to an operating system that has been built from the ground up with finger navigability in mind.
