Even HP’s aware that they’ve got a tough fight on their hands convincing consumers that they want to give them their $500 bucks for an HP Slate tablet as opposed to the iPad… but the PC manufacturer may still be be too optimistic.
If an early review of the device is anything to go by, it’s not going to be a fight… it’s going to be a slaughter.
Mexican website Conecti.ca got a chance to play with an early version of the Slate, and they’re just not impressed.
According to Connecti.ca, while the hardware is fine, the real problem is Windows 7, which hasn’t been built with tablets or finger-navigation in mind. When combined with the Intel Atom processor inside the HP Slate, the operating system is unresponsive and takes too long to load, especially when compared to the iPad’s near instantaneous start-up times.
Their conclusion? The Slate is more of a competitor to netbooks than the iPad. My guess, though, is that it’s going to end up being a competitor to neither.
[via Gadget Lab]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
