HP just announced their new Tablet PC with webOS - the TouchPad. This shows clearly the intention to try and get a byte from the slate`s market and is also a result of Hewlett`s Packard acquisition of Palm. But first lets see what features are under the case of this TouchPad.
We can start with what`s the most visible piece - the screen. This is a 9.7 inches XGA capacitive multi-touch display with 18-bit color and 1024x768 resolution. The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.2GHz dual-core which is faster than XOOM`s 1GHz from Motorola. Moving to connectivity, HP has placed A-GPS support (for 3G models only), Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n with WPA, WPA2 and WEP encryption, Bluetooth with AD2P, a micro-USB port for charging and 2.0 high speed and finally a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Regarding the memory, there is 1GB of RAM but there are 2 options for storage: 16 GB & 32GB (no words on any memory card slot). As multimedia the TouchPad has only one camera - a front-facing - of 1.3 megapixels which is a webcam made for video calling. Inside there is a stereo speakers system with Beats Audio and sensors like accelerometer, light sensor, compass (magnetometer) and gyroscope. The battery is a 6300 mAh giving the impression of performance in stand-by mode (as they did not detailed more). As accessories available are a dock, a case and a ultra-slim and ultra-compact wireless keyboard.
TouchPad is running the webOS 3.0 version - HP`s own tablet OS - and has Adobe Flash Player 10 support for internet browsing. Through HP Synergy, the webOS brings a different way of communication. And this means that if you sing in to Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Linkedin and Microsoft Exchange you will see all your contacts from all these accounts gathered in one place. Through Synergy you can share and check photos from Facebook, Snapfish and Photobucket again gathered in one window. This tablet has more - like YouTutbe, Twitter, instant messaging support. You can read a book as Amazon has announced their webOS application, that is if you are tired of watching one of the movies you will download from HP Movie Store. What is really a new approach is the HP Touchstone for TouchPad which is a 'touch-to-share' feature allowing you to share data between a webOS enabled phone and this tablet.
At the end there are some important features missing. There is no back camera for live pictures or videos (not to mention the HD recording), the screen is not HD capable so I am not sure about the movies playback quality. The HDMI port is nowhere, no SD card slot and of course no NFC (but would be probably too much). Given these facts I see as a conclusion that HP TouchPad is more business oriented and made for the enterprise environment especially because they will integrate the QuickOffice Mobile Connect Suite as a support for Word, Excel and Powerpoint editing documents. So this may be in a battle with the Cisco Cius (expected to be released), but also with the iPad from Apple and perhaps with Palybook from RIM. As per the HP`s news we should see the TouchPad this summer, first with Wi-Fi only and later as 3G and 4G configuration.
