Thaindian News

By Ranjan Bhaduri
Oct 23, (THAINDIAN NEWS) After much wait and anticipation HP has taken the veils off the Slate 500 - its much touted Internet tablet. However, it is quite evident that the technology giant has not made this device to woo the users of iPad. The Slate 500 is aimed more at the Corporate users who need more processing power over ease of use and entertainment features. The device is smaller than the iPad and the screen size is also smaller and this is what affects the functionality to an extent. The Touchscreen responsiveness is not as good as that of iPad though it works just fine for the most users. The main deterrent for the success of the HP slate is its high price tag. One can get both 3G enabled and WiFi only iPads at lower price. Even the Dell Streak tablet and Samsung Galaxy tab unveiled by Verizon come at a lower price.

However it would be wrong to say that the HP Tablet does not have its strong points. In fact it scores well on functionality and the long time Windows users will find it familiar since it also runs Windows 7 Professional. The magic of the Apple Interface and super smooth transition however is sorely missing in this tablet. The Slate is not much sluggish either as it has a 1.86GHz Intel Atom CPU with 2 GB RAM. The 64 GB SSD also gives it a speed boost. The webcam and HDMI ports are the added goodies.

The Slate supports multiple browsers and also offers support for Adobe Flash. It has some small usage related glitches. The screen supports the change in orientation but while doing so it goes blank for a moment. While the keyboard in the Slate is smaller than that of iPad it is not exactly a joy to use.