The overwhelming hype surrounding Apples iPad, before it was even released was somewhat subdued at CES when Steve Ballmer decided to show off a tablet of his own. While Microsoft aren’t building it themselves, it does run Windows 7. When the HP Slate was revealed at CES it certainly got people excited, not only about the HP Slate, but about tablets in general.
However a couple of weeks later, Apple came along and announced the iPad and the HP Slate was sidelined with all the publicity and press that only Apple can seem to earn. Now though, Spanish publication Clipset has decided to share with us some information about the forth coming HP Slate.
First off, they say it will be released in June and that it will be available in Europe by “September”, so I’m guessing it will be released in the US first.
They also report that the HP Slate will go on sale for €400, cheaper than the cheapest iPad so there’s the first round to the HP Slate.
What’s more, since the HP Slate will be running Windows 7, it also means it has the ability to multi task, and run flash. In fact Adobe decided to show us a nice video of it running flash applications on the web, just to really rub it into Apple.
httpd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p-RZAwQq0E&feature=player_embedded
So there’s another round to the HP Slate, I really can’t see why Apple are so against multi tasking and flash support.
Clipset are also reporting that the HP Slate will have a speedy Atom CPU. It will also have a USB Reader, a memory card slot and an integrated camera on the back. The iPad has none of these features so there’s another win for the HP Slate.
The Integrated Camera
The only place the iPad really seems to win is its form factor which is slightly thinner than the HP Slate because it doesn’t have to facilitate any USB ports etc…
It will be interesting to see how the HP Slate is received and if people will go for it over the iPad.
Which would you choose?
Let us know in the comments
