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HP Handhelds Hardware

HP Back In Tablet Game With Android-Based 'Slate7' 120

Posted by Soulskill from the unique-and-special-just-like-everyone-else's-tablet dept.
theodp writes "You know the old adage, 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me?' Still, even if you got bit by the HP TouchPad debacle, HP's newly-announced $169 Slate7 tablet could prove hard to resist. Specs-wise, the Slate7 sports an ARM Dual Core Cortex-A9 1.6 GHz processor, 7-inch 1024x600 HFFS screen, Android 4.1 (Jellybean), three-megapixel camera on the back, front-facing VGA camera, 8GB of on-board storage, HP ePrint, Beats Audio, and a micro SD expandable card slot. It measures 197mm x 116mm x 10.7mm thick, and weighs in at 13 ounces. It will be available in the U.S. in April. Engadget has some pics and their initial hands-on take."
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HP Back In Tablet Game With Android-Based 'Slate7' More

HP Back In Tablet Game With Android-Based 'Slate7'

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  • Well, so far I haven't found something that beats the sound of the Kindle HD, but it is tempting to buy this thing just because it runs stock Android.

    • Re:Kindle HD (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Threni ( 635302 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @05:45AM (#43001365)

      Nexus 7 (pure Android), or Nexus 10 (pure Android, larger, loads more powerful). Don't see the point of saving a little money for some crappy customised machine. There's no problem looking at pdfs, movies etc on any Android device, so no advantage in Amazon hardware.

      • Don't see the point of saving a little money for some crappy customised machine. There's no problem looking at pdfs, movies etc on any Android device

        I thought only Kindle Fire devices could get Amazon Prime video and Kindle Owners Lending Library in countries where available.

    • Doesn't seem to be all that good it is missing a few things, it does have 1Gb of ram and bluetooth 2.1
      what isn't said is GPS? Glass Screen? USB Host? HDMI? Multitouch ? confused reports of 3meg camera and 0.3 meg Camera on board.

      It is not very good and not even on that price point (+ taxes?)

      For a new product it has out dated Specifications The Ram onboard Should be at least 2 GB and it has lost me already with no gps or hdmi, even 1 full sized host usb port was too much to ask for the screen resolution is t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by wed128 ( 722152 )

        I dunno...It has similar price and specs to a lot of super poorly-made chinese tablets. Those are tempting, an HP badge makes them moreso...

        • You might be right a chinese tablet with a HP badge on it, HP was an engineering company, would an Engineer be proud of that?

    • I think the HP should be closer to the $99-149 range given those specs, otherwise you would be crazy not to get the Nexus. Hardware advantages aside, the software updates alone would be worth the extra money.

    • Well, so far I haven't found something that beats the sound of the Kindle HD, but it is tempting to buy this thing just because it runs stock Android.

      I don't relish turning control of my device or experience over to Amazon whose goal is to dominate the world's retail sales without regard for quality or the ramifications or source, process or politics. In short I don't trust Amazon's motivations because they don't seem to think beyond the common trappings of capitalism. That being said, neither HP or Google has yet to earn the right to claim a higher level of overall responsibility or accountability to much other than the bottom line. The microSD card sl

  • The innovation we've come to expect from HP (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MrEricSir ( 398214 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @05:37AM (#43001335) Homepage

    This represents the innovation we've come to expect from HP -- none at all.

    • Re:The innovation we've come to expect from HP (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) * on Monday February 25, 2013 @06:08AM (#43001451) Homepage Journal

      My thoughts exactly. Compare it to the Nexus 7:

      - Shit screen
      - Shit CPU
      - Shit camera
      - Old version of Android
      - Usual HP "quality"

      About the only thing it has going for it is the SD card slot, which would put it on a par with Chinese tablets costing half the price except that it will inevitably have HP's bloatware pre-installed and un-removable instead of vanilla Android.

      • It's a first step (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25, 2013 @06:42AM (#43001565)

        Part of the problem with HP is they make an entry into a market, and its not perfect and they turn and run immediately. WebOS was a case in point, overpriced, not perfect, immediately dumped. No attempt to refine it and retry.

        Here Android tablets have moved on from this, they'll need to have a few stabs at this to get it right. But they won't, they'll turn and run.

        • HP bought WebOS as part of Palm in 2010; if the Pre phone and all that had stayed under Palm's control I think it would have have done well in the market. The only thing I trust HP to do is shoot themselves in the foot and then say setting a few billion dollars on fire was somehow "strategic".
          I'll be quite surprised to see HP actively supporting this tablet thing in 2015. HP doesn't blink when deciding to flush a technology or an acquisition. "Oops we did it again!" would be a fine HP corporate motto.
          A

      • hey be fair it is only one version of android behind current.

        At least it isn't shipping with 2.3

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Shados ( 741919 )

          not being a nexus, it won't get updates very quickly at all if history is anything to go by. Thats a bigger problem.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )
        Most Chinese tablets are 800x480. It does seem pretty blah though.

      • Re:The innovation we've come to expect from HP (Score:4, Insightful)

        by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @07:51AM (#43001769) Journal

        - Shit camera

        The Nexus 7 has an even shittier camera.

        And I am a proud owner of a Nexus 7, but the camera really isn't anything to write home about.

      • Re:The innovation we've come to expect from HP (Score:4, Insightful)

        by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @08:00AM (#43001795) Journal

        To add to my sibling comment: the Slate 7 has a rear-facing 3 MP camera. Not fantastic, but much better than 0 MP rear facing camera of my Nexus 7.

        The CPU of the Slate 7 is somewhat comparable to that of the Nexus 7.

        So, while I love my Nexus 7 and think it's still the best value for money you can get (outside the Nexus 10, which is just phenomenal value for money - you get the absolute best tablet on the market at any price), I don't think the Slate 7 is a clear loser in all aspects, to the Nexus 7.

        • Do people, other than iFans, actually take pictures with their tablets? I've never done it with my TouchPad (running CM9), and I don't know anyone else with a non-Apple tablet that actually uses them for pictures, especially since phones are much easier to maneuver, and typically have much better cameras.

          • I do. Not in public so much. But at home, my wife and I video and take photos of our child all the time. =)

            • In theory, it would be great to be able to preview the pictures in a larger format, but I just think it would be clumsy as hell to try to do, in practice.

              Frankly, the only times I see people using them, it's tourists that want to look hip with their iPad, or idiot teenage girls taking selfies in the bathroom mirror with duck lips.

              • Your sarcasm is palpable. =D

                In practice, we've got a TF700T with the dock, and it's awesome. Taking photos isn't hard as the thing is really light - as you say, previewing pictures in a larger format is indeed great. And as for video, we usually set it up on its dock like a normal laptop and just sit it off in the distance so we can make our kid laugh and get it on camera. =D

                Other than that, yes - only a retarded monkey would use it as a primary photo taking device in public. And yes, those that do are

          • We do, with our Galaxy Tab 10.1 - sometimes it is really convenient to have the large screen for preview. Actually, more than convenient I would say it is comfortable.

            That's why I wish I had a rar-facing camera on my Nexus 7.

      • on a par with Chinese tablets costing half the price

        Wait for the fire sale and then it should be competitive.

      • Having just bought and reviewed [gedankenexperiment.dk] a "Chinese" tablet I can say the HP's specs are way too low to compete. They seem to be designing in slow motion. I got the Hyundai T7 (a tablet "made" by a Korean company in China by....Samsung) and it has a 1280x800 IPS with same cpu/gpu as the GSIII for $148+ship. Battery life not the greatest (a design choice), but most people can probably live with it (does anyone really watch 8 hours straight of video?). Outside of that it performs quite well and has sd,usb and hdmi.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ThorGod ( 456163 )

        Umm, the HP actually has the next generation of the Tegra 3 CPU, so you can't call that part of it shit.

        You can definitely call the screen shit, though.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by unrtst ( 777550 )

        My thoughts exactly. Compare it to the Nexus 7:

        - Shit screen

        1280x800 vs 1024x600

        - Shit CPU

        NVIDIA Tegra 3 vs ARM Dual Core Cortex-A9 1.6 GHz

        - Shit camera

        1.2MP front facing vs 3MP rear facing + VGA (0.3MP) front facing

        - Old version of Android

        Android 4.1 vs Android 4.1.

        - Usual HP "quality"

        As opposed to usual Asus qualify (Asus makes the Nexus 7).

        Lemme add one point that's very key, for myself at least:
        No expandable memory vs Micro SD card slot

        It's a close race as is, and the HP is touted as being cheaper as well.

        I won't buy a Nexus 7 without:
        * rear camera
        * micro SD
        * (optional) and I'd honestly like to have an IR port too

        In my mind, I'

    • This represents the innovation we've come to expect from HP -- none at all.

      They are just tapping into the well of competence that they obtained by buying Compaq's consumer division:

      1. Purchase cheap chinese shit from ODM.

      2. Apply once-respected label.

      3. Profit!(and, if you don't, fire the engineers and let your stock options ride the bump, either way...)

      • This is how most of the companies work today, though. Viewsonic, same thing, they don't make anything any more and it's all rebadging. And they were once one of the best names in computer electronics...

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by theVarangian ( 1948970 )

      This represents the innovation we've come to expect from HP -- none at all.

      What do you expect? HP is the corporate equivalent of Wally [wikipedia.org].

    • By a strange coincidence “None at all” is exactly how much suspicion the ape-descendant Arthur Dent had that one of his closest friends was not descended from an ape, but was, in fact, from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. Arthur Dent's failure to suspect this reflects the care with which his friend blended himself into human society - after a fairly shaky start. When he first arrived fifteen years ago, the minimal research he had done had suggested to him that the name

  • great name!! (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    slate 7? come on.. seriously?

    i get it.. it's the size of the screen, but how many returns from clueless people expecting windows 7 on it?

  • that this device is always presented rear first (on both HP and Engadget). Is there something the matter with the screen?

  • Is it just me or does everyone agree with me that HP is in what one would call "a confused state of mind?"

    I am afraid I am inclined to believe that this is the case especially when one closely listens to what the company's direction has been in the last few years.

  • HP Touchpad debacle? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Erythros ( 140001 )

    Yes, that was a debacle. Initially overpriced so that it couldn't sell then underpriced so that you got one only if you were lucky enough. HP was onto something with the Touchpad, but not everyone was enamored with WebOS. If they were smart they would have ported Android to it and sold it at a reasonable price, maybe $250-$325 range. Those of us smart enough to get one for the hardware specs knowing Android would soon be ported got a great tablet, I use mine all of the time. As far as their latest ventu

    • Same here! I picked a 32 gigger up during the firesale, and although WebOS was abysmally bad, a couple months of waiting turned up a CM port, which will hopefully be on Jelly Bean, soon, and a decent tab that I can use for sitting on the couch. For $150, that's totally worth it. This thing? Not so much.

  • So what exactly is 'beats audio?' (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SuricouRaven ( 1897204 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @06:53AM (#43001597)

    Seriously. I've tried to google, and the most informative things I find are other people asking the same question. Nowhere on the HP site does it actually say what this technology is, though they do seem to insist on putting a (tm) after every use of the term. There's a lot of marketing rubbish like "With Beats Audio(tm) on board, the richest, most dynamic sound on a laptop is at your fingertips." But nothing that actually says what Beats Audio is or does. The best I've come up with is http://tunelab.com/2012/01/09/what-exactly-is-beats-audio-update-an-answer/ [tunelab.com] - which suggests that it's just a trademarked name for a few changes as trivial as changing the headphone jack surround from metal to plastic (which most have anyway) and installing common-sense things like putting the headphone amp away from any noisy digital traces.

    • Re:So what exactly is 'beats audio?' (Score:5, Informative)

      by Chewbacon ( 797801 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @07:10AM (#43001643)
      It's licensed from Dr. Dre's line of headphones (which I believe is manufactured by Monster cable). Existing technology that they had to slap some hip guy's name on. I have it on my HP laptop and it honestly sounds pretty good as far as laptop speakers go.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        It's licensed from Dr. Dre's line of headphones (which I believe is manufactured by Monster cable). Existing technology that they had to slap some hip guy's name on. I have it on my HP laptop and it honestly sounds pretty good as far as laptop speakers go.

        Expensive headphones that sound like crap, actually - it's great if all you want to listen to are well, bass beats. That's it. You can do better for far less money. Hell, even Bose is cheaper and better audio.

        But effectively, the beats is just an equalizer

    • Re:So what exactly is 'beats audio?' (Score:5, Informative)

      by Fri13 ( 963421 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @07:30AM (#43001697)

      It is a brand for idea to use EQ to make bass sound deeper/stronger and have a higher quality for audio than typically (no distortion at any volume level you could hear) is offered in mobile devices.

      It is similar than what Creative has for its SB Live! branding

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by tippe ( 1136385 )

        ...and it's "invented" by Dr. Dre, a trusted name in high-fidelity audio.

        Bwwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by afidel ( 530433 )

          He's sold 15M copies of his own work (including NWA), and been the producer on another 100+M in total sales, how many successful albums have you written/produced?

    • It's a lovely marketing stamp in general. In practice though, on HTC devices at least, it means putting in a decent headphone amp that is actually big enough for poor quality headphones, and having some built in equalizing code that pushed up the bass. For most people, it means things sound better...

    • It's simply an equalizer preset that boosts the bass and high end a little.

      Funny thing. On the HTC One V phone, a little Beats Audio icon would show up in the status bar when you plugged in headphones. Originally, when you'd drag down your notifications and select Beats Audio, you'd get a dialog where you could select from about 10 different equalizer presets, only one of which was the "Beats Audio" setting. The rest were the typical equalizer presets. Rock, Pop, Bass Boost, Classical, etc. When the fir

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cawpin ( 875453 )

      Seriously. I've tried to google, and the most informative things I find are other people asking the same question.

      Really?

      http://lmgtfy.com/?q=BEATS+AUDIO&l=1 [lmgtfy.com]

  • Definition of insanity (Score:3)

    by Chewbacon ( 797801 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @07:08AM (#43001633)
    ...doing the same thing and expecting a different result. To the stockholders: what could possibly go wrong?

  • 3Mpix rear camera tech (Score:3)

    by Fri13 ( 963421 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @07:34AM (#43001707)

    What I wish from that 3Mpix rear camera is that has a autofocus in it.
    I own a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" and it has 3MPix rear camera what is very handy for many situations when you make notes or you want just to quickly record something and you don't need quality what you only get from DSLR or digital video cameras but it is terrible in situations where you would need to get closer than 30-40cm because missing autofocus. And that means as well you can not scan all 2D barcodes well.

    Just give good 3Mpix camera with autofocus and it will be great for taking pictures to notes.

  • Touchpad burns? I think not. (Score:4, Informative)

    by TrentTheThief ( 118302 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @08:31AM (#43001911)

    Burned by HP's Touchpad? Not hardly. My TouchPad dual boots WebOS and CyanogenMod 10.

    It was well worth the moeny. The graphics are tremendous and the audio is soooo sweet.

  • Nexus 7 specs look better, but it costs a little more. Annoying they didn't put a microSD card reader in the Nexus 7. The price and the MicroSD slot make this appealing to me.
    • The lack of a SD memory slot on the Nexus 7 isn't about saving five cents on parts, or about the "you're too stupid to use a memory slot" claim that was made. It is about forcing Google customers to save their information "on the cloud". If you don't mind Google and the RIAA and MPAA snooping through all of your data that might be OK if you live within Google's fiber network area and never leave the house. But in a land of slow Internet and caps by major providers like AT&T even on land lines, it is a d

      • The lack of a SD memory slot on the Nexus 7 isn't about saving five cents on parts

        Perhaps it's about saving dollars on Microsoft patent royalties. Microsoft owns essential patents that cover FAT32 and ExFAT, the file systems used on SDHC and SDXC respectively.

        • Not sure why people feel the need to speculate to "apologize" for Google's mistakes. But the tablet uses Android and the Andriod file system for its internal flash memory. That is also a FAT system, so there is no excuse to not use an external connector. Also, Microsoft doesn't own the patent on the SDHC pinout or connector, so just adding one would incur no extra cost from Microsoft. Microsoft might get a licensing fee from some SDHC makers, but that is irrelevant. And if Google were using some different f

          • This would have some side effects, since you couldn't easily just move a reformatted card between the tablet and your PC or your digital camera

            Side effects like the prospect of Windows "helpfully" recommending irreversible data loss whenever the user ends up inserting the card. In addition, it'd be capped at 32 GB, as the specification for larger cards (SDXC) appears to require the use of ExFAT.

  • The two cameras are welcome (yea, I already have a digital camera, but there are many uses for a camera on a tablet that a stand-alone camera will not address). And the expansion slot is very important to me (important enough that I was ready to buy the Nexus on day 1 but declined when I was told to just "use the cloud"). But if there is no GPS then this is really in the class of cheap sub $100 tablets. I would live without NFC (although it is a short sighted choice to cut out this low cost feature), but no

    • The press release specifically mentions Google Drive.

      • Thanks, I'll look again. I was concerned that the GPS receiver was left out of the specs. But then again, I did see mention that it would be compatable with everything in the Google Play store. And if it lacks an auto-focus feature for the camera (which has already been mentioned here) as well as NFC (also missing from the specs) then it certainly isn't going to run everything on Google Play. So rather than just assume that there is lots of hardware that they were just too modest to mention, I would like to

    • Came here to complain about lack of GPS and see I was beaten to it.

      Does it REALLY cost so much to design the tablets with GPS? Nexus tablets don't seem to have a problem doing it without being expensive...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by afidel ( 530433 )

        Are people really using 7" tablets for navigation? 3.5-4" smartphones are much closer to the form factor of traditional GPS units and they have the advantage that they have cellular data for realtime traffic updates and access to rich POI databases with reviews.

        • Sure, if my 7" tablet had GPS and I had a clean way to mount it in the car, I certainly would use it for navigation. Don't want a cell phone solution, want GPS that works when I'm out of range of my cell provider. So an Android solution that I can download the maps for wherever I expect to be would be great. Next best solution is a stand-alone GPS. I actually already have one but the maps are getting somewhat dated, and it is insanely expensive to update the maps. Better to just buy a new GPS, but that seem

  • I'd have to get my hands on one to try it out but for $169 it's not a bad deal. Yes, the video resolution is a bit weak but it's got Android 4.1 and expandable SD storage and Beats Audio. I snagged one of the 32GB Touchpads and the audio on that is terrific. The expandable storage option alone makes it worthy of consideration.

    I've tried those cheap Chinese made tablets and the touch screens on them are universally horrible. You're having to hit the same icon 3 or 4 times before it works right. On an iPad or

  • "bit" by touchpad "debacle"? (Score:3)

    by Chirs ( 87576 ) on Monday February 25, 2013 @10:35AM (#43003257)

    The touchpad was (and still is) a pretty nice tablet. I got three at firesale prices (one for me, two for family members) and they're all still going strong. Mine dual-boots webOS and CyanogenMod 9.

    The audio quality on the touchpad was the best of any tablet I've heard and it far exceeds the audio on either of my laptops. The built-in inductive charging is awesome, all new equipment should be doing that out-of-the-box.

  • If the headline had ended with a question mark -- "HP Back In Tablet Game With Android-Based 'Slate7'?" -- we could simply answer "no". [wikipedia.org]

  • Maybe some day Android will be useable and I'll take a look at it.

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