HP Gets It Wrong Again

Our favourite PC manufacturer, HP, has once again dipped its toes into the tablet market. Their latest offering, named Slate 7 is as its name suggests, a 7 incher. Now for a bit of history if you please.

HP’s original tablet, the TouchPad, failed to light the world on fire like HP would have wanted. It was a well-built tablet with very good specs for the time (still very decent by today’s standards). There was however a fly in the ointment. It ran WebOS; a not too popular platform. It was also a bit too expensive starting at $500 for the 16GB model. It came as no surprise when HP commenced a fire sale of unsold inventory at $100 and the tablets flew off the shelves. Most people who bought them replaced its WebOS with Android.

Fast-forward to two years later and the company is trying again after learning from its mistakes. Or has it? The Slate 7 has a non-HD screen, only 8GB built-in memory with a memory card slot, 1.6GHz dual-core processor, two cameras, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a full gig of RAM. All for the low price of $170. Now the vanguard for 7 inch Android tablets is undoubtedly the Nexus 7 which sells for $200 for the 16GB model. Importantly, the Nexus 7 has a 720p HD screen, a much faster processor and no memory card slot. I’m not one given to pointless specs but the truth is things look much better on HD screens. 

From all this, it is clear that the Slate 7 is a budget device. Now there’s nothing wrong with making a budget device but I think HP should have released a high end tablet first; priced cheaper than the Nexus 7 and its other cheap peers like the Nook HD and Kindle Fire HD. And the Slate 7 is not cheap enough. Though I don’t know how much it cost to make it, I think it would have been better if it cost a bit less. Perhaps $150. So will the Slate 7 be a commercial success? It seems unlikely given that the Nexus 7 and co are much better and cost only a bit more. It will certainly fare better than its predecessor though; HP is known for its excellent build quality. Now what’s with all this 7 in product names? Windows 7, Nexus 7 and now Slate 7. Just saying.

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