HP Slate 500

The HP Slate 500 is a multi-touch capable Windows 7 Tablet computer that was announced at CES 2010 and launched on 22 October 2010.

History

The Slate 500 began as an e-reader concept, but after further study of the uses for such devices, HP realigned their goal to deliver a product that provided a "rich user experience; to browse, listen to music, watch videos and enjoy media".

HP Chief Technology Officer, Phil McKinney, stated that "2010 is the optimal year...there is now this convergence of low cost, low power processors, with an Operating System - Windows 7 that is touch aware."

Hardware

The Slate 500 has a three-megapixel camera on its back panel and a VGA resolution webcam on the front panel, an 8.9" capacitive multi-touch screen supporting 1024×600 pixel resolution with digitizer and pen support. The Slate is powered by a 1.86 GHz Intel Atom Z540 processor with 2GB DDR2 of RAM, 64GB of onboard solid state flash storage and one standard USB 2.0 port. The device supports 1080p playback powered by the Intel GMA 500 integrated graphics chipset in addition to a Broadcom Crystal HD media accelerator card for hardware assisted video playback. Wireless capabilities include the built-in WiFi and Bluetooth support. Power is supplied by a 2-cell 30WHr lithium-polymer battery with an average runtime of 5 hours.

HP Slate 7

The HP Slate 7 is a 7-inch Android 4.1 tablet that was announced on February 24, 2013 and that started shipping in April 2013. It has a stainless-steel frame, black front, and gray or red soft-touch back. A key feature of this small tablet is the microSDHC slot. It is HP's second Android device (the Photosmart eStation C510 printer contained an Android tablet that lacked Google Services).

In December 2013, HP released the HP Slate7 Plus, HP Slate7 Extreme, HP Slate8 Pro and HP Slate10 HD and these four run Android 4.2.2.

Software

The Slate 7 runs mainly stock Android 4.1, with the exception of HP ePrint, an application that will allow a user to print wirelessly from most Android applications.

When asked if webOS, HP's mobile operating system would be installable, Omar Javaid, VP of Product Management stated that it is possible, however any such port would have to be undertaken by the webOS community.

Reception

Unlike most electronic devices the pixels used in the Slate 7 screen are not square, but rectangular; therefore the screen image is stretched in the tablet's long axis, making circles into ovals, squares into rectangles, and so on. Reviewers did not like that it was underpowered, had a sub-par display, and had poor battery life compared to the other tablets sold in the middle of 2013.The device was also well known for charging and battery problems.