HP introduces TouchPad tablet; 9.7-inches, webOS, dual-core

By on Feb 9, 2011 at 2:19 PM
Tablets February 9, 2011

Hot on the heels of the Pre 3 and Veer announcement, HP introduced the real star of today’s event, the TouchPad tablet. The TouchPad is a 1.6 pound, 13.7mm thick, 9.7-inch, dual-core tablet that finally brings webOS to the big screen. Powered by the latest dual-core, 1.2GHz, Snapdragon processor, 1GB of RAM, a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video calling, 16GB or 32GB of storage, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 +ERD, 6,200mAh battery, and speakers from Beats Audio. The TouchPad utilize touchstone technology to facilitate sharing between webOS devices. As HP explains:

The next generation of Touchstone technology makes HP devices work better together. Easily share a URL with your Pre 3 simply by tapping them together. Receive text messages and answer phone calls on your TouchPad so you don’t miss a thing. Start reading a website or blog on a TouchPad and then tap your smartphone to take it to go. We’re building more connected devices so you can have a more connected experience.

Like the Pre 3, the TouchPad will be available “this summer” at an unknown price point. Android, iOS, QNX, webOS… competition is a good thing.

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23 Comments

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  • Anonymous

    it (surprisingly) looks interesting

    • Midi45

      Android is dead IMO. At least in tablet land. WEBOS owns them and ios.

      • Anonymous

        I like WebOS….but I have to get my hands on whatever you’re smokin

      • heyhey

        actually, honeycomb and xoom can go take a dump for all i care …..time and again, it becomes clear that google is out to benefit advertisers, hardware manufacturers and carriers by denying consumers a wifi only version of their tablet……HP did a great job by making a wifi only version available…kudos to them….also webos is still more elegant than android will ever be….and u are hearing this from an ex-android user …..i am gettin an hp tablet along with a keyboard…….

      • Anonymous

        @heyhey you’re more than entitled to your own opinion, but the fact that Xoom does not come in a WiFi only version is very far from Google’s fault.

  • sirpaul

    Does it have USB ports? If it doesn’t it’s useless to me.

    • Anonymous

      What do you want to do with the USB ports?

      • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

        Jump drives, wireless keyboard/mouse, external hard drives

      • sirpaul

        Walter pretty much covered it. Any peripherals, adapters (SD, CF, etc.) and also more options if the device is rooted.

      • Anonymous

        Are any of the other leading tablets including USB support? Not sure as I don’t follow them too close.

      • sirpaul

        I don’t follow too close either. I am also interested in the RIM PlayBook and I know that that has USB ports. Will have to wait and see how battery life pans out.

    • http://www.bgr.com Andrew Munchbach

      Yes, microUSB out with USB 2.0 support.

      • sirpaul

        Awesome, thanks a lot. iPad just doesn’t cut it :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Moore/1468057769 David Moore

    Looks pretty cool. I always thought Web OS looked pretty good and would be well suited to a tablet.

  • Chirag2k

    Too bad the Veer and Pre 3 blows.

  • Mgurule80

    Price?

  • Spamfree

    I shouldn’t be surprised, but am somehow stunned that they would make us wait this long and STILL not have a price or ship date.

  • Anonymous

    My thoughts on HP’s new announcements…

    Veer = Kin. It would be a great phone for teens, but the Kin was marketing to that group too and it didn’t sell, so that should tell HP something. It’ll be interesting to see how sales for this device manifest once it has been released. If it sells more units than the Kin, then people just didn’t want the Microsoft version for a variety of reasons, excluding size. If it doesn’t sell, then size is a major factor in that people want larger phones with more functionality. Time will tell…

    The Pre 3… Nice specs, but is it anything overly impressive, no. Any new features other phones don’t have, no. The hardware on this phone needs to be a huge improvement over the Pre 2 as well. Being released in the summer might be a disastrous decision. Love Apple or hate them, anything released around the iPhone 5 will get overlooked. Apple is going to dominate the summer with a massive ad campaign which will make it the talk of the town. If Apple incorporates new technology into iPhone 5, like NFC and electronic wallets, it’ll certainly have a huge edge which may be impossible to overcome. New Android phones are also slated to come out over the summer months, and those are going to be hot too, whether they have new technology incorporated in them or not, so HP has a ton of competition.

    The Touch Pad… It’ll be nice to have another variant slate device to choose from, but it’s still going to enter the market at a dangerous time. iPad 2, Motorola Xoom, Blackberry Playbook, a possible Samsung Galaxy Tab update to Honeycomb, and other tablets as well… these are all major roadblocks for HP to overcome in order to make this device sell. We know the OS is going to be good, but the processing power needs to be killer, the hardware needs to be solid (no junky plastic), the battery life needs to come close to or match that of the iPad 2, 2 cameras are the way to go (this only has one), 16GB or 32GB only (where is the 64GB option?), should have expandable memory via SD or micro SD which this lacks, no USB port, and lastly and most important to consumers – a killer app store. Now, the whole “tap the devices together thing” between this and the Pre 3 is great, but limiting to a smartphone that might not sell. In my opinion, right or wrong, I’m not downgrading from the iPhone 4/5 or from a killer Android phone for this phone for this feature.
    On a positive note, right off the bat I can say that this device is a much better choice over the Blackberry Playbook. However, if this is released around the time of the iPad 2 or any other major competition, it’ll be overlooked by the consumer, or at least it’ll struggle. HP needs to get an app store environment much closer to what android has to stay competitive in this arena.
    To really sell and take hold of the tablet market the price point on this device needs to be spot on. By that I mean, it needs to undersell the iPad 2 AND the Xoom, the two devices that will be the major competition. Not undersell by $10 either. The iPad 2 will most likely sell at the same price as the iPad 1 or less. I don’t see Apple selling it at a higher price, that just doesn’t seem to fit their new business model. With that said, the base 16GB model needs to be priced at either $399 or $449 to undersell the current iPad. Fierce competition is the name of the game. Everything else aside, specs, hardware, all that…the consumer is interested in price.

    HP has quite a few hurdles to clear, and they’re all possible. Now we just have to sit back and wait to see how it transpires. Good luck HP.

  • joshie

    It does look interesting, but I think “this summer” is going to be too late.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brett-Munson/1345178887 Brett Munson

    boy thats a pretty original name

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brett-Munson/1345178887 Brett Munson

    its all about the ipad anyway

  • Travis Jenkins

    WebOS is such a breath of fresh air in the mobile OS spectrum. Couple that with superior hardware and we may just have a true Palm successor.

  • Anonymous

    webos always looked like a sweet tablet platform. I am eager to poke around on one soon

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