HP TouchPad hands-on!

By on Feb 9, 2011 at 3:51 PM
Tablets February 9, 2011

In case you haven’t heard, Hewlett-Packard announced its first webOS-powered tablet today. We spent a few minutes with the new Palm-powered pad at today’s event and we have to say, we’re impressed. Design-wise, the TouchPad is definitely not unique. Yeah, we’ll just go ahead and say it — it’s a plastic iPad. Inside, however, we can’t stress how amazing webOS is on a large-form device. The HP rep we chatted with wouldn’t let us handle the device personally, but it looks relatively solid and the contoured edges look very comfortable as well. The only real disappointment we have initially where hardware is concerned is the lack of a video-out — HP’s tablet competition is going to be gunning for the big screen and the TouchPad is completely sidelined with no HDMI port. Software is where this puppy shines, however. The Palm team’s Web-based mobile operating system may have been born on smartphones, but it’s all grown up on the TouchPad tablet. Though the software definitely isn’t final, the UI is was very fluid in the demo we were given —thanks in no small part to the dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor lurking within. Check out our hands-on photo gallery below and stay tuned for our thoughts on the Veer and Pre 3 smartphones.

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  • Anonymous

    As long as it has DLNA, you don’t need a physical wired output.

  • http://twitter.com/jrcrow79 EK

    lovely..no video..then dont say hands on..should say pics with details instead

    • Anonymous

      Well, to be fair he didn’t say *who’s* hands were on it…

  • Anonymous

    summer: bummer!
    They will enter the game too late, the iPad 2 will be out, Motorola Xoom and a whole bunch of Android Tablets will be out, even RIM, they will be late in the game, HP has 144000 employees, and they cannot come to market earlier? I assume the customers will decide, and we will know at the end of 2011, but I think they are a tad late….

  • Anonymous

    “a plastic iPad.”

    So it’s plastic, yet there’s no weight savings vs. the iPad? Wow. Sign me up.

  • sirpaul

    What do you mean it’s a plastic iPad? Aren’t all “pad” tablets supposed to look the same? It’s basically one big screen. Also, I don’t think no HDMI is a huge issue – I don’t think many people will want to stream movies off the little guy when they have laptops around. Just transferring the video from laptop to pad would take forever – might as well stream from the source!

    But when you’re a billion dollar company trying to create something competitive, every little feature helps. Although it may not be very usefull, competitors will end up rubbing it in your face.

    • Fastwalking

      no – actually companies are supposed to employ a little thing called “innovation”. Do you really want them all to look, feel and operate the same??? What a world that would be. The original Pre showed more innovation than this whole new lineup does. Very disappointing. Is there really only one company that can create new products or has vision?? Everyone just churns out a copy of what Apple has done and doesnt even try to take it to the next level.

      • sirpaul

        Apple made popular a new type of device – the slate. They didn’t reinvent the wheel. There is only so much you can do with a slate design. The only innovations come from features (like the bump to sync features palm/hp implemented) at the moment.

    • serpentor

      Yeah, HP should have just looked at Google and Android and just given up before they embarrassed themselves.

      Apple and Jobs was also late to the game in 1999 – 1% of the pc market and verging on bankruptcy? Should’a just sold the company to MS. Why even bother?

      • Anonymous

        Pffttt yeah OK sure whatever you say spanky

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=25001493 Hank Godwin

        Do you not know what sarcasm means?

  • http://haiku-os.org/ Stanley

    Looks promising. Way too early to be sure, but HP’s revamped webOS seems to have a focus and cohesiveness lacking in Google’s Android 3.0, RIM’s PlayBook, and maybe Apple’s iOS.

  • Anonymous

    Thats it?……Thats all?…………Did they just copy last years ipad or what.

    I was really hoping for something innovative. This is rediculous – just copy the other guys and call it “new”?

    Damb, i just wasted a perfectly good hour on this and what do we have – a revised Pre and a copy of the ipad. What a drag!!

    And did they fix the horrible keypad on the Pre?? wasted everyone’s time.

    • Anonymous

      Guess this means its time you left the basement found a job and tried getting a life.

  • Anonymous

    The fact that HP has no ‘ecosystem’ for this product line and apparently no desire to build out a desktop/phone/tablet/laptop/cloud/local set of components (like Apple has), places it in competition not with the iPad, but with the ‘others’ and i don’t know what niche it will fill (cheap – android, messaging = playbook, office-ish -Win7).

    I’m not wowed. Anyone can put a touchscreen on plastic… who can put a ‘soul’ in it?

    • serpentor

      Did you follow their M&A activity after they bought Palm?

      But I do wish they follow Apple’s lead with the whole ecosystem thing, like when Apple introduced the iPod and iTunes with online store and music and movies all at once. And all DRM free.

      Building out on a foundation is just not a viable biz plan.

  • joshie

    Plastic? Wow, I would have hoped that HP had learned something from Palm’s mistakes with the Pre hardware.

  • Zenit

    Is the screen on that thing IPS or TN?

  • Tuscano77

    While Apple is developing products that are encased in aluminum unibody enclosures and looking at new patented materials that are stronger and more lightweight. Other companies are still using cheap plastics? If these companies are going to compete, they need to step up the quality of what they’re manufacturing instead of rushing out a product that attempts to emulate what Apple is doing…

  • Anonymous

    Since this is a slate design with no USB, SD card or disk drive options, here is the big question. How is HP going to overcome their app problem? Their market has way less apps in it compared to the Android and iTunes marketplaces. I would think that would be a huge disadvantage compared to the iPad, all the Android tablets and even the upcoming BB Playbook.

    • Anonymous

      It has a micro usb 2.0 port.

      • Anonymous

        That’s for charging. I was referring to a USB 2.0 port to attach a flash drive for the ability to run or upload a program like you can with a PC. My point is with the smaller amount of apps available for the WebOS operating system compared with the Android, IOS and BlackBerry operating systems will it be a hinderance to sales of the device. Based on my experience from working for a Sprint dealer, one of the most popular reasons people were choosing Android phones versus WebOS at this point last year was the varitey of apps on the respective marketplaces.

  • Anonymous

    Now the price HP? If the price is right, then I’m sold!

  • http://twitter.com/awolfe_ii awolfe_ii

    Does WebOS look stronger than Android?

  • heyhey

    is it just me, or HP’s CEO did mention that devices would be available for shipping within “weeks” of announcement? whatever happened to that? now they’re saying summer…..not a good start. a million tablets are coming this summer…..they need to get this puppy out quickly….have they not learned from palm’s mistakes?

  • Anonymous

    surprise surprise I see some of the Apple fan boys and brainless Google fandroids have showed up to throw out their negative comments. I say good for HP and I hope this tablet and their handset takes a bite out of the Apple/android market share. With WebOS and WM7 in the game its a great time to be a consumer. I can hardly wait until QNX one day finally becomes available on handsets. If WebOS, QNX and WM7 gain traction Apple and especially Google could be in for a huge market share ass kicking. God how I’d love to see that.

    • S.Mulji

      At the end of the day I don’t care who wins or who gets their ass kicked, I will say the TouchPad looks very nice from what I’ve seen so far. From a hardware / OS standpoint this is my favorite tablet thus far. The only minus is the lack of ecosystem supporting this device. That’s something HP will have to work hard on to stay in the game. I hope they’re successful.

  • http://twitter.com/Syk0Matik420 Beefy McBigDick

    might buy one just to blow it up in a sandpit. garbage.

  • Alexander530

    I really could care less for hdmi output. I have no intentions of hooking my tablet or phone up to a tv. I really like the synergy behind the Pre 3 and the touchpad. I am not crazy about its design though, but design is not a top priority on my list, its functionality will keep me happy :) I hope pricing won’t be bloody on my pocket.

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