On 3 November 2011, HP
introduced its follow-up to the HP Slate 500. It’s
got virtually the same physical design and quite a few new features. Contrary to HP
Slate 500, which HP gave poor promotion and a price of $799, the Slate 2 has a
starting price of $699, and the company joins other recent Windows 7 tablet
releases from Dell, Samsung, Fujitsu, and Viewsonic.
The main features of
HP Slate 2
The Slate 2 Tablet PC
has a 1024 x 600-resolution, 8.9-inch N-Trig panel and an included stylus. HP has refreshed it with a new 1.5-GHz Intel Atom Oak Trail
Z670 processor, storage options of faster 32GB and 64GB mSATA flash drives, and
a Swype keyboard. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) embedded security chip 1.2 provides
an additional layer of security of stored data. For OS, there’s the choice of
Windows 7 Home Premium in addition to Windows 7 Professional and Windows
Embedded Standard 7.
HP Slate 2 dimensions
and design
HP Slate 2 has a new
Bluetooth keyboard dock, and a flat black cover, rather than the grey textured
one of its predecessor, Slate 500. The HP Slate 2 dimesnions: 5.9 by 9.21 by 0.61
inches, with the starting weight of 1.52 pounds. Nicely integrated in the HP
Slate 2 design are physical shortcut buttons for home, calling up the keyboard,
and calling up the task manager.
The 2-cell battery
should last up to six hours, which is about 3 times longer than the battery
life of the Slate 500.
Although on the thicker
side, the tablet feels well-proportioned in-hand. The screen is responsive. An
additional plus is the introduction of the new Swype keyboard. This is a first
on a Windows tablet. Although there is the standard Microsoft on-screen
keyboard, the Swype keyboard is simply easier to use.
Another curiosity of
this tablet is how nicely HP has integrated a USB 2.0 port, an SDHC card slot
and a SIM card slot.
HP Slate 2 is available
worldwide in the second part of November 2011
