HP TouchPad Review: A Tablet For Productivity?

[acku]

Apple's iOS and Google's Android aren't the only operating systems choices in the tablet market. HP recently joined the fray with webOS. See how its TouchPad tablet stacks up to the competition and what really sets it apart from the rest of the pack.

HP TouchPad Review: A Tablet For Productivity? : Read more

 

[obarthelemy]

I have faith in the QuickOffice port coming through: datawiz have been woking in the mobile space since Palm days (actually, they started on Palm I think, so they know their stuff, and the platform. It works well on Android.

 

[obarthelemy]

I don't understand why you use the Xoom as the Android yardstick though, it's been upstaged long ago, by the Asus and Samsung tablets at least

 

[compton]

I'm certainly glad the TouchPad has a decent display -- a good trend to say the least. Apple deserves much of the credit for setting the quality bar in consumer devices like the iPhone/iPad. Happily, if you are looking around for a new phone or tablet, good displays are easy to find. If consumers as a whole get used to using good screens in tablets/phones, why don't more laptop manufacturers capitalize by upping their game? HP may have realized that the TouchPad needs a good display, but most laptop (theirs, Dell's, Asus, ect.) displays are shamefully terrible. Perhaps the laptop as we know it needs an injection of what makes modern tablets so appealing -- and at (or around) the top of that list is a bitchin' screen.

 

[Guest]

I've probably read at least 20 reviews of the touchpad. This is the only one I would actually call a review. This was balanced and in-depth. Thank you for your efforts.

The one thing lacking in this review, which is also lacking in everything being written about webos, is the mention of what I consider one of the standout features of webos: The openness of the platform. With preware installed (free), you have access to thousands of patches and homebrewed apps as well as linux applications. It is possible, for example, to run a full Debian Linux in a chrooted environment (without any cracking or jailbreaking), giving access to OpenOffice, and all other x-server Linux software out there. HP/Palm is the only tablet OS developer that actively encourages the homebrew/open source community in its efforts. As a developer, it is not only the ease of development that is compelling but the huge amount of expressive and creative freedom you get. With the Apple appstore, the walled garden may protect consumers well, but also creates a completely controlled and often repressive and capricious environment for a developer. This openness is the secret sauce behind much of the loyalty of webos users. The os is a joy to use, a joy to explore, and a joy to create new code in. And unfortunately, most reviewers can't or won't take the time to understand this extremely compelling aspect of the OS.

Thank you again for the best review of the touchpad I've seen yet.

 

[DjEaZy]

... nVidia work's with ARM... now AMD does it too... so where is intel at?

 

[Guest]

Well done review!...most thorough and in-depth of any I've seen thus far. As a user of about 3 weeks, I learned several new things I'd not discovered before. I second klktrk's comment about the homebrew community at PreCentral. I've taken advantage of several patches to customize my TouchPad (overclocking to 1.5 GHz, increased volume setting, etc)

 

[Guest]

HP really invested a lot of time and effort going into this tablet, and it is most definitely going to be an Apple killer and an Android killer one day. The potential it has is remarkable. Maybe not in this model, but in the next. As for right now, the card system in ingenious, the notification system is perfect, wireless charging is perfect, tap to share is perfect, and many many other things, including it's up to par with Apples A5 processor chip and Android Nvidia Tegra 2 Duo Core processor that evens out the fact that all these tablets are roughly the same speed, except for Apple, who lacks flash content support browser-wise. HP really leveled the playing field on this one, especially with the HD screen, and the Beats Audio, And also with their immense advertising. I don't know about you guys but I see the TouchPad on a lot of commercials and on ads everywhere! I'm thinking about buying one for school instead of the regular laptop.

 

[absoluthunter]

LED Pixels? Pretty sure this is an S-IPS LCD screen with LED back light. Sure wish people would understand the difference, specially when reviewing in technical forums.

 

[BlueFireAngel]

Thanks for a solid review! I'm not a Palm/HP owner yet but I hope to be someday soon. I've been impressed with Palm since I got a PDA 10 years ago. And since I've seen the Palm Pre I've been excited about the potential of webOS. I hope it catches on and that people begin to realize how powerful a tool webOS can become.
Thanks again, Andrew!

 

[Honis]

Very nice review.

HP just announced the $100 off sale from this last weekend is now permanent.

"Effective immediately, the HP TouchPad 16GB Wi-Fi will now be available for $399.99 and the HP TouchPad 32GB Wi-Fi will now be available for $499.99"

http://vdccnz2prof.houston.hp.com/view_email.asp?eid=10048010&mid=055f0aa5-75fa-414f-9913-9aa980bb0ef7

 

[cptnjarhead]

WebOS really shines on the TP and the OTA update takes care of many issues.
With preware and some patches... 1.5ghz or even 1.7ghz... amazing!
as the first WebOS tablet, i think its a home run.

 

[busuan]

I'd like to see a review of "what best to do with xPad". "Better" hardware or software, lower prices, or sexy looking, they mean nothing to me if I am not convinced why I really should do this or that with an xPad. For example, after reading this review, I am not convinced at all TouchPad would improve my "productivity" because I couldn't think of anything in my daily work that could be migrated onto it and done better.

 

[11796pcs]

The only thing HP does well is really expensive high-end printers, otherwise their products are generally crap. Some of their laptops are almost overly complex and include more screws than necessary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpCJzdWxEbQ

 

[CaedenV]

great review, nice to see tablets are getting closer to becoming useful, but until you can do content creation and modification then they are just really cool toys and do not belong in the office space. MS Office will be available for arm with win8, not sure if it will port over to other OSs though, so we need the libra office and other distros of open office to step it up and think of something. Then nothing would stand in the way.
[citation][nom]DjEaZy[/nom]... nVidia work's with ARM... now AMD does it too... so where is intel at?[/citation]

Intel in under the impression that with die shrinks of 22nm and less that x86 will fit in the same power envelope as ARM but be able to run full applications, so they are not playing with ARM. But you have to believe that they are sitting on some ARM tech that will come out if their die shrinks are not as effective as they hope.

 

[Coogie7]

Great article. The flexibility of the webOS is one of the more favorable features in my opinion.

 

[Guest]

Right now the touchpad can run ubuntu and all of it's apps including libreoffice. I think you still need a physical keyboard but work is ongoing so that the virtual keyboard can be used. The joys of webOS

 

[Guest]

I don't know if the author knows and will amend his article but:
"Effective immediately, the HP TouchPad 16GB Wi-Fi will now be available for $399.99 and the HP TouchPad 32GB Wi-Fi will now be available for $499.99"

That's $100 cheaper than the initial price, and -$50 cheaper than what the article states.

 

[kartu]

Why is it that Samsung's Galaxy Tab is never mentioned on charts?

 

[jdwii]

I would never buy a cut down version of a OS. I only want windows on a tablet so i can install x86 programs. Not have to pay for every app i hate paying for software.

 

[Gman450]

[citation][nom]jdwii[/nom]I would never buy a cut down version of a OS. I only want windows on a tablet so i can install x86 programs. Not have to pay for every app i hate paying for software.[/citation]
So what do you do in-order to get software ?

 

[Guest]

I'm glad I purchased the HP Touchpad. It works great, very versitile, and definitely worth the buy. I have no complaints about it. It's a good gadget.



http://theamazingnetworkmarketer.com

 

[feeddagoat]

I've been excited about this for a while but the knowledge that Palm is owned by HP just destroys this product for me. I've had way too many dodgy products and software updates from HP (customer service also refused to honor the warranty) that I don't want to get burned again. I will never touch another product by this company which is a great shame considering it is Palm at its heart.

 

[zyric83]

Kind of a moot point now isn't it? HP discontinuing the tablets and all.

 

[jinhan]

Wondering why people buy a touchpad as it is a one time product? $99 maybe. But there are really limited usage of it without much of apps available, not like Android and iOS that have many great apps. No wonder there is no ranking of HP Touchpad in this Top Tablet PC Comparison Chart or any others that I came across.