While it might've been nice to see a weaker model debut at $400-500US to truly blow away the iPad, (and perhaps the $800US model to include 3G) this is definitely starting to show that the iPad is overpriced. I mean, let's look, comparing the $799US HP Slate 64GB vs. a $699US iPad 64GB. The extra $100 gets you:
- A faster CPU. The iPad sports an ARM; the weakest architecture in use today, at only 1 GHz. The Atom z540 runs at 1.86 GHz, on a more effective architecture, thanks in part to 512KB cache and Hyper-Threading support.
- 8x as much RAM, and faster. Some forgot that the iPad's A4 sports only 256 MB of slowpoke DDR1; fine for smartphones, but definitely NOT capable of doing things a real computer would. The Slate brings us a whopping 2048 MB, that's ALSO DDR2.
- Built-in USB support. With the iPad, the ONLY connector you have is to the dock, which grants you one USB output, to uplink to a PC. The slate has a built-in USB port, letting you actually, y'know, use a peripheral with it.
- True HD video support. The iPad only supports up to 1024x720, not TRUE 720p. And if you're doing proper MP4 formats? 480p is your cap. The A4's too wimpy to handle full-out HD, as the new Apple TV has shown us. The Slate can handle 1080p.
- HDMI output. The iPad's dock gives you two output options: VGA and Composite/Component video, both analog standards, and capped to 576p (sub-HD) for it. The Slate gets a proper HDMI port, that can output full 1080p video.
- A real Operating System. Windows 7 is quite possibly the best OS out there for personal computing; it lays virtually all the jokes cracked about XP and Vista to rest, while still running whatever you want. With the iPad, you're stuck downloading tiny, Apple-approved iAps. Even if you jailbreak it, you're still stuck with the limitations of the wimpy ARM-Cortex, 1/8th the RAM, and iOS.
All in all, I'd say the HP slate is a magical, revolutionary device... At least, it deserves the title much more than Apple's iPad ever did. My only complaint is that they could've improved things to make the bargain compared to the iPad far more clear-cut. (such as by perhaps a $100US cheaper price tag, and/or perhaps weaker models)