Back at Mobile World Congress in February, HP surprised, both in a good way and a bad way. We had no idea they would be putting together an Android tablet. We saw no leaks and heard no rumors. Then all of a sudden “HP announces the Slate 7”. So that was the good surprise, the bad surprise was the specs. They aren’t very good, almost like HP used leftover parts from their Touchpads. Let’s take a quick look at the specs:
- 7-inch FFS+ LCD display with a 1024×600 resolution
- 1GB of RAM
- 8GB internal storage; supports microSD cards up to 32GB
- Android 4.1 – Jelly Bean
- dual-core 1.6GHz processor (no mention of which processor that is) Cortex-A9
The HP Slate 7 is now available on HP’s website for $170. But why would you buy this tablet when there’s the Nexus 7 for about $30 with more space, and much better specs? Not to mention, there’ll be a new Nexus 7 coming shortly. While we pretty much understand why HP went this route with their first Android-powered tablet, it may not have been a good idea in the long run. Bringing a budget tablet in your first run in the Android world, is good for HP. It means they didn’t spend a ton of cash that they could lose if it doesn’t pan out. But I’ll be holding out to see what their next Android tablet(s) look like.
This doesn’t mean the Slate 7 won’t sell. It’ll sell based on name recognition. Everyone knows HP. Most people will walk into Walmart, Bestbuy, Target, etc., and see the Nexus 7 next to the HP Slate 7. They’ll notice that one is an HP and pick it up just because of that. Which is great for HP, and I’m hoping they sell enough to make another stab at the Android tablet game.
So the Firesale on the Slate 7 should be coming soon. I’d expect in about a month or two. While I expect HP to sell some of these Slate 7’s, I don’t expect them to sell a ton of them. But we’ll have to wait and see. How many of you would pick up the HP Slate 7?
Source: HP