HP seems to have decided to bring the Slate 7 Extreme’s more expensive doppelganger over to Mexico. Also available in the States, this version has been dubbed the HP Slate 7 Beats Special Edition. Depending on which part of the consumer market you are on, audiophile or average consumer, this tablet bears the either popular or notorious beats branding which includes that exceedingly vibrant red color so you know what that means. That’s right, HP will be pushing the audio quality of their new tablet very heavily. Though I’m no fan of beats, I think that a little added bass on a tablet might be a welcomed addition since there has yet to be a tablet equipped with boom sound speakers. Since Beats was recently acquired by Apple, this might be the last Android device that we see equipped with the technology.
The specifications on this 7 inch tablet is exactly the same as the Slate 7 Extreme save for the color scheme and supposedly improved speaker quality. The device is priced at 4090 pesos which translates to around 312.80 US Dollars. This seems to be an excellent price when you consider that this tablet is paired up with a very capable processor, the Tegra 4. I would place its performance some where between a Snapdragon 800 and the 801. Comparatively, the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 costs $299 with the same screen resolution but is paired with a considerably weaker processor, the Intel atom z2560, which scores less than half on benchmarks. Benchmarks might not be everything but that difference in scores certainly cannot be ignored. What seems very interesting to me though is that the difference in price seems to be very steep due to import tariffs and who knows what else. The HP Slate 7 Special Edition retails for 312.804 USD but in America it costs a whole 52,81 USD less, ouch.
As mentioned before, this really is the Slate 7 Extreme with beats branding and a “sparkling” red color so the specs are identical. You get the aforementioned Tegra 4 processor which is clocked at 1.8GHz, 1 GB of DDR3 RAM, a 7.0 inch 1280 by 800 pixel resolution display, 16 GB of RAM for installing apps and storing media and a microSD card slot for adding room for more media but not apps, a 0.3 MP front facing camera, a 5 MP rear facing camera, a decently sized 4100 mAh battery, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN, bluetooth 3.0, Micro HDMI with up to Ultra HD 4K display support, all fit into a casing with the dimensions of 7.87 x 4.72 x 0.38 inches. The tablet also comes equipped with a ten watt charger and a 2mm-tip Passive Stylus . Thankfully this tablet will have KitKat though given HP’s track record, I’m not sure when it’ll be updated. Overall, this sounds like a good tablet for a decent price.