Yea the Slate is pretty amazing. I was originally all hyped up to buy an iPad but the Slate really took the wind out of iPads sails for me. Was originally going to get iPad even with it's shortcomings just because there was nothing else like it out there but now I want a Slate
It's one thing to try and have a good clean fight about the iPad, which none of us has actually seen or touched or used yet. At least we are arguing about a product that will soon be on the shelf, whose features and apparent drawbacks are at least roughly understood, and which has been tried hands-on by numerous tech writers.
It's quite another to make any definite statement about something like the HP Slate, pro or con. We know practically nothing about this device, beyond what can be gleaned from a couple of very limited public presentations and videos and a trickle of leaks from HP, Microsoft, and others who claim to have some knowledge of HP's intentions.
I would say, though, that anyone placing great hopes in this future device (which may turn out to be great, who knows?) might want to peruse
David Pogue's recent piece in the New York Times called "Wee Mousie, Fear Not a Touch PC."
Pogue has not, obviously, been able to try out an actual Slate, since such a thing does not exist. But he may have come as close as we possibly can at the moment, by asking HP to loan him a touch
computer called the TouchSmart 600 which retails for about $1200. It apparently runs the same touch-enabled version of Windows 7 that will be used by the Slate. Here is a portion of Pogue's verdict:
Unfortunately, the TouchSmart may be loaded, loaded, loaded, but its also slow, slow, slow. Slow to start up, to open programs and, tragically, to respond to finger taps. H.P. confirms that its made with mobile components, meaning laptop parts; in any case, it feels overwhelmed by the simplest tasks.
When you spread two fingers to zoom a Web page, the zooming animation is jerky and therefore hard to control. You can swipe horizontally to go back or forward a page, but youll wait no joke nine seconds for the computer to respond.
So this is the problem with vaporware. It may look and sound terrific, but when (if ever) it actually sees the light of day, it might burst into flame.
The TouchSmart 600 isn't the Slate, of course. It might actually work
better than the Slate, since it is a full-function computer that uses tried-and-true laptop components rather than a small-form tablet presumably running on less expensive and less powerful hardware.
Still, we don't know. It's too early to declare that the Slate sucks. But it's WAY premature to claim that it pwns the iPad.
