Sven Johannsen

Well, since you asked. I am happy with it. Not GaGa over it, but happy. I had it with me at Summit and a few took a look at it. It is everything I expected. I will admit I expected it to feel a liitle sluggish, and it does, much like a similarly spec'd netbook. My hope is that HP doesn't scrap the idea for yet another phone OS on a slate, but upgrades the little guy with the new NVIDIA Tegra 2 ARM with Windows 10, blah, blah, blah.

Here is what is good about it. It is light and very comfortable to hold. Lighter than my iPad actually, but screen is smaller. It boots relatively fast and faster if you hibernate or sleep, though it is distinctly not instant on. The screen is very responsive with touch, in those applications that understand it. Most do, at least for selecting things and scrolling, like IE, Outlook, thinks like that. I'm not much of a gamer, but Solitaire, Mahjong, work just fine with fingers. Pinch and Zoom work just fine, again in apps that get it. You must remember that most apps for Windows expect you to use a mouse, to click and drag. You can certainly tap and hold, and drag to do everything you could normally. The onscreen keyboard is as responsive as my iPad's, and I have the option of resizing it if I wish.

I also have the option of using the stylus/pen. It isn't essential, but it certainly allows some things to be a bit easier as it functions much like a mouse, which is very familiar. It is a very different experience than using one of the capacitive kludges for the iPad. I have several. All feel like you are writing with a QueTip. Writing with the pen, feels like writing with a pen, whether that is on the input panel for HWR, or on an ink aware app like OneNote.

The hardware has it's own advantages. I have a USB port and SD slot on the device itself. The USB will accept a USB drive, DVD drive, USB GPS stick (Streets and Trips), anything you could normally stick in a PC USB port. I am really pleased with the little dock that comes with it. It is light as a feather, 212g, (7.5 oz), is 5x6x1.25" at its fattest. It is exceptionally portable and ads 2 USB ports and an HDMI, plus audio out and power in. I thought this would be a stay at home thing, but it adds almost nothing to throw in the travel bag.

The big deal to me though, is it is Windows. Yea, I know you think that is its biggest drawback. You do have to sacrifice a little slickness over a built for fingers device, BUT..... You can do some tweaks in the Personalization that makes the app bar buttons bigger, makes the scroll bars a little wider, and a few things to make things a bit easier. These are built OS options, not third part add-ons. Now, what do I get for these minor inconveniences. I get Outlook, not something as good as Outlook...Outlook. I get real Office, and can fully use Office Web. I get Zune and my Zune Pass with it, because this is one of my 3 PCs I can register. I get to keep things up to date with Live Mesh, without having a repetoire of third party sync/cloud solutions. I can see my Slate from my PCs on my network and vice-versa. It backs up with my Home Server. I can use Daemon tools to create a virtual DVD drive, and run virtual DVDs off of a USB stick or SD card. I can video conference using Skype, Live Messenger or Live Meeting. If I find I need to do more than touch and pen can do efficiently, I can easily add a small portable BT keybard and mouse and basically have a netbook, and I can add a bigger screen with the HDMI, duplicating, or expanding the screen.

Price was reasonable in my view. It was $799. A WiFi only 64G iPad is $699. I however get 3 USB ports, an HDMI out, a cradle/dock, stylus, SD slot. Add those items to the iPad in accessories and you are at the same price, but not quite at the capability vis-a-vis SD card/USB support etc. At the time I could also claim two cameras but Apple has rectified that.

So, all in all I'm happy with my HP Slate. How are you doing with your XOOM?

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