HP Reveals Slate 500 Tablet
Hewlett-Packard unveiled its first tablet. Known as the Slate 500, this $799 device runs on Microsoft Windows 7 and targets business customers. In contrast to many of today's tablets which traditionally offer a smartphone feel, the Slate 500 attempts to replicate the experience you'd get on a full PC but in a tablet form factor.
The Slate 500 runs Windows 7, just like your desktop PC. It also has an 8.9-inch, multi-touch-enabled screen with a digital stylus pen and 64GB of storage. The tablet weighs 1.5 pounds and gets approximately five hours of battery life. Also in contrast to other tablets which use low-power ARM-based processors, the Slate uses an Intel Atom processor, much like today's netbooks.
Carol Hess-Nickels, director of business notebook marketing at HP described the Slate 500: "It's really like a full-function PC, it runs Windows, it will run your office applications, it just so happens to be in a slate form factor." Hess-Nickels expects retail, healthcare and insurance companies will build custom applications to take advantage of the Slate 500's portability and power.
The Slate has front and rear-facing cameras to enable video conferencing as well as a USB port for additional connectivity. The HP Slate 500 is currently available.
