HP Slate 500 Windows 7 tablet launches for $799

October 22, 2010 By Geoff Duncan

HP's infamous Slate 500 tablet computer with an 8.9-inch touchscreen display and Windows 7 is now available. For business and enterprise. For $799.

Hewlett-Packard has, after nearly 11 months, finally launched its Slate 500 tablet computing device, featuring an 8.9-inch touchscreen display, a 1.8 GHz Intel Atom processor, 2 GB of RAM, 64 GB of flash storage, and Microsoft’s WIndows 7 operating system. However, the Slate 500 is a different beast than the iPad-killing consumer device that Steve Ballmer so publicly touted at his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show back in January 2010. Instead, HP has re-imagined the Slate 500 as a tool for business, government, and enterprise customers with serious vertical integration—although the reality is that anyone can buy one of the systems from HP for $799.

From a hardware perspective, the Slate 500 is almost exactly what the industry has been expecting for over a year. Built around a 1.8 GHz Intel Atom processor, the Slate 500 runs Windows 7 and users interact with it using an 8.9-inch 1,024 by 600-pixel touchscreen display. The unit features 2 GB of RAM, 64 GB of flash storage, and features both a front-facing VGA-resolution camera for video chat and a rear-facing 3 megapixel camera for more significant pictures. The Slate 500 features one USB 2.0 port for peripherals (and that can include an optical drive, available separately), an SD card slot, integrated 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, and promises up to five hours of battery life. Of course, since the system runs Windows 7, it’s compatible with a wide variety of enterprise and mainstream computing applications, has full HTML browsing capabilities, and supports both Adobe Flash and AIR technologies.

However, the Slate 500 is not the consumer-friendly system that HP first promised when Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer demoed the unit a year ago, nor the consumer-savvy device HP teased in subsequent videos. Instead, the device is strictly aimed at business customers, particularly folks in health care, hospitality, banking, and other vertical industries. Things like e-reading capabilities, video calling, and content creation that HP teased in its promotional video for the Slate are gone: this is a strict Windows 7 machine, and folks who want to do those things will need to find Windows 7 apps for those purposes—and hope they can be used at all outside a traditional notebook/desktop computer environment. And then there’s the pricing: $799 for a Windows 7-capable tablet is only $30 less than Apple’s top-of-the-line iPad with 3G—and the HP Slate 500 has no 3G data capability.

For consumer tablets, HP is placing all its bets on webOS 2.0, announced this week. So far, the only announced webOS 2.0 device is the Palm Pre 2 (on sale now in France, and coming to Verizon Wireless in “coming months”), although HP has said it plans to launch webOS-based consumer tablets in 2011.

If there’s anything Steve Ballmer’s infamous CES keynote proved, it’s that despite rolling touch capabilities into the operating system, using Windows 7 from a touch-based device can be an awkward exercise in futility. Interface elements that can work with a traditional keyboard and mouse can be almost unusable with a touch-based interface, and is applications can’t figure out gestures, it doesn’t make any difference whether an operating system supports them. HP may be right that there’s a business market for a small Windows 7 tablet, but now that the Apple iPad has been on the market for the better part of a year—and the gates are about to open on consumer-friendly Android tablets—HP might be right to spin the Slate 500 away from consumers’ hands.

Showing 14 comments

Virginia at 8:55pm 18th November 2010 I need to be able to make lists of numbers at seven locations in Afghanistan and download to my laptop. I wil be walking,in the dust and outdoors. Do any of you genious' think that the Slate is the best way to go.
1. guest at 6:55pm 19th November 2010 Ruggedized Palm pilot from ACCEECA. No hard drive (thus no hard drive failure). Very stable PalmOS (ancient thus proven), and, easier to script/scribe (after you get hang of 'writing' using the Graffiti alphabet) than a virtual keyboard or thumb board. No matter what-- get ruggedized, e.g. more shock proof insulation and construction. Upload with cable to lap/desk top using HotSync. THIS IS PROVEN TECH. Use Documents To Go for Excel compatible spreadsheet entry. Good luck.
Jeremy at 7:11pm 17th November 2010 As a developer of software and sympathetic IT provider,this device offers much promise. Thye need to getinpit options right, but supporting one technology stack is great for vendors and customers. I am not impressed with the iPad as a business application. Where's the camera and flash? Apple skipped it to be first to market. Windows can do this too.
Dana at 2:42am 31st October 2010 This device is exactly what I need, I need something to use Photoshop with and something to take notes using Journal. Tasks that I cannot easily do right now on my iPad. While there are several photo editing packages available, none are at the photoshop level. Try scribbling with your finger, it just doesn't work for me and trying draw with your finger, forget it, I need a pen. The sponge tip pen for the iPad don't help much either. I currently have a TC1100 and I love being able to use it like a piece of paper. That is how I plan to use the slate 500. So basically is you are consuming content, iPad, android, etc, if you want to create content, HP slate 500. MY $0.02.
Eddy at 7:15pm 24th October 2010 It's a stop-gap measure designed to keep folks from buying the iPad and waiting to see what the WebOS device will be.
Dimitri at 11:41am 24th October 2010 Dude how can you read a whole article about how this is geared at business users in specialized applications and complain about the stylus not being meant for whom use?
1. Ian Bell at 12:11pm 24th October 2010 No. You still do not need a stylus for business tablets. The iPad works just fine. Cool it with the personal insults too.
ioman at 12:17am 24th October 2010 It comes with a Stylus. No way this thing was meant for home use. Either that or it was created back in 1990.
Joe at 5:08pm 23rd October 2010 Oddly enough, I was waiting for HP to let one of these loose, I would have traded my current Lenovo if the screen would have bin 12-15 inch size.
@tech_squawkers at 2:54pm 23rd October 2010 The hardware sounds perfectly fine, and the ability to install most third party applications is a great plus. The only problem with it is Microsoft's lack of functionality in relation to a touch based gui, it just lacks the fluid gestures that are required to make it second nature.
Jason at 11:45am 23rd October 2010 Why is this so negative? Trying to point out what the tablet might not do? It's x86 and runs windows, the sky is the limit with this thing. Those Apple iOS devices are already crippled
1. andrew at 2:11pm 23rd October 2010 it's negative because whoever wrote the article understands that this product will go nowhere. windows 7 was not meant for fingers and therefore will not succeed on a tablet.
  1. box0912 at 4:30pm 23rd October 2010 this product is geared for businesses only.. it will go somewhere. hp will create a webOS tablet for you next year, judge that one.
Mr. Hoffman at 11:35am 22nd October 2010 It's about time!! Build it now and the rest will follow..