HP offered precious little information on its upcoming slate PC when it flashed it before our eyes at CES, but new rumors indicate it could be coming as soon as June with a price somewhere around $540.
According to the Spanish site Clipset, the Slate will run for around 400€, putting it at $541 USD at today’s exchange rates. The official launch, the site claims, should be in June, with it touching down in Europe before September.
As for down-and-dirty specs, the Slate will use an Intel Atom processor as rumored, run Flash, and come with a USB port, memory card reader, and integrated camera on the rear. Reportedly, it’s fatter than the iPad, has more connections and buttons, and sports a triangle-patterned rubber finish on the rear. However, the model shown to Clipset was a preproduction unit, and could change prior to hitting manufacturing lines.
A starting price around $540 would put the Slate above the $499 starting point on the iPad, which could prove problematic given Apple’s head start and enormous momentum in the space. On the other hand, it will run a full version of Windows 7 and include at least a few features missing from the iPad that we know of (multitasking, running Flash, taking photos, a built-in card reader), which could make it look like a better value, even at the same price point.
