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"An excellent Tablet for getting work done!"
on by theKidPros -True Multitasking
-Full Web Browsing Experience
-Excellent Build Quality
-Great Battery Life
-Excellent Tech Support
-Built in Skype with Video
-50gb of free storage
-Citrix and VPN supportCons -Accessories are hard to find
-Black glossy back is fingerprint magnet
-Bug with USB eject on Windows PCsSummary I tried the iPad, Xoom, and Galaxy Tab. I was not impressed by any of them. They are great devices, but I needed a tablet to replace my laptop. I own a Palm Pre and love it despite the crappy hardware. I was very excited about the Touchpad, until I read the first batch of reviews. I decided to go down to my local Best Buy and try one out for myself. I played with one for about 5 minutes and I was hooked. I bought a 32gb Touchpad immediately. I've had it now for 4 days and I am still impressed by it. I can't put it down! I'm glad I did not get an iPad! Thank God I like to actually "test drive" devices instead of relying solely on the views of others (especially CNET). I would like to address some of the things I've seen about the Touchpad in the reviews and compare them to what I have seen with my Touchpad.
-Sluggishness
The Touchpad is by no means slow. It has 1GB of RAM and dual core 1.2 GHz processors. My Touchpad has been pretty zippy. I've had over ten apps running at a time (just for fun) and it did not slow down. However, it does slow down when you are installing apps. It also suffers from what I call "turbo lag". If you ever owned a car with a turbo you know what I mean. You click on an icon for an app and it takes about a second to launch, but once it does, watch out! It screams! I did notice that the "consumer" Touchpads are a lot faster than the demos. An HP rep at Best Buy pointed this out to me and showed me her personal Touchpad. It was faster than the one on display. Mine is also faster than the display models. So I think HP really screwed something up with the demo software.
-Thickness and weight
Be serious! The Touchpad is only .2 inches thicker than the iPad 2. That's nothing! It does weigh more but it actually feels more solid. It is well put together. It weighs a third of a pound heavier than an iPad so if you could put up with it, you can put up with the Touchpad.
-Apps
The Touchpad loses to the iPad when it comes to shear numbers of apps. The iPad has a ton more, although most of them are pure crap! But then again the iPad has a ton more apps than Android and Android is doing fine. The Touchpad has a lot of games and productivity software to keep you busy. I've spent over $50 on high end games for my Touchpad so far. All of my games from my Pre were automatically downloaded to the Touchpad also so I'm not hurting at all.
Now lets talk about the Pros for this devices:
-True Multitasking
The Touchpad allows you to run multiple apps at once (up to 39 according to some of the fan sites). Ever app can be multitasked (unlike apps on the iPad). It uses a "deck of cards" function for handling running apps so you can see them all on the screen. You can watch a Youtube video, then recieve an email. You can switch to the email and the Youtube video will still be running. If you are playing a game, you can minimize your game then switch to another app and do something, then switch back to your game without a hiccup. It may sound familiar to iPad users but it is not. You can't do this on the iPad as easily or as fluidly as you can on the Touchpad. Check out Russell Brand's Touchpad commercials on Youtube to see what I mean. To close an app you flick it off the screen. There is even cool "Angry Birds" sounds when you flick the app off the screen (Touchpad Angry Birds Easter Egg on Youtube). It actually makes multitasking fun, even though it multitasking sounds depressing.
-Full Web Browsing Experience
The Touchpad has Flash built in. It is a lot better than Flash on Android. I have multiple Android devices (a tablet and a few phones) and Flash crashes the browsers on these devices at least twice an hour. Flash has not crashed on the Touchpad even after 4 days of heavy use. My daughter watched Youtube (the real one!) through the Touchpad's browsers for 4 1/2 ours on our trip to Atlanta without a problem. The Hulu website also works on the Touchpad. I watch a few shows on Hulu.com with no problems. Flash is not even on the iPad or iPad 2 which is an epic failure! The Touchpad also surfs to real sites by default. No chessy mobile sites!
-Excellent Build Quality
The Touchpad has Gorilla Glass on the Front and is put together extremely well. I have not found any flaws with the device at all. It also has Beats Audio with two stereo speakers that sound great and have really good deep bass.
-Great Battery Life
I'm seeing over 8 hours of real world heavy use before I have to charge it. That's streaming video over wifi, playing 3d games, browsing the web, viewing documents, and playing music. Unlike my Android device I don't have to turn off stuff or change CPU settings to get that much battery life. I browsed the web for over an 1 1/2 hours, then we immediately took a 4 1/2 hour trip to Atlanta in which my daughter watched YouTube videos on the Touchpad using my phones wifi, and the Touchpad still had over 30% left on it when we got to Atlanta.
-Excellent Tech Support
The Touchpad has a built in Tech Support chat program in the Help app. I had some problems installing music on my Touchpad, heard about the chat support, and decided to give it a try. I was able to chat with Tech Support directly from the Touchpad in under two clicks!! You have 90 day free tech support when you purchase a Touchpad.
-Built in Skype with Video
The Touchpad has built in Skype with video! No need to download an app (iPad, Android) or worry about whether or not your front facing camera is supported (Android). Just add your Skype account to the device and you are on your way. I chatted with my cousin and brother over Skype. The video and sound quality were good.
-50gb of free storage
You get 50gb of free cloud storage through Box.net on the Touchpad. I believe its for life once you sign up. Box.net integrates well with the Touchpad so you can view your files seamlessly.
-Citrix and VPN support
The Touchpad has support for Citrix and Virtual Private Networks. I have not been able to try them out yet because I'm on vacation.
Ok, now the Cons I've noticed so far:
-Accessories are hard to find
My Best Buy did not have any of the accessories for the Touchpad (case, bluetooth keyboard, touchstone charger, etc). Every store I tried in Atlanta did not have them in stock yet or sold out of accessories. I had to buy a cheap generic case to put my Touchpad in. I guess I'll be ording stuff online.
-Black glossy back is a fingerprint magnet
The back of the Touchpad is a glossy piano black color. It attracts fingerprints like crazy. The Touchpad did come with a cloth to wipe it off and it works pretty well. The front also attracts fingerprints, but since it is gorilla glass it is easy to wipe off with your t-shirt.
-Bug with USB eject on Windows PCs
The bug I have with my Touchpad is that there is a special way you have to eject it from Windows. First, let me explain. Unlike the iPad (without jailbraking) , you can drag and drop music, photos, and videos to the Touchpad from your computer. The Touchpad connects to you computer through a USB cable (included) and becomes a large USB thumbdrive. You then just copy your stuff to it like you would do any other hard drive. There are no special drivers or programs required. However, you can't use the "Safely Remove" function to eject the Touchpad. If you do it complains about not being removed properly and it won't find the files you put on it. You have to right click on the Touchpad's drive icon and choose "Eject" to safely remove it. After that it will find you files in the appropriate program. Its a bug that is easy to get around but it is highly annoying.
In Summary
I hope this helps some of you with your decision on whether or not to give the Touchpad a try. At least I actually own and use a Touchpad unlike some of the reviews here who played with a demo for a few minutes and think they are expert enough to write about it. It is the best tablet I've owned. I have several friends with the iPad and I can tell you that the web browsing experience on it does not compare to the Touchpad. I would place the Touchpad's web browser on par with an actual laptop or desktop computer's browser. I watched a friend browse the web on her iPad today and was glad I got my Touchpad just for that! Not to mention the fact that I can zip through doing things 10x faster than my friends can on thier "run one app at a time unless its the music app" iPad. Good luck! -
"A serious threat to the iPad and iOS"
on by dkermanPros Operating system, speed, ease of use. Has almost all the apps that people use in the catalog already.
Cons Could be a little lighter, but that's my complaint about all tablets in the market daoy.
Summary To the person who said idiots, it isn't out yet...some of us are insiders who were able to receive it before release date.
Overall, I have to say this is GREAT tablet. Much better than the Samsung Galaxy Tab and on the same level as the iPad. Don't get fooled by the apps numbers game...truth is, MOST apps (and I literally mean more than 50%) on the Android and Apple market are garbage...the HP catalog has all the apps you need, and new ones are being added all the time. Since it supports flash, I get my Hulu and Netflix through PlayOn. HOT! -
"Great for the price, gives the iPad a run for the $"
on by tmcgrew1788Pros Vivid screen with interface that works well and compatible with a lot of online content that is out there. The apps have increased greatly and webOS is a great operating system. For those who prefer Android the option is there too. After
Cons The "card" feature takes some getting used to and hitting the power button to lock the screen sometimes happens.
Summary After HP decided to kill their infant tablet, the price of the discontinued, and even slightly inflated eBay prices, made the tablet worth dabbling in but those who do will not be disappointed. The "card" feature of the tablet is a bit annoying at first but then it's full potential is released once you get used to it. Also the support for flash sites I feel is much better.
I used the iPad extensively for a while and found it to be a great tool but the TouchPad outshines it in my opinion. The tablet feels like it isn't as fragile and easy to break. -
"Freezes often other than that nice interface"
on by Slipstream85Pros Liked the interface and touchscreen was very responsive
Cons it froze quite a bit and apps would glitch and flicker, the feel of the TouchPad felt very cheap and not sturdy.
Summary I have been playing with this for about a week, I played with it at work that has a working one and went to a HP event and when I played with it, it froze and crashed multiple times. When the HP rep was showing it to me the OS just froze and had to do a hard reboot to get it working again. For now it's not that reliable and would wait until it gets updates to fix the problems with it.
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"HP is making a mistake discontinuing their Touchpads."
on by mp37421Pros webOS, WiFi, build quality, battery life, graphics, network connectivity, "fluentness".
Cons Needed WiFi to set up.(is this a con or just part of my idiocy of not having a wireless router to begin with?)
Summary HP has made a mistake in my opinion discontinuing their consumer products. The Touchpad is great and was actually on my list of things I wanted even before the price-drop. I, honestly, considered tablets useless and something obsolete to my needs but after the purchase I quickly came to the conclusion that I was highly wrong. This thing is hands-down the best piece of consumer technology I've purchased in the last decade. Now we purchase an Elitebook..
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