Details on the HP TouchPad Tablet

Final details have been released about the HP TouchPad tablet, in time for its July 1 release.  While many people were expecting this to be a great competitor to the Apple iPad, initial reviewers have been left feeling a little underwhelmed.

The HP TouchPad features a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2GHz processor, with either 16GB or 32GB of RAM.  It sports the same size screen and resolution as the iPad at 1024 x 768 pixels, although it is both thicker and heavier.  At 1.4cm thick and 726 grams, it doesn’t look as sleek as the Apple device.

The TouchPad runs on the latest version of Palm’s webOS, which is a rather novel operating system in the current duopoly world of Apple and Android.  The software has been pretty well received by the few people lucky enough to have had an early look, with a clean web browser, ability to triage email, and uncluttered home screen.

However, it is not all good news, with a number of “left out” features that many people were expecting to be there.  There is no GPS included, no gyro sensors for gaming, no digital compass for augmented reality apps and city guides, and no rear facing camera.  The lack of a rear camera is likely to turn many people off, and the front facing camera is only 1.3MP.

HP are promising 8 hours of battery life when using the Internet over WiFi, or 9 hours of video playback time.  There will be two models of the TouchPad available for sale, a 16GB model for $499 and a 32GB model for $599.  This puts it in league with the iPad in terms of pricing.  There is no news of an option for cellular service data at the moment.