HP TouchPad: Our Demo Video and First Impressions
Here you have it, folks… our front-row seat video of the HP Touchpad, as demoed by an HP representative. Of course, our well-rehearsed rep said touching the TouchPad was a no-no (ironic, isn’t it?), but did a decent job of giving us an overview of the device. Check it out. For our detailed specs on the TouchPad, go here.
Our opinion? Pretty darn impressed. The device looks a heck of a lot like an iPad (which let’s face it, is to say it’s an attractive device), complete with a thick bezel, single button, and rounded edges. It weighs just slightly less than the iPad based on estimates, and we can chalk that up to the high-gloss back plastic cover (hellooooo, fingerprints!) We absolutely loved the way cards looked on the TouchPad’s brilliant display… webOS really looked the way we’d always dreamed it would on this form factor. Clever use of notifications (including stacked notifications, demoed in the video) are second to none in this segment. We absolutely loved the way webpages can transfer from the TouchPad to the Pre3 by a simple touch of the two devices, and it made us brainstorm other applications for this kind of technology. We were surprised at the lack of a gesture area on the device, but after the rep demonstrated the new “panels” concept, we’re hopeful it won’t be missed. (We’re still puzzled, though. RIM gets a gesture area with their Playbook when TouchPad does not?)
Dings? Yeah… there’s a few. In our opinion, this thing is releasing in the summer because it’s simply not ready. Transitions are nowhere near as fluid as they need to be (read: they’re not to the level of the iPad yet), content partners are still few, and we hope the core software gets some improvements (like threaded emails… hello?!). There’s also that sticky matter of lack of any standard USB ports (micro-USB only) or expandable memory slots… color us disappointed… at least that Bluetooth keyboard and Touchstone dock look friggin sweet.
But… if HP can iron most of those kinks out (something tells us they will), they just may have a real winner on their hands. The 800-lb gorilla is pricing. During our briefing with HP, we were told that it will be priced “competitively” with the iPad. … This certainly flies in the face of a nasty rumor from BGR that the introductory price could be $699. In our opinion, HP might be wise to just take a hit in the way they price it just to get it into more users’ hands. Otherwise this tablet war may be lost before it’s even started.
UPDATE: The guys at TechnoBuffalo have a nice video of the Amazon Kindle app in action on the TouchPad posted on their site. (Sorry, our camera crapped out when it was being shown.) Check it out below:
