First Look: HP Slate 500, a Windows 7 tablet PC

With iPads and Android-based tablets poised to flood the market, does the world need a multi-touch tablet that runs Windows 7? Microsoft and HP think so. Earlier this month, more than a year after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer first showed off a prototype of the HP Slate at CES 2010, the Slate 500 has just hit the market.

A funny thing happened to the Slate's identity since last year: After the iPad was introduced, the Slate went from being a device for consumers to one that HP says is "the ideal PC for professionals." That repositioning is undoubtedly a response to the overwhelming consumer acceptance of the iPad and Android-based tablets, whose operating systems are inherently touch-based.

Based on my early hands-on experience with the Slate 500, I think HP was right to redefine it as a computer for business users. Although you can use multi-touch gestures to navigate on the screen and a digital pen to hand write messages and notes, the user interface is very much the Windows 7 most of us are familiar with on desktops and laptops, with all the advantages (for example, the availability of many industrial-strength apps) and disadvantages (a less "touchy" interface, for one) that implies.

Size-wise, the Slate's 8.9-inch (diagonal), 1024-by-768 display is smaller than an iPad's but larger than the Samsung Galaxy Tab's. So the Slate is a bit more portable than an iPad but not as well suited for videos and games. Of course, if your primary use for it is business apps, that may not matter much. The Slate has many of the capabilities you'd expect in a tablet these days, including a still camera and webcam, a USB port, an SD-card slot, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

You can use the Slate in either landscape or portrait orientation. In landscape mode, I didn't notice much dropoff in brightness as I moved my viewing angle off center to the left or right, but I noticed significant dropoff when I viewed the display from roughly 45 degrees above or below dead-on. The right-to-left difference when held in portrait orientation can lead to eye stain.

It's hard to understand why HP used the Intel Atom Z540, an aging single-core processor that Intel says was released nearly three years ago. Windows 7 is a demanding operating system; a dual-core processor like those used in some newer netbooks seems more appropriate. Still, when I connected an external optical drive and installed Quicken 2011 from a CD, the software installed and ran OK. Heavy data-moving, such as Windows updates, seemed to take forever, though.

Since a tablet's user interface is key to its usefulness, it is notable that I found the Slate's grafting of multi-touch onto Windows 7 awkward at times. For example, when I used pinch-to-zoom gestures, the display behaved capriciously, often jumping to much higher zoom levels after a noticeable delay. Finger-drag scrolling worked but was jerky and far from "cinematic," the stated goal of the iPad's touch features. The problem may stem more from the slow processor than from Windows itself.

The included digital pen is best for navigating the narrow menu items in Windows applications. It comes with a "security cord," but there's no apparent place to tie it, except on the included Slate dock.

Bottom line: Consumers looking for a tablet that's simple to use, for playing games, watching videos, and reading, will be better off looking into the growing number of Android models. The Slate 500 is strictly for business users whose IT departments require Windows compatibility or who need to run standard Windows software in circumstances where portability is important.

—Jeff Fox

—Jeffrey Fox