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HP's iPad-killer slate PC makes an appearance

In a cunningly timed move, a mere 48 hours after the iPad's retail debut, HP releases a new video demo of its tablet device, which the company refers to as a "slate."

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Dan Ackerman
2 min read

During CES 2010, Hewlett-Packard issued a preemptive strike against the still-unannounced iPad by showing off its own tablet PC at Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote. Only briefly seen and largely undescribed, it may not have left a lasting impression on the audience, but it showed that, like Dell and others, HP was not going to cede the suddenly sexy tablet market to Apple.

In a cunningly timed move, a mere 48 hours after the iPad's retail debut, HP has released a new video demo of the device, which the company refers to as a "slate."

The very iPad-looking tablet is shown making use of different apps and features as part of a 30-second musical montage. The actual on-screen footage seems suspiciously simulated, but the key points HP wants viewers to pick up on include the built-in video camera, a USB port (perhaps mocking displayed using an iPod USB cable), an SD card slot, and most promising, the ability to use Skype.

While the brief video is overproduced, set to an annoying "corporate club" beat, and is mostly CGI and/or screen simulations, it certainly makes the case that a device like this can include all those extras, from Flash to a Webcam, that are so obviously missing from the iPad. That said, we've reviewed plenty of HP touch-screen devices, such as the TouchSmart TX2, and generally found them to be not nearly as responsive and easy to use as Apple's touchscreen devices.

HP has a mailing list sign-up for slate updates at hp.com/slate, but there are no further price or availability details available at this time.