HP TouchPad review

Palm faithful and newcomers alike, behold: the TouchPad review. For some, this has been years in the making, for others (honestly, for most) this is a new and potentially interesting blip on the tablet radar. The team that brought you webOS — for better or worse — has now graduated the platform to pad status, with the help (and cash) of HP. According to the company, the TouchPad marks the kickoff of its hard push into the hearts and minds of the slate-buying public, as well as a rebirth of sorts for Palm’s unrealized ambitions. The iPad-like device will be showing up on store shelves, online, and in advertisements meant to reintroduce not only webOS, but HP as a consumer brand worth knowing (and loving, presumably). The company hopes that the TouchPad will pave the way for its newly-acquired operating system to live on PCs, printers, phones, and more — all talking to one another in a self-contained and self-sustaining ecosystem.

The TouchPad has its work cut out for it, of course. The $499 / $599 10-inch slate is entering a market currently dominated by Apple’s iPad and crowded by me-too Android devices. HP believes the breadth of its reach in retail and the superiority of webOS as a platform will convince buyers and developers that the product can be more than just an also-ran. I’ve been putting the device through its paces for the last week or so (along with an early version of the Pre 3), and can tell you whether those claims are backed up by reality, or just an unanswered wish in HP’s hope-chest. Read on after the break for all the details in my full review of the TouchPad!

Hardware / Industrial design

Okay, I won’t beat around the bush. The TouchPad looks a lot like the original iPad. Sure, it’s missing the aluminum backing and some of the harder lines, but the general shape, button placement, and size just scream iPad — and it doesn’t help that the screen is the identical dimensions and aspect ratio. There are only so many ways to slice these devices, but it would have been nice to see HP get a little more daring on the look and feel of the general industrial design of this product. Of course, the TouchPad is rather thick — as thick as the original iPad and way thicker than the iPad 2 or Galaxy Tab 10.1. Comparatively, the TouchPad clocks in at 0.54 inches, while the iPad 2 and Tab both hit 0.34 inches. That may not sound like much on paper, but it’s a pretty hefty difference that you definitely notice when you have the device in hand.

You also notice the plasticky feel of the hardware. The TouchPad is made up largely of piano black, high-gloss plastic. A single piece of this material makes up the back and sides of the slate, while up front there’s a Gorilla Glass-coated LCD display, broken only by a small webcam at the top of the device (in portrait), and a thin home button at the bottom. Along the right side is a volume rocker, while you get two speakers on the left (the stereo sound is a nice touch). The bottom houses a Micro USB port, while a power / sleep button lives on the top right edge of the tablet.

In all, the feel of the device is a touch on the cheaper side of things; I certainly wouldn’t describe it as “premium.” Even though the TouchPad has a substantial weight (1.6 pounds), the unit seems cookie cutter (for lack of a better term) in your hands. I also noticed some very slight squeakiness and movement with the plastic around the speaker grill on the lower left side of the slate, which didn’t inspire confidence (though build quality is far superior to previous Palm phones). A soft touch coating would have gone a long way to improving the feel of the device (something along the lines of what the company has done on the Pre 3) — or HP could have simply used a better material for the housing. It’s not a tragedy, but I walked away underwhelmed with the design on the tablet — it’s nice to look at, but does nothing to stand out from the pack.