HP Slate pricing and specs leak: Atom CPU, 1080p video

It looks like HP employees have been given an internal HP Slate presentation comparing it to the Apple iPad, according to a slide obtained by Engadget. The device will cost either $549 for the 32GB flash storage version or $599 version for the 64GB version.

Both versions sport a 8.9-" 1024 x 600 capacitive multitouch display, a 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor with UMA graphics, an accelerator for 1080p video playback, and 1GB of non-upgradeable RAM. They'll also include a two-cell five-hour battery, an SDHC slot, two cameras, a USB port, a SIM card slot for the optional 3G modem, and a dock connector for power, audio, and HDMI out. The included Windows 7 edition will be Home Premium.

Those are the unofficial details, anyway. Three months ago, HP went on record to explain how the project started and gave some vague details on the product: thin, light, somewhere between 4 to 10 inches, and be able take on the e-reader market, currently dominated by Sony and Amazon, head on. 2010 is the year for slates, HP said, and that's thanks to a convergence of low-cost and low-power processors as well as the touch-aware Windows 7. The company would only confirm that the tablet would be out this year, would be running Microsoft's latest and greatest, and will cost you less than $1,500.

The questions that have yet to be answered either by HP or by rumors are mainly around what software it will feature and how exactly Windows 7 will be customized to work on the slate (though the slide does mention "HP touch-optimized UI").

Source: Arstechnica.com

HP gives a few new details on Slate via video

HP last night posted a (rather boring) five-minute video (even the interviewer seems to forget where she is at some points) giving further details about the HP Slate that Steve Ballmer showed off during his keynote at CES 2010. It was first posted on the hpcomputers YouTube channel with the heading "SPECIAL REPORT! The HP Slate." The interviewee is CTO Phil McKinney, who we've seen showing prototypes of HP touch devices before. We've watched the video so that you don't have to (despite its lacking presentation, the details are interesting), but in case you're interested, we've also embedded it below:

The project started five years ago at HP Labs in the UK, germinated by the concept of an e-reader device. HP took its prototypes and put it in the hands of users to get feedback from them. The biggest feedback users gave was that reading was great but they wanted it to do media as well, according to McKinney. As such, HP now believes that consumers are looking for a device that can be used as their "ultimate content consumption experience," McKinney says. It has to be thin and light, somewhere between 4 to 10 inches, and essentially invade the market that is currently dominated by e-readers from Sony and Amazon. Those devices don't have color though, nor can you play back videos, or browse the Internet on them, but McKinney says users want all that in addition to being able to read magazines and books, and that's the problem the slate platform will solve.

When asked, "why now?," McKinney answers that 2010 is "the optimal year for the slate platforms" because now there's "the perfect storm of innovation." There's a convergence of low-cost and low-power processors as well as the touch-aware Windows 7, and that's what will let HP push the slate platform.

"In reality we could have built this device two years ago. We had it ready; we put it on the shelf," McKinney boasts. "[At] that time for us to deliver the device it would have been $1,500, and [it] would have been outrageously expensive. Our target was to get it down to be a mainstream price point, mainstream product, not a niche offering."

So to sum up: you'll be able to get it some time in 2010, it will cost you less than $1,500, and it will run Windows 7.

Source: Arstechnica.com