Hawt Gadgets

First released last October 2010, the HP Slate 500 has a whopping suggested retail price of $799. The lowest price that you can find in the market is around $659 nowadays, still a high price to pay compared to competing tablets. Let’s get right to the review to see if this tablet is worth the high price tag.

Hardware

It cannot be denied that the HP Slate 500 is way older than the rest of the slates that are currently being offered in the market. Even so, it can still take pride of its ever reliable Intel Z540 processor that has been clocked at 1.86 GHz. That’s not all. The tablet also flaunts its 2GB RAM and up to 64GB of Hard Drive which is more than enough to cater to your personal and work files.

Software

Today, Windows-based tablets are not really that popular and only a few of these tablets have managed to compete against the mighty iPad as well as against a lot of popular Android-powered tablets. The HP Slate 500 tablet, on the other hand, sports Microsoft Windows 7 Professional. Apparently, this slate runs a couple of Windows-based applications such as Excel, Outlook, etc. This tablet may not be too appealing for Android and iOS users because the slate cannot load apps from the two popular app stores.

Camera

There is a VGA quality webcam in the front of the tablet. The rear has a 3MP resolution camera in the rear. Almost all tablets nowadays have far superior cameras to the ones found on the Slate 500 though.

Battery

The battery life of tablets can be compared to the average battery life of notebooks. The HP Slate 500, in particular, relies on its 30 Wh Lithium polymer battery that can last for five hours. This of course depends on your actual usage.

Size

The HP Slate 500 is much larger than the Amazon Kindle Fire and a bit smaller than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. It flaunts its 8.9 inch LED backlit display with 1024 x 600 pixels of full screen resolution. It has an overall dimension of 9.2 in x 5.9 in x 0.6 in and its weighs no heavier than 1.5 lbs. That’s roughly equivalent to 680 grams. This hefty weight means the Slate could be a bit heavy especially when being gripped with one hand only.

Conclusion

Back then, the HP Slate 500 had a few competitors. Plus, it was pretty neat to have a Windows 7 tablet. Thus, its original price can be justified considering the fact that it’s a Windows-based slate with Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi support. Nowadays, this tablet can still be considered as a very reliable tablet but perhaps it’s best suited for business-minded folks. It’s just that regular consumers don’t want to feel left out by not having access to the countless third-party applications available on iOS and Android.

Here are some additional HP Slate 500 pics