If so what are you thoughts on it in terms of hardware and software and how it compares to the iPad? Spec comparison, iOS vs webOS etc.? From the videos I have seen online, webOS does seem to be very intuitive and seems to have a great UI.
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Anybody play with the HP TouchPad?
- Thread starter saintforlife
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I have the 32gb version bought for $150 during the firesale. The TP is obviously inferior in the hardware dept simply because it is plastic and therefore lacks the refined feel, but since I add a carbon fiber skin on it, like all my electronics, the plasticy and fingerprint magmet shell now looks and feels better.
In the software dept I really love webos! It is intuitive and simplistic and very Appe-like, which is a high complement. That being said, HP gave the public and underperforming tablet. Thanks to preware (kind of like Cydia) you can clock the CPU to 1.5ghz, which is what it should have been from the get go, allow for more icons in the dock, and make a few more adjustments, so that it runs quick and purrs like a kitten.
The only drawback I have is the lack of apps. The TP did just get Splashtop which is a bigname app, so at least a few companies are still writing code for the TP. I can't replace my ipad2 with my TP for this very reason, but if the TP did have all the same apps as the iPad, I would likely use it more!
The touchpad is nice. Not thrilling, but nice. Webos is great. Swiping/using cards makes moving between programs easy. I have not touched the home button since I was learning how to use this thing during the fire sale. The lack of apps is a definite drawback, but I found what I need. The mail is about on par with ios, at least for my needs. I am unable to use GV/talkatone for VoIP since it is unsupported, which to me is a big drawback since I use it on my iPad a lot. The biggest drawback is the crappy hardware. Especially compared to the iPad, it is very slow to respond and I frequently have to repeat things to make them happen. I mainly use it for 1 purpose, and that is so that I can save the battery on my iPad. The iPad comes to work with me, and I am constantly on it during my down time. Overall I need to charge it maybe 1-2 times weekly thanks to not using it much at home. This is a big plus since I rarely able to get onto my home computer thanks to my wife and kids. I would not have bought it at the price point when it was introduced, but for $100-150 it is definitely worth it.
I bought a touchpad, but am selling it leaving me with my iPad.
The hardware doesn't feel nearly as solid as an iPad. It doesn't feel cheap, but definitely not worth $499 like the iPad. The screen is nice, but mine has a lot of backlight bleed.
The software is pretty good, except for the fact that it is fairly laggy out of the box. Scrolling in the mail app is very choppy and HTML emails take a second or two to load when you tap them. The OS itself is great, other than the slowness. I was able to help the speed by changing the CPU clock speed to 1.5Ghz, but it only helps so much.
The main issue with the touchpad is that there is no software available for it. There is no way to look at Touchpad only apps in their app store. So that means most of the time you will be looking at apps designed for the pre, which can't be scaled up.
Overall it works well as a web browser, bunt is still limited in that because it uses flash for video and on many video sites other than YouTube the video is choppy.
For a $99 tablet it is not bad, but for a $500 tablet it is terrible.
The hardware doesn't feel nearly as solid as an iPad. It doesn't feel cheap, but definitely not worth $499 like the iPad. The screen is nice, but mine has a lot of backlight bleed.
The software is pretty good, except for the fact that it is fairly laggy out of the box. Scrolling in the mail app is very choppy and HTML emails take a second or two to load when you tap them. The OS itself is great, other than the slowness. I was able to help the speed by changing the CPU clock speed to 1.5Ghz, but it only helps so much.
The main issue with the touchpad is that there is no software available for it. There is no way to look at Touchpad only apps in their app store. So that means most of the time you will be looking at apps designed for the pre, which can't be scaled up.
Overall it works well as a web browser, bunt is still limited in that because it uses flash for video and on many video sites other than YouTube the video is choppy.
For a $99 tablet it is not bad, but for a $500 tablet it is terrible.