HP's Slate specs slated by bloggers

4.jpeg

HP's Slate is official, with an $800 price tag, iffy specs (at least for something running Windows 7) and an N-Trig touchscreen-'n'-pen display. That'll make it interesting for digital artists, but for everyone else, it's just a pretty keyboardless netbook.

Its most interesting characteristic is a bizarre slide-out tray that exists only to display the Windows 7 licensing information. It's like something from some kind of screwball comedy about awful product design: HP was apparently obliged to do this because it didn't want to mess up the exterior with this compulsory information panel.

When explaining to people why iOS and Linux (i.e. Android and WebOS) are the only credible options in the near future for consumer tablets, I used to have to explain to people exactly why non-touchscreen desktop operating systems like Windows 7 make them suck. Now, however, I just have to point out that Microsoft's lawyers get to impose design decisions on their hardware partners.

HP Slate Official: $800 Business Netbook without Keyboard [Wired Gadget Lab]