HP TouchPad (review)
Every time I get a tech gadget for review I feel all giddy. Mostly because I am not a “tech writer” per se, but I’m techie enough that I can assess whether the device will work for me and for a broader general audience (my blog’s audience is very much a mixture, but I do have a lot of tech-related readers still). So I absolutely loved when HP Canada invited me to the opening of their Alberni and Thurlow store in Downtown Vancouver, and even more so when they gave me an HP TouchPad. I have previously had good (and some mediocre) experiences with Hewlett Packard, so I was keen to try this one out.
Full disclosure: I had never considered owning a tablet up until this past year. JT has two (Apple’s iPad and a Blackberry PlayBook). I had played with the Samsung tablet and I was very curious to know how HP would fare with their tablet. I don’t have the kind of cash to shell out on a tablet unless I find A LOT of value in it. Also, bear in mind what I would use a tablet for: I am an academic who travels a lot, and a consultant who works remotely (client sites mostly). I read academic papers and I read my social platforms, etc. I also occasionally check out newspapers (and I’m glad that most of the newspapers that I look at are optimized for tablet reading).
While some people may find it too big, it was really comfortable for me to bring my HP TouchPad to the airport and read stuff on the internet while my Mom’s flight arrived.
The first thing I noticed was that if you use the HP TouchPad in landscape mode, you can actually cram a lot of information. Here you can see how the TouchPad renders my personal Facebook page.
The great things about the HP TouchPad:
- The search function “Just Type” is quite unique, and loved being able to access things like Google searches, Wikipedia, etc. just by typing what I wanted.
- The “card deck” approach makes me feel that the view is uncluttered. You can just flick a “card” away and close the application. I’ve used it quite a lot.
- There are elements that are rather intuitive, like the Photos function. Even my Mom could play with the HP TouchBook without feeling stupid.
- In many ways the HP TouchPad behaves like the Apple devices (the home function at the bottom, etc.) so it like an iPhone 4.
- You can use the HP TouchPad to watch movies as it opens Flash websites
- The Facebook app renders beautifully.
The bad things about the HP TouchPad
- It’s SLOOOOW to open PDFs. I literally went to sleep before the HP TouchPad was able to open my doctoral dissertation. And let me tell you, my PhD thesis is only 9 megabytes.
- Renders some websites with poor quality, although I have to admit I loved how it renders my blog
- It was next to impossible to find out how to VPN into the UBC network (something I need to do in order to read academic articles behind paywalls, my HP TouchPad’s IP needs to be recognized by the university’s network).
- It feels like it weighs like a brick, compared to an iPad 2 and a PlayBook
- The Twitter client is horrid. Spaz is really spastic.
My overall assessment of the HP TouchPad:
Independently of the fact that I got the HP TouchPad for free, I probably would not invest my own money in it at this time. But of all the tablets out there (and I’ve sort of played around with all of them), I find that the one that I would probably tolerate using (note, TOLERATE, not LOVE) would be the HP TouchPad.
Why?
Because the iPad is annoying with its lack of Flash, the Playbook is too small, the Samsung tablet feels small too, and the HP TouchPad is the size that I need to read academic articles without killing my (already weakened) eyes. But I think what I will need to do is download the PDF articles and put them on the HP TouchPad, because otherwise, waiting for the TouchPad to download them will make me feel like I’m watching wall paint dry.
I think HP needs to rethink what the HP TouchPad is supposed to do and seriously improve PDF rendering and make a lot more apps better for webOS. Some of the apps are good, some are simply terrible. But I do want to keep using the HP TouchPad and make the most of it for academic purposes.
I wrote this review of the HP TouchPad as part of a blogger relations program by Hill and Knowlton on behalf of their client HP Canada. I am not paid to write the review. Me and several other bloggers got the HP TouchPad for free, but HP Canada has made it clear that no review is mandatory nor expected. In any review I write, I retain editorial control at all times. Should you have any questions or should your company want to send me a product for review, feel free to contact me via e-mail through my contact form.
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