Touchpad review

[SAWYER]

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/29/hp-touchpad-review/

Oh, happy day, when one first receives a device that's been eagerly anticipated for months. Sad, sad day when that device fails to live up to one's expectations. We all wanted the TouchPad to really compete, to give us a compelling third party to join the iOS and Android boxes on the ballot. But, alas, this isn't quite it.

The shortage of apps is a problem, no doubt, but that will change with time. What won't change is the hardware, and there we're left a little disappointed. Holding this in one hand and either an iPad 2 or a Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the other leaves you wondering why you'd ever be compelled to buy the HP when you could have the thinner, lighter alternative for the same money. Meanwhile, the performance left us occasionally wanting and, well, what is there to say.

If the Pre 3 were out today and if the TouchPad were $100 less we could maybe see giving it a go, if only to root for the underdog. But, as it is, you have to put your heart and two decades worth of Palm obsession ahead of any buying rationale. With such compelling alternatives readily available, that's asking rather a lot.

 

[zerocool84]

I just read it and it's a sad shame. Palm doomed itself when it went so long without a new product. I loved WebOS when I had my Pre for a few months but the hardware sucked. It sucks that competition had just surpassed them because WebOS really is a great mobile OS.

 

[SAWYER]

agreed

 

[finbarqs]

they just need to take a lesson from Apple (funny, it looks like Jon Rubenstein isn't the innovator behind apple...) and Microsoft, that we want something that follows our finger, no matter how fast we use it!

 

[bearxor]

I still think this was just a model Palm had kicking around before they were absorbed by HP. I have high hopes for the next year and hopefully it won't be too late. I love WebOS and think it's the only real competitor for iOS in terms of look, feel, presentation and ease of use.

I really love the WebOS 3 features with your TouchPad and Pre connecting to each other so you can leave your Pre downstairs and have your TouchPad upstairs and then recieve texts or make phone calls from your ToouchPad through your Pre. That sounds awesome and is one of those 'Why hasn't Apple thought of that yet!' things.

It's just a start. Hopefully HP will stick with it.

I also would really like to see some more variations in the phone hardware. Hopefully this licensing thing goes through. a 4" Samsung with a side-slide keyboard with WebOS? Yes please!

 

[SAWYER]

lol the palm hardcore are all butthurt over the reviews at precentral

I had a pre, love webos but it is dead

 

[Pliablemoose]

Damn, that's a bad review...

The gadget blogs hate to give bad reviews, because they screw up their relationship with the manufacturers and don't get new products to review...

From This is My Next:

The TouchPad is far from perfect — really, not even close right now. Still, there is DNA here that is amazing, and deserves to be given a second look. What HP has done in just a year with webOS is commendable, and if the fixes for some of these big, ugly bugs come as fast as the company is promising, the TouchPad could be the contender everyone over there thinks it is.

Still, the bottom line here is that the stability and smoothness of the user experience is not up to par with the iPad or something like the Galaxy Tab 10.1, even if many of the underlying ideas are actually a lot better and more intuitive than what the competition offers. That, coupled with the minuscule number of quality apps available at launch make this a bit of a hard sell right now. If HP can convince developers to get behind this product, and the company can laser focus on the end-user experience, becoming the number two player in tablets isn’t as crazy as it sounds. Really.




Tech Crunch thinks HP may well abandon it, and that it won't survive with the million and one Android tablets coming out, and of course the iPad 2.....


Laptop Mag 2.5 out of 5 stars, everyone is saying it's toast...

HP just wasted a ton of $$$$$

 

[Phynaz]

Ars:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/reviews/2011/06/ars-hp-touchpad-review.ars

 

[Pliablemoose]

Mossberg: http://allthingsd.com/20110629/touchpad-needs-more-apps-reboot-to-rival-ipad/

 

[poofyhairguy]

 

[badb0y]

This was the only tablet I was considering to swap my iPad 2 with. Well better luck next year guys!

 

[Pliablemoose]

edited pics out

Plus it's a fingerprint magnet and scratches easily...

No micro SD card slot

Did you see Engadget's review of the nook color with CM7?

 

[Mopetar]

Seems like everyone's having trouble keeping up with the Jones^H^H^Hbses. Hopefully HP decides to stick with it and work out the kinks. WebOS still has a lot of potential.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Did you see Engadget's review of the nook color with CM7?

Yep. Glad to see the Nook Color getting some press! The video got to me a little at the part with the Kindle App where the notification bar covered it a little and he called it a bug. I literally yelled at the screen "HIT THE HIDE BUTTON!" I wish it would be a video showing the bluetooth support, usb support, Netflix support, Hulu support, etc. But hey, you always wish for better when you are a rabid fanboy like I am.

 

[Tristicus]

Yep. Glad to see the Nook Color getting some press! The video got to me a little at the part with the Kindle App where the notification bar covered it a little and he called it a bug. I literally yelled at the screen "HIT THE HIDE BUTTON!" I wish it would be a video showing the bluetooth support, usb support, Netflix support, Hulu support, etc. But hey, you always wish for better when you are a rabid fanboy like I am.

He was talking about "Little to no lag...the video (small amount I watched) looked sluggish to me. Way better than any other tablet near its price, but still, I'd rather have a Transformer for the little bit more.

 

[boomhower]

Didn't read it, just watched the videos and that was enough. Same story as the Pre, it's slow. Sorry but I am not waiting for a browser to open. Almost everything that opened seemed to take forever. Better luck next time.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Gizmodo:

No Like
There's no nice way to say this: Shit just plain doesn't work, far more often than it should. And there's no more guaranteed way to make something feel like a train wreck in slow motion than to make it run like it's a train wreck in slow motion. Apps can take foreeeeever to launch, even with just one or two cards open. (I once waited 20 seconds for screen settings to launch.) The gap between your touch and the TouchPad's response is occasionally so wide you could fit all of Transformers 3 in between it. (God help you if you try to tap multiple things while the TouchPad's deliberating its responses.) The Messages app was a consistent bag of hurt, refusing to deliver AIM messages, even as I kept receiving them. Email contents wouldn't show up, often up to 10 seconds after I opened a message. The HP app to get music onto your TouchPad is loathesome—pure HP, and sweet Christ I hope it's not a sign of things to come for Palm. (Speaking of: Where's the cloud music?) The fact that so much of the TouchPad is so good conceptually makes all of that far more painful.

Ouch

 

[Stang289]

Ars, PCMag, and CNet all give it good reviews. I like how people are so quick to jump on the "WebOS is dead" bandwagon because of a bad review. I like to read all of the reviews to learn about a product, then test the product out for myself to determine if it works for me.

Heck, look on this forum, you will not find a single gadget with universal praise for it's perfection.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Reviewers aren't objective, I take one that says its a train wreck over a glowing review every time.. the times I ignored bad reviews taught me to read more closely and carefully

 

[Stang289]

Reviewers aren't objective, I take one that says its a train wreck over a glowing review every time.. the times I ignored bad reviews taught me to read more closely and carefully

I'm not saying to ignore any of the reviews. I'm just saying that people should check out several reviews, then see for themselves if a product meets their needs.

 

[SAWYER]

Webos is dead, it has been out two years and has gone nowhere. Hell WP7 is less than a year old and is growing at a faster rate and has more developer support.

 

[Trader05]

Im sort of dissappointed in the reviews I've read so far. I know Josh from thisismynext.com is pretty tight with Palm/HP, and they said a software update is coming really soon. They should of held out if it wasn't ready, but they need to do this update ASAP if its coming out tomorrow.

 

[shortylickens]

Wow, its just like a Playbook, except it has email and contacts.

:awe:

 

[DivideBYZero]

Wow, its just like a Playbook, except it has email and contacts.

:awe:

If they don't work (see Gizmodo quote) does it really matter?

 

[finbarqs]

except playbook is faster, and plays flash better... Oh yeah, Touchpad can enjoy hulu for right now!