The Mobile Gadgeteer

Matthew Miller & Joel Evans

HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

By Matthew Miller | June 29, 2011, 5:45pm PDT

Summary: HP is launching their TouchPad webOS-based tablet this Friday, 1 July, and the embargo has lifted on reviews. Most rate it just as an above average tablet that can’t yet compete with the iPad.

The embargo for the HP TouchPad webOS 3.0 device lifted tonight and there are plenty of reviews now online (linked to below). Review ratings range from 2.5/5 to 7.5/10 and I didn’t see a single review that said they would recommend you purchase it over the Apple iPad 2. My question on whether or not there was a compelling reason to buy a TouchPad looks to be answered with a No in the present state.

It seems it is currently a devices just for the serious Palm fan or those that have a major distaste for Apple products. Like the RIM PlayBook there are many things that need to be fixed with updates and developer support, but if HP moves forward as slowly as RIM with the PlayBook this may just be another niche tablet that leaves the tablet market firmly in Apple’s hands.

Unfortunately, James, Joel, and I did not get evaluation units to try out so you won’t see any hands-on from us, but Jason Perlow plans to buy one on Friday and post coverage this weekend. Our partners at TechRepublic have posted a nice review stating that the TouchPad excels in productivity. In the meantime, you can check out one of their videos below:

Video: Three areas where the HP TouchPad trumps the iPad

Full reviews of the HP TouchPad are up on these websites for your reading pleasure:

Any readers picking up a TouchPad? What do you see that is compelling over existing tablets?

See more coverage:

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Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle.

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TouchPad is far better

aflemo 1st Apr

I agree that the TouchPad is far better. ...we need use all advanced technologies.
donna cerca uomo

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

rwalrond 29th Jun

Wow, If this tablet is the first legitimate laptop replacement, then I better return my EP121 cause I thought I was already using the most powerful slate/tablet on the market.

HP has got 1 year to make this work, then Windows 8 shows up and they will have to decide which tablet OS to push.

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Ill keep the Asus Transformer

Uralbas 29th Jun

Still can't be beat by any of the rest.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

aliensrreal 29th Jun

The reviews make me sad. I guess i'll wait.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

StandardPerson 6th Jul

@aliensrreal if the reviews make you sad, watch the video at
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/hp-touchpad-972226/review?artc_pg=4
and weep.

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Wait just a minute here...

James Quinn 29th Jun

HUGE Apple fan that I am still I have to say this. While I'm thrilled that the iPad is a hit... Still I have to think that the iPad is not the end all to be all of the tablet format. I love iOS but still I have to think that iOS is not the end all to be all of Mobile. Different strokes for different folks and I hope WebOS is a contender for years to come. I think as a rule while the iPad is selling well still it is a mistake to compare every tablet directly to the iPad cause different OEM's can target their devices to different markets and a direct comparison in that case is a miss.

Pagan jim

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

aliensrreal 29th Jun

@James Quinn Well, everyone keeps saying why buy this over the iPad. I am really not interested in an iPad and was hoping the Touchpad would get better reviews. They are all lukewarm and I'm worried that it won't sell as well as it could. I hope they come out with the updates to fix the bugs people have found.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

Peter Perry 30th Jun

@James Quinn Holy cow I agree with you! Most of the other Tablets are aiming at more flexibility and have implemented things like the ability to connect your USB devices as well as 3rd party Bluetooth Game controllers.

Another area is SD Card support which businesses frown on and those tablets with it can't be aimung at the same market without security.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

redhaven 30th Jun

@Peter Perry I am looking outside for the apocalypse because you guys are agreeing on something. I have an Acer Iconia. I love it so far (24 hours in). I have used an ipad first generation fairly often and got a chance the play with an ipad 2 while at Best Buy to get a case for the Acer. I had the sudden realization that Android tablets should never be compared to IOS devices. They are completely different animals.

Ipad does a little stuff perfectly and nothing else.
Honeycomb does more stuff but not as well.

Two different approaches. I like the Android approach as I know from experience that it gets more stable with each update so I am willing to put up with a little bit of sloppiness and I am a nerd that likes to fiddle. The funny thing is that as Android gets more stable and IOS gets more features with IOS 5 (or whatever), they are growing closer together like Peter and Jim.

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Geez... what do you guys do for your day jobs?

UrNotPayingAttention Updated - 29th Jun

I'm Jason Hiner: "I'm not a huge fan of Flash, and try to avoid it whenever possible..." (meanwhile, he shows his website running... Flash)

Jason, if you're so opposed to Flash, how about coding your website sans-Flash? (and I say your website because you made sure to include 'Editor in Chief' pop up where everyone can see it).

Yesterday, we had Dennis Howlett, a supposed Enterprise IT expert, telling us he couldn't figure out how to navigate Office 365.

Jason Perlow? Oh, yeah, honey... throw my iPad on the concrete and let's see what happens...

Add to that, on any given blog, spell check? grammar? LOL. (Case in point from this blog: but Jason Perlow plans to buy on on Friday and post coverage this weekend)

Yet you want to give away a laptop bag for our favorite ZDnet blogger? Based on what? Who can construct a coherent sentence?
Thanks.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

Playdrv4me 30th Jun

@chmod 777
I usually don't like to spelling and grammar "police" these guys, but sometimes the mistakes are so frequent it actually makes the article difficult to read.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

Peter Perry 30th Jun

@chmod 777 Hahaha! I am with you, their articles and mainly their point of view is often very flakey as well as highly opinionated.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

dave95. 30th Jun

@Peter Perry

" their point of view is often very flakey as well as highly opinionated."

That's why it's called blogging.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

omdguy 30th Jun

@chmod 777

Give this man a laptop bag happy

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

browser. 29th Jun

Sad day! No one can make one decent tablet to challenge the iPad! While I love my iPad2 and wonder how I have been living without it for so long, I do think competition is what will give us better features and make iPad2 even better. so for the next year or so, Apple would rule the world, it would start to drag its feet and Android would kick in its rear and we would get iPad 5 with all cool features

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

shoshonski 30th Jun

@browser.
OMG all these features of IPad2! I am sure that even you don't know how to compete with it? Just buy one to your wife and make her life easier grin

I am sorry for being such a troll! I just couldn't hold myself!

Take it easy mate, I am sure that you are way better than IPad2. But IPad 5... well that is another story grin

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How hard can it be?

A Gray 30th Jun

Create a thin device with icons that run one app at a time. Done.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

arminw 30th Jun

@A Gray
So far at least, Apple seems to be the only one that can build something like that which ordinary people are willing to fork out their hard-earned cash for by the millions.

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I give them a year.

kraterz 30th Jun

Any device like this depends heavily on the software ecosystem for its success. For tablets today that's Android, Win7 or iOS. RIM was a smart phone market leader and they're already being dinged. I don't have much hopes for WebOS on tablets or phones.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

dheady@... Updated - 30th Jun

Apple caught the entire tech industry flat footed, period. They are still not out of the running blocks either. Sure, you have hardware out there resembling iPads but so far the only scramble has been for a distant second place. WebOS may be a delightful and powerful tablet/phone OS, but it failed at Palm, so other than throwing more cash at it why would we expect it to succeed at HP? HP doesn't particularly have a stellar reputation at innovation other than, with Dell and Acer, diving headfirst toward to bottom in PC construction (How's that working out for them so far?). Shipping a shiny without a functional OS, yes a non-functioning OS doesn't line customers up at the door. There are simply too many features missing and bugs present to consider this first iteration more than a lame beta attempt to get to market before Apple owns the tablet market. Oh, wait. Too late already.
As for the Android experience isn't there some "Moore's Law" corollary that defines a product's success by somehow factoring the how long it takes a number of units gathering dust in a warehouse to how many weeks you have to back order an iPad? Thus far Google has yet to make a reliable tablet OS. Frankly, their smart phone OS, once Apple got off of the ATT dime, is proving fragile in the market against Apple.
As the dozens of tech manufacturers toss out tablet wannabes and the warehouses continue to pile them in corners I had a friend order an iPad last week. She'll get it sometime next week if she's lucky. Real sales numbers, not the 'we just shipped a million units from our warehouse to the service provider's warehouse, ala Xoom, tell the tale.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

sarai1313@... Updated - 30th Jun

all hail the great god Apple. just another junk device you say.not one good review for any thing but apple .has the whole world been brain wash to think that only apple can do it wright

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That's the blogger's mistake - thinking everything has to be like the iPad

Will Pharaoh 30th Jun

@sarai1313@...

They have no room in their heads for those that need something other then the iPad - if the tablet doesn't do media through iTunes it's a failure.

The next HP tablet could have built in XRAY, ultrasound, and MRI imaging for 699.99, but the bloggers would say that it's not practicle for doctors because they can't get Netflix on it. wink

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

aliensrreal 30th Jun

@Will Pharaoh This part made me laugh and smile.

"The next HP tablet could have built in XRAY, ultrasound, and MRI imaging for 699.99, but the bloggers would say that it's not practicle for doctors because they can't get Netflix on it."

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

sydney@... 30th Jun

Don't know much about tablets (unless you swallow them). But I'm still waiting for the HP version of the Palm phone (I started with Palm I and am waiting for the next iteration of the Pre.
Maybe they'll get that right?

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

jazzy5 30th Jun

I just wonder, how these bloggers can write about a product and never ever got the time to try it. "Unfortunately, James, Joel, and I did not get evaluation units to try out so you won?t see any hands-on from us, but Jason Perlow plans to buy one on Friday and post coverage this weekend". What? Not get to evaluate the unit but already criticize the product?

Why can you wait until you get one to test before you open your mouth or should I, say write a blog? Just because you want to be the first to talk about it? It just show two things.
1- Your ignorance. 2- Your bias against all things not Apple. Since I believe you are smart and intelligent people on tech products the only option is that all of you are bias. This is sad because you all drop a few points on tech savy and believable persons. There is a third option which I do not want to consider that you are in the pay by Apple or ZDNET management.

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Contributr

That's why I never gave my opinion in the post

palmsolo (aka Matthew Miller) 2nd Jul

@jazzy5 If you read my post I never gave any of my opinions on the TouchPad because I can't without using one. The whole post was just an index to reviews that have been posted online and a summary of some of their conclusions.

If you read my writing I am one of the most device agnostic people in the mobile community and personally purchase products that run Android, iOS, Symbian, Windows Phone, etc. and am not biased for Apple in any regard.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

dashr1 1st Jul

Uhh, is this Mr. Miller guy actually going to do any real analysis, or is he only able to regurgitate what others have 'allegedly' said about the TouchPad. This is a horribly inaccurate and incomplete summary of reviews, seemingly a dismissive smear by the author.

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Flash is useful when you have a weak App library..

DaveMTL 3rd Jul

Wordpress has an app for iPhone and iPad. Like many of the sites which use flash due to no other options on many platforms.

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Flash has shown to be of limited value...

DaveMTL 3rd Jul

Many sites are switching to HTML5 and others have even better experience on apps for iOS and Android. This make Flash less useful in selling the tablet.
The connection to the phone assumes you are trying to use both. I tend to be on one or the other not both. It can happen but rarely therefore a feature of limited value.
WEBOS will be a great OS, as will QNX, I just cannot understand why HP and RIM introduce machines AFTER Apple yet don't manage to get a basic 1.0 machine completed on time. Apple has made us expect a relatively complete experience even on 1.0, everyone else is putting out 0.5 to 0.8 machines.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

jfreedle2@... 5th Jul

The HP TouchPad is not interesting at all, of course neither is the iPad nor any of the Android based devices. I would rather have a real Tablet PC running Windows 7.

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

StandardPerson 6th Jul

@The_Omega_Man, the iPad 2 is a pretty refined hardware/software offering; calling iPad 2 users "beta testers" is stretching the simile.

So far, the only criticisms I've seen of iPads are: the usual allegations that Apple *consumers* are "stupid" and want to be "cool" (neither of which constitutes a criticism of the iPad product); the usual exaggerations of Apple's pricing (iPad and HP Touchpad are identically priced at US$600 for 32GB models [1]), and "Fair use > Apple."

What does "Fair use > Apple" even mean? If the poster who wrote this is a passionate FOSS (open software) advocate, then they're being hypocritical. HP have contributed less to FOSS than Apple.

Even the Snapdragon CPU in the TouchPad, designed by ARM, is partly Apple-funded. (HP pays license fees IIRC, but does not contribute to ARM research.)

Microsoft has been trying actively to sabotage FOSS by holding patent auctions and lobbying politicians to ban GNU/Linux from government and defence contracts. Ballmer calls GNU/Linux a "socialist" enterprise - a phrase that evidently still has traction in the U.S., judging from comments about "socialist Obamacare." In truth, all computing is a ?socialist enterprise? if you go back far enough, since ultimately it leverages publicly-funded, university research from around the globe. Look at research.microsoft.com: MS researchers are certainly investigating a lot of government funded work in all areas of science.

So where is the "unfair use" in Apple products?

Doubtless I'm a "moronic, cool wannbe," and I guess I've been one since the 1980s, when PC coders couldn't make head nor tail of Object Pascal (an Apple creation in conjunction with Nick Wirth) and couldn't code for Macs because it was just too hard. Shrug. That's fine by me.

I regret wasting my time writing this post. There is something deeply irrational about the people who trot out abusive one-liners at ZDnet.

[1] HP Touchpad - 32GB, price: $600
http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/webos/us/en/shopping-touchpad.html
Apple iPad 2 - 32GB, price: $600
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad/select?mco=MjE0OTI0MDI

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attent

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RE: HP TouchPad reviews go live, not the iPad contender some hoped for

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