HP Slate 7 vs Nexus 7
HP used to be one of the greatest Laptop manufacturers in the last decade sawing the ripen fruit that manifested with the need of the society. However somewhere along the line, something went wrong just like Nokia. HP started to lose its sales, and it was said that the quality of the laptops were also degraded although I personally don’t vet for this opinion. In any case, a lot of employees got laid, and the company went into a tight position around 2007 – 2008 periods. However it is good to see that HP is finally recovering and getting to its foot again just like Nokia. They have decided to diversify and have initiated a new Mobility Global Business unit which is headed by Alberto Torres. Ironically he was leading the Nokia’s failed platform MeeGo, so we are hoping HP will have better luck this time. HP Slate 7 is the first release from Mobility Global Business unit, and we are happy to see a nicely designed device on the table. Given HP’s failure with the TouchPad and WebOS, it is good that they decided to come in to the 7 inch market together with Android which provides them an edge. So we thought of comparing the new HP Slate 7 against the King of the 7 inchers from our very own Google.
HP Slate 7 Review
HP Slate 7 is a well-designed device for its price point with a slightly large bezel for many peoples’ tastes. However, it has a nice look and feel with the stainless steel frame and the soft black paint in grey or striking red. It weighs comfortably at 370g and gives a good feeling when holding with one hand. HP Slate 7 is the industry’s first tablet to feature embedded Beats Audio, which HP seems to use as the trump card to differentiate Slate 7 from the other 7 inchers in the market. In our opinion, that may well be a trump card for HP Slate 7, but HP also shouldn’t overly rely on Beats Audio to make a name for their tablet. It has a 7 inch FFS LCD Capacitive touchscreen display panel featuring a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels at a pixel density of 170 ppi. We can only say the display resolution is mediocre compared to other tablets in the market, but in the light that HP is offering this for $169, we may well have to live with this display panel. Although it doesn’t have IPS, HP’s FFS technology is said to have wide viewing angles and accurate picture reproduction. However, this doesn’t compensate the low pixels per inch ratio, which clearly shows when you start reading an eBook.
HP Slate 7 is powered by dual core Cortex A9 processor, but HP is not revealing the internals of the device. We are expecting it to have 1GB of RAM and the chipset may well be MediaTek given the steep price point it’s offered. It felt responsive on our hands although the transitions and scrolling weren’t as buttery as we expected it to be. It will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and HP suggests that they are on the process of upgrading it to 4.2 Jelly Bean. In fact, the transition shouldn’t be that hard given HP hasn’t done much UI enhancements apart from adding Beats Audio. HP relies on Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for connectivity on Slate 7 which might just be enough is you are in an area where Wi-Fi coverage is good. It does have DLNA which enables you to wirelessly stream rich media content to big display panels. The internal storage is at 8GB with the option to be expanded up to 32 GB using microSD card. There is also 3.15MP rear facing camera along with VGA front facing camera. The rear camera can also capture 720p videos @ 30 frames per second while the VGA resolution of the front camera may suffice for video conferencing. The battery in HP Slate 7 is non-removable, and HP guarantees an up time of 5 hours, which is clearly not much.
Google Nexus 7 Review
Google Nexus 7 is known as Nexus 7 in short. It is one of the Google’s very own product line; Nexus. As usual, Nexus is designed to last till its successor and that means something in the rapidly changing tablet market. Nexus 7 has a 7 inch LED backlit IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen that features a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at a pixel density of 216ppi. It is 120mm wide and 198.5mm in height. Asus has managed to make it thin as much as 10.5mm and rather light with a weight of 340g. The touchscreen is said to be made from Corning Gorilla Glass which means it would be highly scratch resistant.
Google has included a 1.3GHz quad-core processor on top of Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset with 1GB of RAM and ULP GeForce GPU. It runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean which would make it the first device to run on this newest Android operating system. Google states that Jelly Bean is specifically developed to enhance the performance of the quad core processors used in this device and hence we can expect a high end computing platform from this budget device. They have made it their mission to eliminate sluggish behavior and it seems the gaming experience is highly enhanced, as well. This slate comes in two storage options, 16 GB and 32 GB without the option to expand storage using microSD cards.
The network connectivity for this tablet is defined by Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n as well as 3G HSDPA connectivity which can be an advantage when you can’t find a Wi-Fi hotspot to connect. It also has NFC and Google Wallet, as well. The slate has 1.2MP front camera that can capture 720p videos and can be used for video conferencing. It, basically, comes in Black and the texture on the back cover is developed specifically to enhance the grip. Another attractive feature is the introduction of enhanced voice commands with Jelly Bean. This means Nexus 7 will host a Siri like personal assistant system which can answer your question promptly. Asus has included a 4325mAh battery that is guaranteed to last for 8 hours and that would give it enough juice for any general use.
A Brief Comparison Between HP Slate 7 and Asus Google Nexus 7
• HP Slate 7 is powered by dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor while Asus Google Nexus 7 is powered by 1.3GHz quad core processor on top of Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset with 1GB RAM and ULP GeForce GPU.
• HP Slate 7 runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean while Asus Google Nexus 7 runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with the upgrade to v4.2.2 available as OTA update.
• HP Slate 7 has 7 inch FFS LCD capacitive touchscreen display panel featuring a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels at a pixel density of 170 ppi while Asus Google Nexus has 7 inch LED backlit IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at a pixel density of 216ppi.
• HP Slate defines the connectivity with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n while Asus Google Nexus 7 is also offering 3G HSDPA connectivity along with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity.
• HP Slate 7 has 3.15MP rear camera and VGA front camera while Asus Google Nexus 7 has 1.2MP camera that can capture 720p videos at 30 fps.
• HP Slate 7 is slightly smaller, slightly thicker and comparably heftier (197.1 / 116.1 mm / 10.7 mm / 372g) than Asus Google Nexus 7 (198.5 x 120 mm / 10.5 mm / 347g).
Conclusion
We are obviously still in favor for Google Nexus 7 because of the sheer amount of engineering that needed to morph that awesome 7 incher. However we do have to accept that HP Slate 7 is also making a statement of its own at $169 price point. Quite frankly, there is no reason for you to not to go for Google Nexus 7 by paying $30 more unless you absolutely want a rear facing camera on your tablet and is ready to forget the degradation in the display panel and performance. So we leave the choice on your hands presuming you are capable of choosing what is best for you. However it should be noted that the version of Asus Google Nexus 7 we compared here is much expensive at $299 given it has 32GB storage and 3G HSDPA connectivity. Although this is the case, comparable Asus Google Nexus 7 16 GB Wi-Fi version is only $199 which should put your search to a rest.