![]() ![]() Having both a front and rear camera gives the Slate 7 some bragging rights over the Nexus 7 and the Nook HD. If you’re listening to music, video, or games through headphones, Beats Audio makes that experience a bit better. Audio out of the two speakers on the bottom edge is as tinny and small-sounding as any other tablet. Even that boost is not so memorable or audio-changing as to be worth building a brand around. That’s fine for some music genres, terrible in others. Listening to music via the headphone jack there is a noticeable boost in bass when Beats Audio is on. This combo or software and hardware makes for some amazing sound on HP’s laptops and the ill-fated TouchPad could at least boast a higher class of audio quality. One way to set a low-cost tablet apart from the competition is to add something special and singular. Otherwise, you get the usual slate of stock apps: Gmail, YouTube, Google+, Hangouts, etc.ĭespite the low resolution, the Google Play store recognizes the Slate 7 as a tablet, so you get access to tablet-only and tablet-optimized apps. HP didn’t pre-load a bunch of annoying crapware the only notable addition is HP’s ePrint app. There are elements of the OS that don’t look right – thumbnails in the Recent Apps pane, icons that look weirdly squished, and random incidences of tiny text, among other things. That’s good news for fans of Android, though it might be hard to enjoy the OS given the issues with the screen. HP isn’t into skinning Android so with the Slate 7 you’ll get Android 4.1 Jelly Bean pretty much as Google intended. Plus, for just $30 more you can get a number of tablets with far better screens such as the Nexus 7 or the Kobo Arc. The adage “You get what you pay for” comes to mind. Given that this is a low-cost tablet, some of these issues are to be expected. Due to the low resolution text isn’t sharp at small sizes and Android’s icons aren’t as crisp as they should be. Viewing angles are narrow but not so much that playing games that utilize the accelerometer is unbearable. The Slate 7 got up to a reasonable brightness – viewing in the sunlight was tolerable – but if you push it to 70 percent brightness (or higher), images and video start to wash out. Screen contrast isn’t very deep either, so colors don’t pop and blacks aren’t as black as they should be. That low resolution is less than ideal, even for a small and inexpensive tablet, and does hurt the experience some. The adage “You get what you pay for” comes to mind.Around front, edge-to-edge glass covers the 7-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display. The soft-touch back is nice and the red version looks nicer. ![]() It doesn’t come off as cheaply made, but the thick bezel surrounding the screen, chunky profile, and just heavy enough to notice weight marks the Slate 7 as a low-end device. The Slate fits into that latter category. HP is great at design when it comes to high end products and equally as capable of producing generic devices for the budget buyers. In some ways, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Slate 7’s design is bland. Barnes & Noble does it by eliminating cameras and GPS and Asus does it by scaling back on build quality. At this point, it is conceivable that a decent tablet come in under $200 as long as the manufacturer cuts the right corners. Given that most of the worthwhile 7-inch tablets available cost $200 or so, this low figure is either an indication of very aggressive pricing or a not-so-great tablet. The first one to hit shelves is the HP Slate 7 for the low price of $170. But HP is moving on with its life and choosing the safer road of making Android tablets. That poor tablet never got the chance it deserved nor did WebOS. Most of the people who got the chance to play with the HP TouchPad remember it fondly. ![]() Download Mobile Legends Bang Bang for Android.Download Adobe Flash Player for Windows.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |