Customer Reviews

HP TouchPad Wi-Fi 32 GB 9.7-Inch Tablet Computer

5 star:		(474)
4 star:		(184)
3 star:		(70)
2 star:		(38)
1 star:		(80)

 

 

Length:: 8:40 Mins

HP DISCOUNTINUED THE HP TOUCHPAD 8-18-11. LATEST NEWS 12-09: HP HAS RELEASED WEBOS TO OPEN SOURCE SO IT'S EXPECTED TO SEE MANY NEW DEVELOPMENTS FROM 3RD PARTIES ALONG WITH SUPPORT. HP PLANS TO CONTINUE TO INVEST INTO WEBOS AND PLANS ANOTHER WEBOS TABLET TO BE RELEASED IN 2013.

MY VIDEO ATTACHED. (Overclocked at 1.5Ghz)
First of all, whether you are a geek or not,the Touchpad along with the webOS Homebrew community touts big advantages over it's competitors and this has been often overlooked by reviewers. I've attached my video that shows the performance of an enhanced Touchpad running at 1.5Ghz. However don't be mistaken, the HP Touchpad still performs fast with the original speed of 1.2Ghz. I'm just a very busy person and a little obsessed with technology plus I wanted to express what the Touchpad can become (within an hour of your time) if you really wanted to spice things up.

I WAS AN IPAD2 USER.
I've had my Touchpad since launch day July 1st and even before the upgrade I have seen significant improvements in my work productivity overall. Previously, I was an iPad2 user and now that I have the Touchpad, I believe there is absolutely NO WAY I would go back to the iPad2. The Touchpad really outshines the iPad2 when you want to be productive. It's more than just a good business asset, I find it really enjoyable for entertainment purposes; great sound, watch movies, 3D gaming and YouTube videos directly from YouTube itself.

MY NEW SKILL.
After a over a month of vigorously using the device, I feel like I've graduated to "Touchpad Power User." However, I'm still discovering new good things to improve my daily use. One example is to stack 5 applications together and bounce from one another with two button presses. As a personal trainer that is always on the workout floor, this is a handy skill. I often stack the Calendar, Email, Tracking App, Stop watch, and Notepad all together and it gives me the ability to monster-task during a client's session.

TIPS FOR THE NEW BUYER
1. During set up be patient. The device is always gathering information in the background and you may think that it's completed. You may need to create a webOS account, but it's fairly easy.

2. System Restart: Do it properly by going to Settings/Device Info/Reset Options/Restart Don't just hold the power button.

3. Update! Go to Settings/System Updates. Prompt to reboot.

4. Apps open up faster the second time and third time around, you will see a significant speed improvement. Sometimes blazing fast.

5. Get the case. No more complaining on finger prints.

6. If you still want your Touchpad to perform even faster, consider installing Homebrew applications. This is a strong community. I've attached a video with this review so you can see what an overclocked 1.5GHz Touchpad can do. But with Homebrew and open source there's more you can do than just this upgrade.

THICKNESS, APPS AND REAR CAMERA?
I thought I'd miss the rear camera of not having the iPad2 anymore, but after some thought I realized that my cell phone camera takes better pictures and video anyway! Apps? I currently have 33 apps installed on my Touchpad and excited with the catalog growth so far. Thickness? With the thin Touchpad case there's not much significance compared to an iPad2 installed in a thick case (mine was plastic.) So the iPad2's thin factor is not much of a difference.

NEGATIVE THINGS?
Skype and messaging seems to be under polished. Can't figure out if I'm signed in to Skype and my old Pre will not work in SMS. Perhaps later on? ONE MORE THING! The Touchpad is very addictive. You want to do more because you can, but you drain the battery as well!

Bought this from Amazon, as always got it quick. My back ground is I've owned an IPAD and asus windows tablet. After trying them out I was still unsatisfied with the products. It wasn't providing me what I was looking for. I wanted a tablet with good battery life, good aps, experience the 'real' web, do some entertainment (videos, games, music), keep myself connected with social media, and finally do some note taking for work/ everyday things. Looking at the reviews and the advertisements I gave the HP Touchpad a go.

The Breakdown based on a few days exp:

OS: A +
HP OS is probably the highest point in this tablet.
Synergy makes the whole multitasking a breezy and keeps everything in synch. The whole process to get connected with your email, facebook, and calendar is simple.
You can just do lots of things out of the box, no need to go hunting for apps.
No Icons Everywhere in the home screen.
You can browse the WHOLE internet without having black screens because of "missing a plugin".

APPs: B-
HP App market is lacking. You could take in to account that it just launched and will have more coming. If you patient you'll start seeing new ones every week. From whats available NOW you can manage. There are games and several productivity apps worth checking out.

Hardware: B-
This is the weakest thing for me for the Hp Touchpad. Every Tablet in the market right now has : front /back camera, expandable memory slot, hdmi output, and Real USB connections.
HP TP has front camera, max 32 gb memory, and one micro usb connection. WTF... Lacking big time.
If your like me that likes options for inputs/outputs this is a low blow.
Screen for HP TP is great, all the pictures and videos look nice and I think the resolution is fine. The touch response is good too.
Battery is good too. 5-6 hours . If you leave it on all night it will get low on battery. Not much standby power.

Price: B-
The majority of tablets are 300-499 range. The 32 gb TP is ~560 bucks in amazon. Hardware wise its not worth that. A little too steep for the competition.

Conclusion: HP Touch's operating system could just be the seller here for people that are in search for something friendly and do real multitasking. Or people that didn't like android or iOS.
Price and Hardware are big negatives. Probably the best thing is get this when the price drops under 450 or wait for second Generation.
You just got to see what is important to you and what specifically you "need" in a your tablet.

For me I might keep this :)

update 9-9-11
after the prices tanked cause of the announcement of HP not supporting it anymore. I returned mine (full refund from amazon) and actually bought another for 135 from hp.com :-)
why did I buy another ?
Because it is just a easy and brilliant product.
HP did announce continued support for the apps and updates .
which is true they have done a recent update and just came out with a new edition of the HP magazine for the touchpad which is a neat ideA to discover new apps.

here are some positives:
+HP gave a 50 buck credit for apps
+free box.net 50 gb of space online
+ found preware homebrew community that releases apps and anything you can think of to add a whole different experience . They have a app to overclock the CPU :-)
+new apps added weekly
+noticed faster internet and processing with updates

with the touchpad being cheaper. Give this a try. Support will be there for a while because over 250k of units are out there and HP is making more. Developers love the touchpad.

update 12/15/11
+ I keep using my TP. The apps are still flowing and the web is just easy to use on this.

+HP fired their previous CEO and the new one announced that palm os will be open source. Open source is like the android. Which is a positive thing because it guarantees is way or form updates and new apps from developers.

I'm an admitted mac guy, I have the iPhone 4, iPad, Macbook Pro, etc...

I have to share my support now with the HP TouchPad. The webOS 3.0 is really pretty amazing. I didn't think it would make much of a difference in the use of a tablet, but it's outstanding, and here's why:

1) The integration of so many mainstream services used today. (they probably have some fancy term for this concept)
2) Flash plays well
3) Services missing on the iPad like Grooveshark and Amazon's cloud music all work.

First, the services:
On my TouchPad, I setup my
Email (yahoo, google, and microsoft exchange)
Skype
Dropbox
AIM
LinkedIn
Facebook
(there were others, but I don't use snapfish, and photobucket, etc... even a "find others")

I love this integration of all these mainstream services! It's really clever.

While my iPad seems very app-centric, webOS 3.0 feels more like "the matrix has you". It takes your online world and puts it into the tablet. I love that. All of those websites I often interact with get glued together seamlessly so I feel like I'm "jacked in".

A major strength of the TouchPad is the web functionality that won't work on the iPad. For example, I ran Amazon's cloud music player and Grooveshark just fine (awesome!).

On the down side, the apps are slim, but trust me, they will be coming fast and furious over the next year, like a modern-age gold rush. As someone who has ported over my C++ game engine and product ( atPeace ) to TouchPad from IOS, I can tell you that it was pretty easy, and others will certainly follow. This version 1 of the product is the closest any tablet is to competing with Apple, developers will soon be pouring over.

My only real gripe is not having NetFlix working with it yet. That's coming I'm sure, but something I use on my iPad a lot, and I miss. :(

All in all, I'd say if you want something for business, or to have a tablet built around your online presence, or just a good tablet which can run flash, this might be for you. I still love my iPad, don't get me wrong, but for a long time I didn't see why anyone was realistically imagining they could compete with the iPad. I mean, Apple does it sooooo well. Well, now I understand why. WebOS 3.0.

Don't discount this device, it's got great potential. We finally a good competitor for Apple in the tablet world, which should make both products improve.

The HP Touchpad's WebOS is vastly superior to Android and iOS.
These would be but words, if there was no evidence to back it up, so here it is.
The constant cons/complaints from alleged professional reviewers go as follows.
It is thicker and heavier than an iPad. Although that is true, it is not so heavy or thicker as to be an inconvenience and more importantly, part of the reason it is bigger is because of the superior hardware inside, bigger processor, more ran and the audio system/speakers.
The Touchpad needs the more powerful CPU and greater amount of ram than an iPad for example, as it muititasks many apps at the same time, as opposed to a machine than can only do one, or sometimes two if one considers multitasking to be the ability to play music while surfing a single internet page.
When a video stream is coming in too slow, I minimize the page and do something else whilst it loads the stream.
Try that on an iPad.
The stereo sound from a Touchpad is of greater quality than the single speaker in an iPad, not to mention the added ambiance by having stereo over mono.
Good hifi speakers are bigger and heavier than cheap tin can models, so if you want better sound like the Touchpad has, then the size will not matter to you one bit.
Next complaint from the "pros" is that WebOS does not have as many apps as Apple. Again that is true but is it truly a problem? No, it is not. There are ample already available, and now with the news of more to come, there are and will be more than any one person might ever want to use. It is a non issue.
Lastly comes the big one. The "pros" said it was slow, that it might jam up, that it could take too long to switch from horizontal to portrait mode. Those comments are only a semi truth. The fact is that if you operate it one app at a time like an iPad, then it not only isn't slow, it is faster than an iPad, specially after you have applied all the tweaks that are freely available on the internet. As an iPad is incapable of multitasking, there are no slowdowns in general, as the internal hardware is more than capable of handling any one single task at a time, whereas the Touchpad is a completely different type of device that multitasks, and just like a home computer, will eventually slow down if there are too many apps open at the same time. The "pros" reviews about slowing down are so unfair when they compare it to an iPad that the question becomes, were they paid by Apple to say that or are they all that ignorant. Even a child knows that too many applications open at the same time, spells slowdowns and maybe even a crash. To spell it out by citing an example, it would be like saying that Joe Blow never has problems eating one hotdog at a time, but he slows down when he eats 8 at a time. The scenario is ridiculous and the comparison is unjust.
If it is justifiable to bad mouth a computer type product that slows down from too many open windows, then it would apply to every single computer in the world, except an iPad, that can't do more than one thing at a time. Now that the three main complaints have been addressed and proven to be non-issues, it is time to talk about why a Touchpad is such a superior machine. Any knowledgeable techie knows that the WebOS interface is the best of the group of multitasking tablet operating systems. iOS has a very nice interface too and some might argue that it is as good as that of the Touchpad, but it is not included in these comparisons, as it is not a multitasking computer system, therefore doesn't have to deal with many open apps at the same time. How could anyone discuss the various ways that Android and WebOS deal with multiple apps being open and include the iPad in that conversation, when the iPad can't even have multiple apps open?
I fully recognize the value of an iPad and I perceive it as it is, a wonderful machine, well built, with an ultra simple interface that can be easily operated by young children and even IQ challenged individuals.
The more sophisticated tablets that operate like computers, have common advantages and even common problems, that simply don't apply to a machine that does only one thing at a time.
In short, the iPad is a type of toy that is also capable of surfing the internet, although not completely like the Touchpad, and it can use chat services like MSN Messenger and Skype, although it does not fully integrate Skype like the Touchpad does.
Apple products have become a status symbol to own and they are generally high quality products, and the iPad fits perfectly into that category. Where it does not belong is in comparisons to computer like tablets, as the iPad is a type of toy and not a utilitarian device like the Touchpad.
I own both an iPad and a Touchpad and can tell you that my Touchpad is a bit faster than my iPad, and 10 times more useful.
.............................................................................................
Added observations, Sept. 20, 2011.

As per the review above, it isn't hard to guess that my Touchpad is much preferred over my iPad. (that my girlfriend has now appropriated and wouldn't let go of without a fight to the death.)
Inspired by some long waits to open webpages (on the Touchpad), I thought it was time to do an internet browsing speed comparison between it and the iPad.
We have Caribbean internet speed that is somewhat lacking when compared to even the slowest US plan, and a fast browser is critical for us, so as to not spend our lives waiting on webpages.
To cut to the chase, this is what I discovered.
When trying to compare the two, I was stunned to discover that the two units rarely landed on identical pages.
The iPad would have a modified www address that might include the word "ipad" or "tablet" and it presented pages that have clearly been "tuned" for 25 million iPad users.
If I went to Yahoo news, for instance, the iPad would give me different headlines than the Touchpad or a Windows PC.
It's not as if I didn't already know that an Ipad couldn't open many webpages or youtube videos and that it simply won't let the user go to those pages that it can't deal with, but I never thought/knew that Apple was also controlling some of the www content.

My initial reaction was to feel like I was in China, cut off from the rest of the world wide web.
On the other hand, everyone is trying to control the internet, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc, so why shouldn't Apple be allowed to play in the same sandbox.....

So......
You would like the results of the test, as would I.
I simply could not make any true clinical observations, when the two machines rarely even opened identical pages.
My non clinical observation was that they are similar in speed and neither could be declared the victor, except in terms of the Touchpad being able to connect with the normal web as we know it, as opposed to Apple's modified version.
So instead of coming out of this with a webpage speed comparison between the two units, all it showed was what I already knew, that an iPad is a toy that has a lot of internet connectivity and many good computer uses, whereas the Touchpad is a computer that has some toyishness about it.
It can play games like the iPad but has a seriously limited library when compared to the iPad's.
On the other hand, it functions much more like a real computer as we know it, with it's capacity to have several functions/processes running at the same time.
When someone sends me a video link, it usually refuses to stream all the way through, because of our slow bandwidth, so it's normal for me to pause and minimize the page and do something else, whilst the video clip downloads.
That's impossible to do on the iPad.
You can pause it and let it download, but you CANNOT do something else in the meantime, other than twiddle your thumbs and wait.

If you want to buy a fantastic gift for the kids, it would be hard to beat an iPad.
If you would like a touch tablet to do the same things you normally do on a computer, then the Touchpad is the machine for you.

I travel regularly for work and as such have a lot of down time in places where a full laptop is not convenient to use but a tablet works out well. Examples of this would be: time riding in rental cars, taxis, and public transport traveling to and from my home, airports, and client locations, time spent waiting for flights in airports (even nicer during delays!), the flights themselves (in-flight internet makes this really nice!), and the time I spend relaxing in my hotel room and don't really want to spend in front of the laptop I have been working on all day.

As I work in a technical field with specialized software requirements I must have a laptop with me no matter what tablet I choose so my tablet choice does not have to do everything my laptop does, it just needs to keep me entertained and informed. Email, web browsing (full desktop pages with Flash!), Facebook, Twiiter, kindle reading, games, videos, and music are what I need, the Touchpad can handle all that and webOS does it so much nicer than any other tablet out there, I should know as I also own an iPad and an Android tablet.

I have used an iPhone for going on two years and I don't see that changing for quite awhile, but I was always leery of the iPad because I always thought it was just a big iPod Touch, with a better screen. Well I started to look for a tablet about 5 months ago, and thought for sure, after the big uproar about the iPad 2, that I would have one soon. Well after trying in store several times, I just wasnt blown away. It just took my iPhone bigger, it didnt introduce anything new, it didn't change anything, the UI, had some slight modifications, and apps did look better on a bigger screen, but it wasn't nothing that blew away. Then came the touchpad.

First I saw the commercial, then I found out about the open source movement inside of WebOS, and how unlike Apple, there was no cat and mouse games, Palm didn't support it, but didn't block it. I saw the UI, it was much appealing than Android, which to me looks chaotic and not the clean simplicity that we all come to expect from a google product. Although it wasn't as "nice" looking as iOS, and it didn't run as smooth as it, WebOS made up for it with true multitasking, and a clean enough looking UI to make an iOS lover happy.

Then came the specs, full web access, web developers no longer need to build a site just for the device, the device can handle anything you through at it. It has been an experience for me, who has had to manage which sites I could view on my portable device and which ones I *had* to view on my pc, now my touchpad takes care of all of it.

But enough about the pros, because there is some cons. Apps are limited compared to iOS (Not a huge con for me, give me a working Twitter client, an email client, and a couple games, and I'm happy, but I'm not everyone). The OS, has some flaws, which may be more to me learning to using the device than anything else, but the flaws are there. It seems sluggish from time to time, but an OTA update coming out soon should fix that. And it does need some improvement when it comes to handling documents, this maybe more of a personal presence but I feel any tablet should be able to handle any microsoft doc you throw at it.

All in all, I love my touchpad, and see me using it more than my iPhone for most things. The flaws are there, but are very fixable, and I have faith in HP to fix them soon.

Purchased this version the day they came out, have been hard pressed to put it down since then! Some thoughts:

1. The battery life is awesome! 6.5 hours of continuous heavy use only used up 65% of my battery!
2. You get the real web, flash actually plays remarkably well. You can just play videos straight on youtube, are able to click links in them etc. Not a huge fan of flash, but it is everywhere!
3. If you are familiar with webOS, the operating system on the TouchPad, you know how awesome the mutli-tasking is, widely held to be best mobile interface in that regards, and it really shines on this beautiful large screen.
4. As a retailer rep at a big electronic store commented after I showed "it does so much for you" and unlike his phone/pad on the TouchPad you dont have to figure out which app to use, go find it, launch it, & then start typing, on here you just start typing what you are thinking then choose the app to finish it with in an easy list (email, fb, twitter, memo, calendar, and the list goes on!).
5. Although it does have a limited number of apps compared to the tablet market leader, it has many of the important ones, and most are outstanding quality with very few ads to be seen! The main thing to remember is you dont need an app for a whole lot of things, you have the real web just like on a computer! Imagine if you had to go find app for each website you wanted to visit on your computer, nuts right? This works like your computer, apps when you want them, the real web the rest of the time.
6. Your accounts are tied right into the tablet, and you can access everything from one place... You can chat on google, skype, aim, yahoo, etc. (even sms with a new HP webOS phone) all from the same place built right into the messaging app. Email is the same way & is the best email interface I have ever seen, and I am excited to have it on my computer next year when HP starts putting webOS on every PC they sell (some time of window you can run webOS apps in most likely).
7. Love video skyping on this!
8. Could it have a rear camera, sure, doubt I would use it much (thats what my smartphone &/ camera is for) especially if it is a poor quality camera like the leading device.
9. I could go on and on (so could my wife who is trying hard to win one currently for herself, and my kids who are jn love with coloring games, air hockey, and of course ANGRY BIRDS HD!) If you are wanting to get a tablet, start here, if you dont like it, return & switch to another platform, but this is one you really need to try for a bit!

-- Sent from my HP TouchPad

The TouchPad is not exactly a full replacement for the iPad since it doesn't have as many apps, but there are a number of things you can do with the TouchPad that the iPad can not do:

1.) Run multiple apps. The iPad simulates multi-tasking but it really just pauses each app and closes it when you switch to a different app. The WebOS on the TouchPad lets each app continue working in the background so you can be more productive.

1.b) Speaking of multi-tasking, notifications appear as icons at the top of the screen and do not take focus away from whatever you are working on, so you don't get interrupted every time some notification pops up. On the iPad notifications pop up a dialog box that must be dismissed before you can continue using the tablet.

2.) Searching with "Just Type". With WebOS you don't need to think about what app you need to load to look for a piece of data. Want to call a friend? 'Just type' their name, as soon as you've entered the first few letters you'll start to see matching contacts. Want to search the web for a new toy? Just start typing it's name, and then choose 'Search Google' or 'Search Amazon' and it will perform the search on those websites. Just Type searches through all of the content stored on the TouchPad, as well as contacts, calendar events and documents in your accounts such as Google or Exchange, in addition to allowing you to search all of your favorite websites. All by just typing in what you're looking for.

3.) Connect to your corporate VPN. iPads can't do this nor can Android based tablets.

4.) Seamlessly combine all of your accounts with Synergy. Only WebOS lets you access all of your calendars, email, simultaneously. WebOS also fully supports exchange so you can easily access your work email and calendars.

5.) Homebrew. Only WebOS allows you to download apps, patches and system level modifications from alternate sources. You can literally customize just about any aspect of the system. Apple sues people who try and make these modifications to Apple products.

6.) Flash videos. With an iPad you can't watch flash videos. With the TouchPad you can literally pull up hulu.com in the browser and watch movies. And since you don't need a "Mobile App" to access the Hulu content, you don't have to pay $7.99 a month to watch your shows on the TouchPad like you do on the iPad.

7.) 50 GB FREE space on Box.net for *life* ... Integration with Dropbox, box.net, Google docs... You can access all of your files directly from the TouchPad. There is also a Mighty meeting app that lets you do remote presentations (Powerpoints, documents) over the Internet directly from the TouchPad.

8.) Beats Audio. For such small speakers the Audio really does sound amazing.

... I could go on and on. It's a fantastic device. I've had mine for almost a week now and I can't put it down.

Just two hours out of the box and I am very happy with my HP Touchpad. Wanting to rule out buyers remorse, I tried the Ipad 2 and the Acer Iconia (android honeycomb) tablets recently to be sure I would know what I was comparing. The Ipad is very nice, no argument there, but I understood why people complain about the closed Apple system. There was little cross platform functionality with the Ipad. I was much less impressed with the android tablet. Things just didn't seem to work right, some apps didn't work because I had the "wrong" android device, and there didn't really seem to be all that many apps for an adroid tablet, rather they were mostly for android phones.

As far as the touchpad goes, the only complaint I could give is the lack of apps. However, that can be expected right now, and I hope to see many apps coming soon. The look and feel of the touchpad is very nice. Other reviews made it sound like it would be a big brick, but I barely notice that it is a little thicker than the Ipad, and it feels very nice in my hands. In a week or two I'll have the HP Case, and I won't have any worries about finger prints. Fingerprints on the Ipad screen were just as much of an issue, and I find myself needed to wipe it clean occassionally. As for the back, no concerns there.

Here's to HP doing a great job with their first WebOS pad out of the gate, and looking forward to the apps that will be coming.

I had reluctantly started using the iPhone 4 after many years with Windows Mobile. I must say that I really enjoy the iPhone experience, and only have a few minor gripes with it. Recently got an iPad 2, and while it's enjoyable, and great for kids to watch videos on, I found it a little awkward to use as a laptop replacement.

So I was very interested in the Touchpad. Overall, I really like the Touchpad, and it took a little bit of time to get used to it, after using iOS for about one year. Here's what I like:

1) Card-based multitasking is great. I can close windows and apps very easily, and bring back open ones nicely. It's a more elegant way to switch between apps than iOS, especially going back and forth between e-mails or web pages.

2) Resizable keyboard with number keys on the main keyboard. Although the iOS keyboard is fine for a phone, it worked poorly for me on an iPad. I like the Touchpad's much better, opting to reduce it to the small size keyboard.

3) Flash works fairly well, although there are some stutters when resizing the browser. But Amazon cloud player worked, as did Hulu and ABC web sites.

4) Synergy - incorporating multiple on-line services such as Facebook, Dropbox, Exchange, and others, makes it very easy to work in the cloud.

5) Erasing the device was painless (and maybe too easy?). But recovery without a PC, such as the iPad was a snap. The device automatically synced my previously downloaded apps. Re-enter your passwords for the online services, and you're set.

6) Audio sounds really good. I don't know if the Beats help much, but the speakers sound decent, and with the cheap iPhone headphones, sound better than the iPhone.

7) Wireless printing was effortless. It found my printer, and I was able to print web pages and PDF files easily. Way easier than with iOS.

I do have a few complaints and hopefully many will get corrected very soon:

1) I managed to crash the Touchpad a few times doing things like resizing images or starting apps. There are bugs to be worked out for sure.

2) The display rotation is too sensitive. There were times when it would rotate too easily, but also times where the device wouldn't rotate without a few tries. Rotation lock, while not a physical switch, proved very useful.

3) The screen is a fingerprint magnet. Fortunately it comes with a cloth.

4) Battery life is perhaps a little bit less than an iPad 2, but decent.

5) Web browser dragging is annoying when trying to use Flash-based sites. Instead of clicking on a button, you end up dragging and moving the window.

6) At a few points, the screen seems a little unresponsive, or at least not immediately responsive.

7) Text selection is not as nice as iOS. With iOS, you can press and hold, and then move the cursor to where you want it with the magnification. This type of functionality would help immensely, especially when doing lots of typing.

Some people complain that lacking a rear-facing camera and the heavier weight are huge detractors, but I barely notice it. Sure, it's thicker than and iPad 2 and weighs more, but it's not that big of a deal. I really don't mind it. I don't have much need for taking pictures with the Touchpad either. The phone can do that, and I can copy pictures via Dropbox.

A small selection of apps is not too big of a deal at this point, since you can easily go online and use the full desktop version of many services. Lots of iOS apps are just repackaged web sites. No big deal. But a note taking app with which you can hand write or draw would make this a great office tool. The Evernote app needs to be updated for the larger screen for sure.

Overall, the HP Touchpad is a viable contender, especially if HP can get the updates out very soon. There's a lot of potential here, even if it doesn't become the #1 tablet.