I’ve had a hard time writing this review. I’ve put it off for weeks, because frankly I wanted to love this half-sized tablet, but I just couldn’t.
The HP Slate 7 is a sleek, 7-inch diagonal touchscreen tablet that weighs just 13 ounces, making it an ideal affordable device for people on-the-go. Stay on top of your busy schedule with onboard apps and capture photo and video to share with the video webcam on the front and 3 MP camera on the back. Running on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), the Slate 7 provides access to the Google Play Store which offers a multitude of exciting apps right at your fingertips.
I need to put this into perspective, I own an iPad in a joint custodianship with my husband kind of way. So I was totally smitten with the idea of having a tablet of my very own. I was excited at the idea of finally getting my hands on some of those “Android only” apps I’d been eyeing. Frankly, I was also very excited at the prospect of receiving a tech item to review. The day the package arrived I was dance up and down the hallway happy. I opened it up, I read the instructions, I charged it, and then I started to play around with my shiny new HP Slate 7 and I was… underwhelmed.
I was seriously disappointed, and sort of at a loss as to how I was going to write a review about this thing. But eventually I realized that the problem really wasn’t the HP tablet. The problem was me. My disappointments stemmed from the fact that I couldn’t help constantly comparing the Slate 7 to the other tablet in my life. Which when you think about it is unreasonable to the point of ridiculous, comparing a full-sized full-priced tablet to a mini-sized budget model. It’s not even a case of apples and oranges, it’s more like apples and grapes.
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| Sticky finger approved. |
The thing is, I eventually discovered I like grapes. I came around to liking my Slate 7, when I consciously decided to stop comparing it and starting looking at it’s merits on it’s own. The biggest thing here is that budget price tag. The HP Slate 7 retails for just $149.99 Canadian. Which for me, puts it in gift giving price range. It also puts it in a hand over to my sticky fingered kids price range. And I feel a lot better tossing something in my purse that I can replace for $150, vs. toting around something that cost me $700.
The 3MP flash-free camera is decent. Given adequate lighting it takes ok photos. Outdoors on a sunny day? Looking pretty good! Dimly lit bar? Not so much. In less bright lighting the photos can be dark and grainy, but I find any flash-free camera has much the same problem.
One of the things I didn’t love at first was the battery life. My major complaint being the way the battery seemed to drain when I wasn’t using the machine. I’d set the Slate down somewhere, pick it up half a day later and find the battery was dead. A friend recommended a free app (Juice Defender) which manages battery life, and while setting up the app I came to realize that the normal settings for the Slate had it set to constantly check online for updates (ie Facebook, Twitter, etc), which means even when I had it turned off it was working away. After fiddling around with the settings and allowing the battery management app to automate some things I found I was now getting a reasonable six or seven hours out of the battery, and it was no longer draining while sitting idle.
The body of the Slate 7 has a nice solid feel to it. It’s a tiny bit heavier then you might expect for the small size, but I actually like it. It feels substantial, and like it’s not going to break when I toss it in my bag. It’s also a great deal smaller and lighter than the full-sized tablet I’ve been carting around. Overall, this thing was made to live in my purse.
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| My purse’s new BFF. |
Except my purse is not where my new Slate 7 has been living. In fact, it’s been AWOL much of the time… because it turns out my husband really likes grapes too. A few weeks into owning my new mini-tablet my husband discovered just how well it fit in his inside coat pocket, and suddenly my new toy was spending a lot more time adventuring around town with my husband than it was hanging out with me. You see, my husband doesn’t bring the full-sized tablet out often because that would involve carting around a latoptop bag. However once he realized how portable and sturdy my new Slate was it became much more his new toy than mine.
So overall, I would recommend the HP Slate 7 as a budget tablet. The mini-size combined with the low price tag makes it a solid choice for holiday gift giving. The HP Slate is available in Silver from HPShopping.ca for $149.99
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