New Tablet HP TouchPad & Keybard Guide

HP TouchPad's 9.7-inch capacitive touch display has a resolution of 1,024x768 pixels. That matches the resolution of the current Apple iPad but is trumped by the Motorola Xoom's announced 1,280x800-pixel resolution. In person, the TouchPad delivers a pleasant picture, but we were unsure whether the screen uses an IPS panel like the iPad or a TN panel like most tablets. An IPS panel would provide much better, clearer viewing of the screen at off angles.

TouchPad includes only a single 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera, with no back-facing camera (the Xoom has a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 5-megapixel shooter in the back). The current iPad has no camera.

A tablet's hardware specs are critical for a smooth user experience, but ultimately, the best tablet hardware should feel invisible. It's really all about your interaction with the OS and how well the interface gels with the way you work, browse, and communicate.

HP's WebOS (originally developed by Palm) looks right at home on the TouchPad's 9.7-inch screen. Its core apps, such as e-mail, Web browser, photos, calendar, media playback, and chat are all optimized to make the best use of the large screen size, using a system of panes and collapsing menus similar to what we've seen on the iPad, BlackBerry PlayBook, and Motorola Xoom. It feels like a proper tablet OS--not a rushed repurposing of smartphone software.

Apart from the limited selection of apps and the predictably iPad-esque core features of WebOS on the TouchPad, there are some unique features worth calling attention to. The one that drew the most applause from the crowd during the unveiling was the synchronization of text messages between the TouchPad and a WebOS smartphone.

Provided that both your smartphone and TouchPad are on the same home network, you could theoretically receive and reply to text messages on your Wi-Fi-only TouchPad from the comfort of your couch. Granted, it's a neat feature, but it's likely to be a rare user who finds himself early-adopting both a WebOS phone and tablet this year. This same combo of kudos and cynicism can be laid against HP's touch-to-share technology, which allows you to share URLs between your TouchPad and WebOS phone by placing the gadgets on top of each other.

Another unique feature we're both hot and cold on is the adjustable touch-screen keyboard sizing. HP included the option to resize the keyboard directly from a contextual menu on the keyboard. It's a nice customization, and the demo drew plenty of "ooohs" from the audience. On further consideration, though, we wonder how often we'll really find ourselves changing this setting, and whether its customization might be better kept out of the way in some general Settings menu. We'll see.

The keyboard also has the notable distinction of including a row of numeric keys across the top, similar to a conventional computer keyboard.

You Can Download HP TouchPad & Keyboard PDF File