HP TouchPad Review

First off, I am actually an employee of HP but will try to be unbiased. :)

I've only had the TouchPad for 2 days and LOVE it so far. I don't really have a good comparison though honestly. I've played with my friends' and family's iPad's and have picked up some competitors at the store, but have definitely not delved deep into the ins and outs of the device. But so far, I can't put the TouchPad down.

Right when it arrived (well, 2 days before it arrived actually) I googled 'best HP TouchPad' apps and read all of the sites that listed the top 10 most have apps. On most of the lists, the top 8 or 9 were the same (WordPress, Spaz HD (twitter), Mosaic, Glimpse, TuneIn, Box, Angry Birds, Kindle to name a few). My excitement was building. It is odd I think truthfully. I had no desire to buy the iPad or iPad 2. I'm not anti-Apple as so many seem to be. In fact, I own the iPhone 3GS. I did own the original and will most likely own the iPhone 5 when it ever comes out(though it does depend on the specs and features). But in my mind, which I admit isn't always right, the iPad seemed like a large iPhone and I just couldn't justify the purchase. In fact, it was hard for me to actually purchase the TouchPad. I mean, I use my iPhone for EVERYTHING as it is. And usually have 2 laptops within reach. So I was a bit hesitant.

My mother, and others, have complained that reading a book on the iPhone or mobile phone was hard on the eyes and not a pleasant experience. I have never agreed with that and have read a couple of books on the iPhone without issue. But.. it is SO much easier reading it on the Touchpad Of course that would be the same for any tablet I'd assume. But.. definitely nice to be able to now have a portable device to read books on.

So I decided to pick up the TouchPad when HP offered $100 off their base price. I figured it was new, exciting and I could actually develop for it if I wanted to without having to purchase a Mac). And really, I've been pretty amazed.

The skype interface works well. I tested it by doing a video call with my mom. It worked well. There was a little glitch when I tried to see what would happen with the call when I multitasked. I minimized the window and switched to my mail while doing the video call. I could still hear mom but she could no longer see me. When I switched back to the call there was a box where my face used to be, but no image showed up and she couldn't see me. I could still see her though. But the sound was fairly good. It had a few glitches and of course that really is dependent on the network.

I think another positive note for the TouchPad is the Flash. I tested it with Hulu and was able to watch some shows using it. I know everyone (the Apple fan boys) say that Flash isn't a big thing and the world is going to HTML 5 anyways but.. if I am able to watch Hulu videos and iPad users aren't able to, I think I'm the winner!). :) It actually worked well. The video was smooth. If I switched to check my mail the video still ran and I could listen to the show. Was pretty cool.

Before I purchased the TouchPad I looked at my iPhone apps to see which apps I really wanted to have as a tablet app. I didn't think I really had too many "must have's" and I was pretty confident that even though I had heard of TouchPad's lack of applications I wouldn't really miss too many. And for the most part that is correct, but there are certainly some that I miss. I would love a tv guide and am surprised that I don't see any in the App Catalog. Maybe I am missing it. I also miss Evernote on the TouchPad. You can certainly launch the original WebOS Evernote, but all of the non-specific TouchPad apps are smaller and centered in the middle of the tablet. This is true for the iPad as well. So it would be nice if the Evernote app could take advantage of the big screen. And besides that, Netflix would of course be nice. I hear that is in the works though so I'm hopeful. Pandora is missing from the TouchPad as well, but again you can access the previous WebOS version so that works. QuickOffice is currently loaded but it is read only at this time, even though I had read they had promised it would be able to edit documents at go live. But QuickOffice has said they are working on a version to allow the editing of docs, so that should come at some point.


There are some great apps though. The iheartradio application is awesome for the TouchPad. TuneIn Radio is also another streaming readio app and works very well. The Spaz HD twitter client reminds me of Tweet Deck (though sadly I don't think I can access my lists strangely enough) and the Facebook app is also sweet (though I wish it had the ability to chat in it).

I really think the apps will come. Maybe not all that I want. I mean, I paid $15 to watch the Tour de France on my phone and paid $20 to watch the MLS season on my phone. I would love those apps to come to the TouchPad but am not really holding my breath. But hey, I need some reason to buy the iPhone 5 right?


One last thing for now, I'm appreciating how the notification system is working. And it does have the handy drop down to turn on bluetooth, wifi, airplane mode, etc. that I always wished that the iPhone had. Hate having to go to the home screen, settings, wifi and switch it off on the iPhone. Ridiculous how much longer it takes on the iPhone (that isn't jailbroken that is).