HP Slate 7 Goes On Sale For $170
The HP Slate 7 went on sale this weekend with a starting price of $170.
The Slate 7 is a Google Android-based tablet that falls inside the mid-range level for 7-inch Android tablets.
HP is attempting to attract Android buyers by providing an impressive set of features for a mid-range tablet including Beats Audio processing.
The HP Slate 7 also features a stainless steel frame that is powered by an ARM dual-core Cortex-A9 processor that is clicked at 1.6GHz. The tablet also offers a 3MP rear-facing camera along with a front-facing VGA camera.
To improve viewing angles on the mid-range device Hewlett Packard has included a High-aperature-ratio Field Fringe Switching (HFFS) panel.
The HP Slate 7 showed up in February at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress. Early reviews claimed a solid build factor on the device but noted that the Google Nexus 7, Amazon Kindle Fire HD, and other tablets have stronger hardware components at close pricing.
The tablet market is heating up with Apple in recent reports losing some of its market share to the Android market. In the meantime competition is fierce with Samsung, Asus, Lenovo, and various other manufacturers offering mid-sized and larger tablet devices in a crowded field.
The mid-range 7-inch tablet market is being dominated by Google and Apple at the moment but Microsoft rumors are pointing to an upcoming 7-inch Windows 8.1 tablet and possibly other new devices that could challenge the current status quo.
Do you think offering the HP Slate 7 for just $170 with lower hardware options will help Hewlett Packard grab a decent share of the tablet market?
