Which one is better - HP Slate 500 tablet PC or Apple iPad?

HP is about to release their tablet PC version similar to Apple iPad but with more features called HP Slate 500 PC.

HP has recently posted a comparison chart of Apple iPad verses HP's Slate 500 PC, which caught the attention of many tech websites like Engadget. Sent as an internal memo, HP sought to compare its product's advantages in green and threats in red vis-a-vis iPad.

If the slide view chart is true, then HP Slate 500 features 8.9-inch WSVGA 1024x600 resolution with wide viewing angle capacitive multi-touch panel, flash display, accelerometer (ST Micro), light sensor along with pen/digitizer support compared to Apple iPad's 9.7-inch 1024x768 resolution with glossy multi-touch with IPS technology, accelerometer, ambient light sensor and fingerprint-resistant oleo-phobic coating. The Apple iPad lacks pen/digitizer support but has a better resolution display.

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The processor speed of HP Slate 500 PC is better compared to Apple iPad, shows the comparision table, as HP's tablet comes with 1.6GHz Intel Atom Menlow Z530 whereas Apple iPad offers 1GHz Apple A4 (P.A.Semi) processor.

And in terms of graphics, HP's tablet PC gives 1080p playback capability as against iPad's 720p.

Even the memory in HP Slate 500 is 1GB (DDR2) non-customer upgradable RAM as that of iPad's undisclosed but suspected 256MB or 512MB RAM.

The HP Slate 500 has 32/64GB flash memory, upgradable via SD card reader while iPad offers 16/32/64GB flash non-user upgradable storage.

When it comes to connectivity, HP's tablet PC gives only 802.11b/g Wi-Fi compared to iPad's Wi-Fi option of 802.11a/b/g/n. But HP tablet features Bluetooth combo, optional 3G, WWAN and GPS whereas iPad offers Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 3G optional (UMTS, HSDPA), A-GPS (3G models).

HP Slate ports offer SD/SDHC/SDXC card reader of up to 128GB, 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack 1 USB 2.0 port dock connector (power, audio in/out, HDMI out, USB), conventional SIM card tray for use with optional WWAN. And iPad offers ports for dock connector, 3.5mm audio jack, built-in speakers, microphone, micro SIM card tray (3G models).

The HP tablet is lighter as it weighs 0.67 kg/1.49lb compared to Apple iPad which weighs 0.68kg/1.5lb (Wi-Fi model) and 0.73kg/1.6lb (3G model).

The battery offered by iPad is 25Whr Li-ion which gives up to 10 hours backup power and a standby up to 30days whereas HP Slate offers a better 2-cell 30WHr polymer battery but only gives more than 5 hours of backup.

One advantage that HP Slate 500 scores against Apple is when it comes to camera as iPad doesn't have a camera. HP's tablet PC has VGA webcam inward-facing camera (may be of 16-megapixel) and 3-megapixel outward facing camera.

The price range of HP Slate’s may range from $549 to $599 whereas Apple iPad pricing starts from $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB) and $699 (64GB) for Wi-Fi versions and $629 (16GB), $729 (32GB) and $829 (64GB) for Wi-Fi+3G versions.

When it comes to OS, Apple iPad uses iOS 3.2.1 (build 7B405) operating system and HP has confirmed that they are including both Windows 7 and WebOS versions among the platform portfolio.

But doubt looms over the shadow of slide view, as Slate 500-1002TU product description shows it as a device for social media, photos and videos. That means this may not be the HP Slate which everyone is expecting.