First Look review: the HP TouchPad, though uneven, shows promise

The first tablet from Hewlett-Packard is also the first to run on the webOS mobile operating system. In design, the HP TouchPad is reminiscent of the original Apple iPad (it’s bulkier than the current iPad 2). But once you start using the glossy-black TouchPad, the differences—both positive and negative—become apparent.

Despite some performance issues and missing capabilities, the TouchPad has some features that set it apart from its competitors. Most significant is the webOS platform, which allows for capabilities such as stacked-app windows (the “card” interface), features for combining e-mail accounts and calendars, and the pairing of webOS phones with the tablet, a feature called “Touch to Share” (more on these below). And the TouchPad runs Flash video, unlike the iPad.

We have been trying out a press sample of the TouchPad since yesterday. We'll continue testing and include the tablet in our next batch of tablet computer Ratings (available to subscribers). Meanwhile, here are our first impressions.

Specs: The TouchPad measures 9.45 x 7.48 x .54 inches and weighs in at 1.62 pounds (the iPad 2 is 1.35 pounds). It features a squarish 9.7-inch diagonal screen, just like the iPad, with a resolution of 1,024 x 768. We noticed that the screen is dimmer than those of most of its competitors when they're set to the brightest level.

The TouchPad connects to the Web via Wi-Fi (no 3G option is available) and has Bluetooth built in. Powering the TouchPad is a 1.2-GHz dual-core chip.

Hardware: The tablet has a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera that can be used only for video chats, not for taking photos or video—at least not yet—and there’s no rear camera at all. It also lacks a memory card slot and an HDMI port for streaming video out to other devices, features some premium tablets do offer. Nor does the TouchPad offer GPS, though that’s rumored to be coming.

An optional dock powers up the tablet via inductive charging—no cables needed, just physical contact. And the nifty keyboard has numbers over the letters, so you don’t need to switch views to find them. The TouchPad will print to Wi-Fi-connected HP printers.

Navigation: You launch apps from either the menu or a customizable launch bar (you can place up to five apps on it). The unique card interface lets you move among launched apps with ease. Whichever apps you’ve opened stay open, and you can stack them up, shuffle them, and then close them by swiping them off the top of the screen.

We noted that apps were mostly slow to open, though; in fact there’s some lag with many actions on the tablet. Even moving from landscape to portrait orientation took around a second longer than it does on iPads. Hopefully, this can be addressed with firmware updates.

Touch to Share: This feature lets you pair an HP webOS phone (such as the upcoming Pre 3) by touching it to your TouchPad screen. You can then share e-mail, SMS messages, and Web pages between the devices. We paired the tablet with an HP Veer (the only webOS phone to hit the market so far), but Touch to Share didn't work with it. One feature that did work: We made a call to the Veer, and the call appeared on the tablet, where we were able to answer it. We'll continue testing this feature.

Apps: This is a key area where HP and webOS has some catching up to do with Apple's App Store and even the Android Market: Currently, HP’s app store carries 300 tablet-optimized apps and only 6,200 webOS apps overall. There’s a notable dearth of entertainment apps, for gaming, music, and video streaming. To be competitive, the company must quickly ramp up the number and variety of apps for the TouchPad and other webOS devices it’ll be releasing.

Bottom line: The HP TouchPad has promise. Its original take on navigation and integration with sibling devices set it apart from its competitors. But its design is bulky, performance is uneven, and it needs apps. HP has some fast catching up to do, to be competitive—especially since it’s charging the same price for this tablet as Apple does for the state-of-the-tablet-art iPad. The HP TouchPad is available for pre-order today in two configurations: 16GB for $500, 32GB for $600.