Last week, some of us were invited by HP to take a look at their latest Windows 8 tablets and PCs, as well as printers and accessories. The focus of that evening was of course the tablets. HP showed off two tablets, the HP ElitePad 900 for the enterprise and the HP Envy x2 tablet for the consumers.
We were greeted by Ms Selena welcoming us and thanking us for the support. It has been a while since I last met her. Anyway, she briefed us on what going on at HP and also the achievements from HP.
The next program is the most interesting of all. They invited Irene Ang to introduce to us the tablets and their capabilities. They made a small rotatable stage whereby each segment represents different settings. Here is the first segment. A “living room”
Irene is showing us her “house” and trying to book a flight for a holiday with the tablet.
She is holding the HP Envy x2 with the external keyboard attachment (will show more details later).
With a simple rotation, she is now at the reception of a hotel at her holiday destination.
On the left, she (forgotten her name) is holding a HP ElitePad 900 that can be used seamlessly to check in hotel guests and perform printing wirelessly. And now she is holding on to a tablet jacket that can add more ports to the Elite Pad 900 and also increase the battery life for another 8 hours (total: 18hrs).
And with another rotation, Irene is now sightseeing with her tablet Envy x2.
Then she started to ask people to take pictures of us with her. Here is a fun shot.
Finally, with another rotation, she is back in her “home” in her bathing robe.
With the HP tablet, she is able to sync her information and print out the pictures wirelessly. That is the end of her performance. It was fun watching her do her act.
Next, we were shown how HP has managed to integrate things into our daily life. For example, HP can seamlessly upload the pictures to Snapfish after taking pictures with our smartphone. And when you get to your PC or tablet, the pictures are already synced with them.
We were then given the opportunity to touch the devices and question HP on their products.
HP ElitePad 900
Here is a family shot of the ElitePad 900 and its accessories (BlueTooth mouse and keyboard)
Here is the ElitePad 900 with docking station.
Some views of the tablet.
Bottom view
NFC logo on the tablet. And if you can see, the slot is supposed to be the SIM card slot and the MicroSD card slot.
The 8-MPX camera.
And the volume button is at the back.
As the tablet is using Gorilla Glass 2, we readily use some sharp objects to try to scratch the screen (permission by HP of course).
And expected, nothing happen to the screen 🙂 . Close ups of the docking station.
As you can see, there are quite a number of ports on the dock. One of the best part about this dock is that it is able to dock the tablet properly even with the optional tablet jacket on.
Here are a few pictures of the jacket battery.
The back.
Slipping the tablet into the jacket.
The super thin battery.
I love the idea of the jacket. It provides additional battery life and also provides enough ports for daily usage. According to HP, when the tablet is slotted into this jacket, it will use up the battery in the jacket first. And when it comes to charging, it will charge the tablet first.
Next, lets take a quick look at the HP Envy x2. It has a nice detachable keyboard.
Close ups of the keyboard.
When it is attached to the tablet.
In clam shell mode.
View from the front.
With the keyboard detached.
The connecting point.
Other views of the tablet.
The camera.
I could not understand why HP did not add a SIM card into Envy x2. Both HP ElitePad 900 and Envy x2 have great builds. However, I would think that many might prefer the ElitePad 900 and the keyboard for Envy x2.HP has mentioned to us that although the ElitePad 900 is called the Enterprise tablet, it has not decided yet to sell it to corporate only or to both corporate and consumers.
Many thanks to HP for the invite..
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