MWC 2011: Hands-off with the HP TouchPad tablet
Can’t touch this
This latest edition of our hands-on series with the major tablets on show at the Mobile World Congress 2011 is a little bit different from the norm.
It’s not because of the WebOS operating system (although that is admittedly different from everything else out there), nor is it the 1.2 Qualcomm dual-core Snapdragon CPU (faster than the rest).
Nope, it’s because the friendly staff at the HP stand refused point-blank to let anyone, from press to partners of the company, touch the device.
Get your hands off me!Still, we made some observations of the device in action (handled by the stand assistant), including some of the neat new visual tricks and UI tweaks it employs to make it stand out from the crowd of me-too Android models.
Though not the PlayBook, which features a similar-looking multi-tasking function in which the apps are laid out in the centre of the screen and can be flicked between at leisure.
Where the TouchPad does get one over RIM’s business tablet is in another bit of visual panache – a beautiful ripple effect that creeps away from the point of impact on screen. If you can touch the screen, that is.
Stop holding me, you brute!'Synergy' is the other feature that the first WebOS tablet has going for it – a search system that can grab matches for everything from contacts and conversations to installed applications.
After rubbing our faces in it by forcing us to "feel the keyboard" on the two new Pal-‘HP’ Pre 3 and Veer handsets (but not actually hold or operate them), the man with the TouchPad demonstrated one last time how easy it was to email someone and then slunk away to another side of the stand.
To be fair to HP, the reps did make it clear (several times) that there were still a few kinks to work out of the operating system before launch, rumoured to be around June, but it was still a shame that we weren't able to get our hands on the device.
For a great example of what was happening, direct your eyeballs in the direction of the video below and enjoy what happened when the man next to me started touching the TouchPad.
