Bshrop's Tech Corner

For 2010, a lot of people have been talking about how this will be the beginning of the tablet/slate era. For those that don't know a tablet is basically a laptop with a touch screen and a slate is laptop with touch screen and no keyboard.

At the beginning of the year Apple introduced it's Apple iPad which fits into the "Slate" category. Now everyone had high hopes for the product, but from reading different articles and forums on the Internet, not many people are that excited.

Now, Apple isn't the only company releasing this year. There are several other companies, such as HP and Dell, releasing a slate.

Here's a list and comparison of all the devices from Gizmodo.

I've highlight the two that I think are going to be the best. The HP Slate and the iPad. I already gave my thoughts on the iPad here. Now the HP Slate looks very promising. It has the iPad beaten in just about every aspect; the main being the OS. Now the only point it may not beat the iPad is the battery life. Apple is great with battery life, and I don't think HP will be able to get it up close to those 10hrs. If it can do 5hrs I will be impressed. I mean its running a full computer OS.

The Dell mini seems kinda pointless IMO. I mean 5" screen? You might as well stick with a cell phone. The Archos 7 isn't too bad and does quite a bit. It can even act as a DVR. But no flash, so don't plan on going to YouTube

The JooJoo is an Internet based device. No apps, no multitask, no multimedia. Pretty much useless. Definitely not worth $500. Archos 9 has no multitouch, and uses a regular hard drive and not a SSD like the others.

Conclusion: Keep an eye out on the HP Slate and even the Apple iPad. I think they are the most promising out of the bunch and the ones i'm more willing to drop $500 on