First look at HP Slate 6 and Slate 7 VoiceTab: Cashing in on the phablet craze

HP has announced two new tablets in India with voice-calling capabilities, a segment that’s fast growing in the country. The HP Slate 6 and HP Slate 7-inch tablets both support 3G, have dual-SIM capability and run Android 4.2 build of Jelly Bean. The 6-inch tablet is priced at Rs 22,990, while the 7-inch tablet is priced at Rs 16,990. We spent a few minutes with each tablet at the launch event and here are our first impressions.   Design and build Both the tablets are rectangular in shape with rounded edges. They both have a carbon fibre back which is quite easy to hold and doesn’t feel plasticky or cheap.  HP has also added dual-speakers on the front of both tablets.   It would be fair to say that the HP Slate 6 Voice tab does remind you of the HTC One Max thanks to the front speakers and the large screen. The HP Slate 6 Voice tablet is essentially a phablet and has nearly the same dimensions as the Nokia Lumia 1520. The 6-phablet weighs around 160g, and doesn’t feel too heavy to hold, which is great given its size.   As far as the HP Slate 7 Voice Tab goes, the screen is of course bigger and it also has dual-speakers on the front in silver. The back features the same carbon fibre material but is white. In terms of design, the tablet will yet again remind you of a larger HTC One. It weighs around 325g and handling this tablet can be quite a task, especially if you have another phone in your hand. Even so it’s not particularly heavy. [caption id=“attachment_218215” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] HP Slate 7 tablet. Shruti Dhapola/Tech2[/caption]   The only question with a 7-inch tablet that also has voice calling is whether it’s too big to use for calls?  The answer, of course, would change from person to person, although personally I would not be so keen on making calls with a seven-inch tablet glued to my head simply because it is too cumbersome.   Screen Both HP Slate 6 and 7 VoiceTabs have HD IPS displays. The HP Slate 6 has a screen resolution of 1280x720 pixels, while the HP Slate 7 Voice Tab has a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. When compared to rivals the screen doesn’t really stand out, especially now that you have an iPad mini with Retina Display and the 2013 Nexus 7 , which starts at Rs 20,999 and has a higher 1080p screen resolution. If your budget is anything north of Rs 20,000, you’re unlikely to settle for anything less than a full HD screen.  More importantly if you are used to a full HD screen, the HP tablets doesn’t really impress much. [caption id=“attachment_218217” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] HP Slate 6 tablet. The camera is perhaps the most disappointing feature. Shruti Dhapola/Tech2[/caption] Processors, storage and camera: Both tablets use a Marvell  PXA1088 1.2GHz Quad-core, come with 1 GB RAM and 16 GB storage. HP is also offering 25 GB cloud storage space free for lifetime from box.com, which is quite a fairly decent amount of cloud storage. In addition to this there is a microSD slot, which has a 32 GB limit. If you want storage the HP tablets have plenty to offer, at least for the price range that they are being sold at. For instance, the new Nexus 7 with 3G connectivity starts at Rs 27,999 and is only available in the 32 GB version in India.   The most disappointing feature about the tablets is  perhaps the  camera. Both  have a 5-megapixel camera on the back and a 2-megapixel  front camera. While the front camera sounds par for the course, the five-megapixel camera is a disappointment, especially on the Slate 6. Given that HP has priced this tablet higher than the 7-inch one, we expect to see a better camera than the 5-megapixel one. A 5-megapixel camera on a 6-inch device that’s priced over Rs 20,000 will not appeal to many buyers.   Connectivity This is one area where both tablets do exceptionally well as they have have 3G with voice-calling capability, and are dual-SIM friendly. The HP Slate 7 is likely to give a tough competition to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 3 with 3G which is available in the market for nearly Rs 17,000 but with 8GB storage. Other connectivity options on both tablets include: Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi and microUSB 2.0 for charging and interfacing.   Battery  The HP Slate 6 tablet has a 3000 mAh Li-Polymer battery while the HP Slate 7 has a 4100 mAh Li-Polymer. According to HP, both tablets should last a day even on 3G, which on paper sounds great. Whether the two tablets do actually deliver on the battery front can only been seen once we’ve put them through the paces.   Pricing With HP’s new tablets it all boils down to pricing. The fact that the six-inch tablet is more expensive than the 7-inch is strange. The 7-inch tablet is priced at Rs 16,990, and it is a fairly strong price by HP. The company is using the tagline, “Smarter than a Phone” for these tablets, but you wouldn’t be wrong if you thought the six-incher was a smartphone in the first place, given some of the recent launches .  But a Rs 22,990 price tag might just be too high a price for some users who want say a better camera, a full HD display and a better processor.   As far as the 7-inch tablet goes, it seems like a fairly good deal, if you’re looking to a buy a new tablet from a reputable brand. The screen isn’t too bad, you’ve got 3G and dual-SIM support, and a good amount of internal storage all for under Rs 17,000. The only thing that might be deal breaker for some is the rather unknown Marvell processor, when you might have hoped for Qualcomm or even MediaTek. But that’s what has helped HP keep the pricing low and we will have to see how it actually performs before totally writing it off.