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HP ElitePad 1000: The De Facto Business Tablet?

Microsoft tasked Forrester to conduct a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study to help businesses weigh the potential financial impact of deploying Windows tablets in their companies.

The following is a summary of the the results:

All these numbers make a very compelling business case.

Personally I have a Windows 8.1 laptop with a touchscreen, but I find myself rarely use the touchscreen for business use. The touchscreen is great for web browsing, showing off a website or proposal to clients, and card games. For things like Microsoft Office and Photoshop, I always go back to using the keyboard and mouse.

Will the new Windows 8 tablets change my mind? I decided to find out.

My experience with tablets is that they’re just casual, consumer devices. Again, great for surfing websites, watching a YouTube video, or showing something off with the pinch to zoom and other multi-touch gestures, but could it really replace a laptop?

Just so you know, I love Android and the iPad and I would venture to guess there’s some way to use either Citrix or VMware to get access to full Windows apps, but I’d rather have native Windows programs support for now.

I’ve been interested in HP’s ElitePad ever since seeing this review last year:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoA8qi7rZLc?rel=0]

I felt it wasn’t really good value for the money. The 2GB of RAM couldn’t be upgraded and the dual core Intel Atom Z2760 felt slow.

So what’s changed with the new HP Elitepad 1000?

Quite a few things actually. Notably:

  1. Processor and memory – In a nutshell, you’re getting double the memory (from 2GB to 4GB) and a faster processor with 2 more cores (dual core to quad core). What this means is a much needed speed boost. For a more in depth comparison, you can check out CPU World or CPU Boss.
  2. Screen resolution – 1280×800 is perfectly fine for a 10-inch display. Now we get a 1920×1200, which may or may not be better from a practicality standpoint. High resolution is great, IF you have a large screen. We’ll see in the long run if 1920×1200 on a 10-inch display can work. Since this is a Windows machine, I’m assuming if the text or icons are too small, you can always reduce your resolution.
  3. Improved build quality – The Elitepad 900 was already a very high quality machine. It looks like HP took it a step further with the scratch and crack resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and an aluminum body engineered to pass MIL-STD 810G testing standards.

 HP ElitePad 1000 Hands on

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3EyKxgstqg?rel=0]

The HP ElitePad 1000 is one of the best looking and lightest business tablets around.

The Final Verdict

If you need the ultimate business tablet for on the go work, it’s tough to beat in terms of portability, battery life, and Windows applications.

If you need to do more intensive stuff on the go, I would check out the EliteBooks since they be equipped with Intel i7 processors.