Prototype TouchPad Go tablet gets solid reviews

by Steven Mostyn - Dec 29 2011, 11:22

The TouchPad’s recent demise must have been a real kick in the pants for computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP). After sinking so much money into Palm and webOS (approx. $1.2 billion USD), it watched on helplessly as its virgin tablet tanked.

Wow, that must have hurt. And surely the pain only intensified when fickle consumers suddenly flocked to the TouchPad once its price had been hacked down (to $99 USD) in a stock-clearing exercise. The device even outpaced the iPad in tablet sales for a while. Ouch.

And it’s probably best not to focus on the favorable hardware reviews that somehow failed to draw prospective buyers away from Apple’s hugely popular alternative.

Given all that hurt, it’s likely HP isn’t best pleased to see that the prototype TouchPad Go tablet—which probably won’t be put into production—is receiving solid review coverage. Oh dear.

The “paperback sized” tablet in question is notably smaller than its predecessor (7.0 inches as opposed to 9.7 inches) and apparently runs well on a combination of webOS version 3.0.5, a nimble dual-core 1.5GHz processor, and a full gigabyte of RAM.

“It’s actually one of the more powerful seven-inch tablets out there,” commented webOSNation in its video review (see below).

“We found that webOS still works fine on the seven-inch panel,” it added. “And in some aspects, like typing, we actually found there to be improvement.”

It also has Beats Audio sound capabilities, a new if somewhat unspectacular rear-facing camera (5.0 mega pixels and LED flash), a front-facing sensor for video chats, and rubberized finger-smear-resistant rear paneling.

Factor in 32GBs of on-board data storage, 3G radio, a screen resolution of 1024x768 (4:3), and support for high-powered gaming, and the TouchPad Go just might have turned a few heads if the price had been right.

Sadly, however, it looks like we’ll never know.

Around the Web