HP Slatebook x2 Tegra 4 Tablet Mini-Review

Angus66

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2011
151
11
I've been wanting to try out a Tegra 4 tablet ever since the Toshiba Ecite Pro & Write were released earlier this month. I can't find any local stores selling the Toshiba tabs, but my local Microcenter recently received a small shipment of the new HP Slatebook x2.
I picked one up yesterday to compare it against my Acer A700 that I've used for the last 10 months or so..

So I've been playing with the Slatebook x2 for ~ 8 -- 10 hours or so now. My thoughts and opinions in no particular order:


The 1920 x 1200 display is similar to my A700 screen in the areas of sharpness, contrast and black levels. Color reproduction in movies and images is slightly "warm" and the screen has a definite yellow, oily/dirty tint to it.
This is very obvious when looking at a completely white image but can still be noticed just browsing web pages. This is easily my least favorite aspect of this tablet.

HPx2vsA7001200x900_zps667643f1.jpg


The above image is the best I could do with my N7 FHD. The difference is a little more noticeable in person. The 27" LG LCD above them both is also bluer/cleaner than the HP x2 tablet.

The overall build quality seems high - it doesn't creak and/or flex that I can tell. The edge where the front and rear sections come together is a little sharp.
The rear of the tablet is very smooth with a slightly satin finish - it feels the same as many of Samsung's past tablets like the Galaxy Tab 2 series. Although the finish looks nice, it's a pain to hold/handle without losing your grip.

The HP x2 tablet is a little lighter than my A700 (1.32 lbs vs 1.5 lbs) so it feels lighter to me but it's still no lightweight.

The speakers are on the face of the tablet on the bottom left/right corners. They play quite loud and the quality is above average compared to other tablets that I've owned or used.
They are still tiny tablet speakers though so don't get your hopes up.
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Tablet did not get hot while playing a 2 1/2 hour HD movie streaming from my home network. The battery went from 100% down to 71% while watching the film.
Neither watching the movie nor browsing the web for extended periods of time made the tablet more than slightly warm on the bottom rear.

The power adapter is big (like a laptop brick) and both cords in/out of the brick are heavy-duty. It did charge the tablet reasonably fast but the idea of having to drag it around with me isn't very appealing.
There also seems to be no USB adapter yet (although one was on the HP site and then pulled) to plug directly into the tablet portion -- as of now USB connection must be made through the keyboard dock. HDMI and SD ports are also on the dock.
The actual tablet portion only has the charging port, power button, volume up/down, headphone jack and microSD slot.

I haven't mentioned performance yet as I haven't really stressed the Tegra 4 as of now. First impression is the x2 is very snappy - apps open quickly and web browsing is fast and smooth.

I'll post more info later this weekend...
 
Last edited:

edap

Senior Member
Dec 12, 2012
1,120
106
Early reviews thus far seem to be decent among users and being one of the first Tegra 4 Android devices available in stores, HP has first mover advantage with the SlateBook 10 x2. The site is offering a 5% discount off the retail price of $479. Just use coupon : SVD8492 (expiration date unknown).
 
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