HP's new tablets, including Slate 7 Plus, just snuck onto shelves

HP slate tablets
Four new HP tablets went on sale yesterday

HP snuck four new tablets onto shelves this week, likely hoping to take advantage of the droves of shoppers surfing online during Cyber Monday.

The new HP tablets were first announced in September, and they include the HP Slate7 Plus, the HP Slate7 Extreme, the HP Slate8 Pro and the HP Slate10 HD.

All four new HP slates run Android 4.2: Jelly Bean, and they're all available for purchase on HP's official site as of yesterday.

But two of the tablets announced in September, the HP Slate7 HD and HP Omni 10, are strangely absent from Cyber Monday's releases.

Missing slates

The Omni 10 in particular stood out from that pack as a Windows 8.1 tablet with an Intel Atom Z3000 chip. The company's official site says it will be out in December, but we haven't heard anything else.

We've asked HP to clarify if and when the HP Slate7 HD and HP Omni 10 will be released, and we'll update here if they tell us.

In the meantime, let's take a look at the slate that HP did launch this week.

Slates upon slates

The HP Slate7 Plus packs a 7-inch 1280 x 800 display, Tegra 3 chip, 8GB of storage, microSD expansion, and a reported six hours of battery life for $150 (about £91, AU$164).

The HP Slate7 Extreme has the same display specs as the Plus but otherwise features better specs with 16GB of storage, a Tegra 4, microSD and HDMI ports, and an additional four hours of battery life. It's also $50 more expensive at $200 (about £121, AU$218).

Things get interesting with the Slate8 Pro, which packs an 8-inch screen, a Tegra 4, and a front-facing camera that takes 720p video. It lasts for 11.5 hours and costs $330 (about £201, AU$361).

Lastly the Slate10 HD is the biggest with a 10-inch HD display, a Marvell PXA986 dual-core processor, dual cameras, and 16GB of storage for just $300 (about £182, AU$328).

HP faces stiff competition in the tablet market, though with so many slates on the market something just might stick.

Looking for an Android tablet? Search no further than TechRadar's list of the 10 best Android tablets in the world!

Via CNET

Michael Rougeau

Michael Rougeau is a former freelance news writer for TechRadar. Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Northeastern University, Michael has bylines at Kotaku, 1UP, G4, Complex Magazine, Digital Trends, GamesRadar, GameSpot, IFC, Animal New York, @Gamer, Inside the Magic, Comic Book Resources, Zap2It, TabTimes, GameZone, Cheat Code Central, Gameshark, Gameranx, The Industry, Debonair Mag, Kombo, and others.


Micheal also spent time as the Games Editor for Playboy.com, and was the managing editor at GameSpot before becoming an Animal Care Manager for Wags and Walks.