Community RoundUp - HP TouchPad Reviews Galore! 37
If you want to read more real-world reviews of the new HP TouchPad, our community members are some of the best to listen to.
You've no doubt already read our mega-review of the HP TouchPad that we published just last week, and in the days that followed, you've seen a number of in-depth looks at the various features and apps that the TouchPad has brought us. But a few reviews from our small team here are likely not enough for the majority of tech enthusiasts out there thinking about purchasing the latest tablet device. Luckily, our community members and developers are all awesome people, and we have seen a plethora of TouchPad reviews pop up in our forums and across the web from people who have just bought the new gadget.
Click through the break to see a wide variety of HP TouchPad reviews and video tutorials (like the one above) from people all over the world and from different walks of life. If you've seen other reviews that you'd like to add, or just want to share your opinion of the TouchPad, hit the comments below and leave something there for the rest of us to read.
- The Ultimate Collection: There is no doubt that we are going to miss a few great reviews as we get started with our list below, so first you should take a look at our HP TouchPad discussion forums, where most of our community is actively posting unique thoughts and reviews about the tablet. After you're done reading through the other ones we've shared, take a look in this forum to see what else you might find.
- A former Palm Pre user on Sprint, now turned Android, recently read through some of the negative reviews of the TouchPad that come from "tech experts", and decided to go with a Galaxy Tab instead. Luckily for them, though, the display of the HP TouchPad at the store they were visiting caught their eye, and after trying it out for a few minutes, they were "smitten" with delight. Read their short review and experience in our forums here.
- With a little bit more detail than other reviews we've found, graylion has shared his experience as a business user, rather than as a developer or tech blogger, and it's a good rundown of both the good and the bad in the device. As an owner of an iPad, he has some good perspective when it comes to looking at the features and capabilities of the device, so give him a look here.
- If you want to catch a few video comparisons of the TouchPad and the iPad 2, Asaseaban has got us hooked up with some good ones, including the one we loaded above. See his comparisons of applications, email features, the full web browser and a bit more in his thread here. He is also open to suggestions for other videos as well, so put yours in for him to see - we'll look forward to watching them.
- Zhephree is one of those guys that "never liked the idea of owning a tablet", though now that he has a TouchPad in his hands (for development purposes, he built Foursquare for webOS), that thought has changed a bit. As one commenter said, "this is the review every standard consumer should read." It's very good, and hits a lot of the points that are actually important to consumers. Read more on his blog, and then check out his apps in the catalog.
- If you're going to be using a TouchPad at your office every day, there might come a time when you need to connect to the VPN. A number of users have shared their experiences so far with it, and while there's still not much to share just yet, there are still some very interesting comments over here.
- It's a TouchPad Review Rant that has found its way into this thread in our forums by i2y4n, and they raise some very good points as they begin to experience the TouchPad for themselves. Yes, there are some problems with the current iteration of the tablet, but for them, the pros and good experiences far outweigh the negatives. What do you think?
- It's a long list of TouchPad likes and dislikes that has grabbed our attention in the forums. Vasekvi, a new TouchPad owner, gives a comprehensive list of nearly every praise and complaint a person might have about the device, and a few other users have responded in kind. A good quick review for you list lovers that want to hear about actual experiences, and not just raw data.
- Perhaps the best reviews of the TouchPad are the simplest ones, and it doesn't get much simpler than this. Calcmandan apparently loves his TouchPad enough to start a thread about it, and asks if anyone else loves their's in the same way. What results is several pages of users commenting about their favorite features, and a few even joke about borrowing money to buy one for themselves. It's all in good fun, and raises our spirits after a long day of listening to negative comments. Hopefully you'll enjoy it, too.
37 Comments
Wow, this is sad. Professional reviewers think the TouchPad is a poor to average tablet? Let's compile a list of WebOS fan reactions instead!
So we aren't allowed to share what our readers think of the TouchPad? Because it would suck to find out that something so important to us as our readers is actually looked down upon by other members in our community.
Also, only a few reviews have called it less than average. Most say that it is much better than the competition, but still not as complete as the iPad 2 or Galaxy Tab. Those opinions are great and well respected amongst our group here.
Of course you can share what your readers think of the TouchPad. Surely you can see how desperate this looks, though.
LOL..."those opinions are well-respected here"?
Almost every reviewer has been savaged repeatedly on the forums as an Apple fanboy or paid Apple advocate "unfairly" giving due weight to laggy performance and slow app loading while not scoring higher based on the sure-to-come-to-fruition promises of magic updates to fix everything and touch-to-share functionality that consists of transferring a URL back and forth and using your tablet as an overpriced speakerphone.
Almost all are dishing our 6/7 out of 10 reviews. When Samsung and Apple are PROMPTLY (ahem) releasing tablets AND phones getting 8/9 out of 10, is it any wonder why no headway is being made? Or why the Touchpad never rose above the Transformer or the Xoom, much less the Galaxy Tab 10.1 or iPad on the Amazon bestseller list this weekend?
Yes, you should share what readers think. No, you shouldn't pretend that objective reviews are "respected" around these parts.
First of all, this review is flawed, period.
First, the reason why one cannot attach a file to an email on an iPad is because this has to be done WITHIN AN APP. In other words, what ever app a user is in has to have a command option to attach a file to an email. When a user selects this option (again, from within an app) only THEN will the iPad attach a file to an email. This is for security reasons.
Second, one cannot attach a random file with an iPad because of the way that the file system is secured. If a file is not in an app's "sandbox" then he or she does not have access to any other files on the system, except those that are related to that particular application.
Let's stop complaining about the iPad without having all the facts.
Dan Uff
That's exactly right. On the iPad, documents live within applications. To email a document, you have to do it from within the application that owns the document. For example, if you want to email a PDF that's in iBooks, launch the iBooks app, select the PDF to read it, and then press the button with the arrow graphic (on the top left of the screen) and select Email.
While techies and devs completely understand this, the average user does not. If my parents can't figure out how to attach something, all **** will break loose. This is simply a user experience perk, which is what the 'average' user needs.
This is an explanation, but this still doesn't make it suck less.
The whole point is that you don't have to open a separate app to send an attachment via email. You just attach the file like one normally does. It's much more intuitive this way.
If you REALLY want to initiate an email within the app you can do that too.
This really comes down to document- vs. application-centric interfaces. In document-centric interfaces, the user deals with their documents and media primarily instead of with applications. This idea is not new and has been attempted (unsuccessfully) a number of times before. Microsoft tried it with Cairo (which was to be a future version of Windows) and Apple and IBM tried it with Taligent (which was supposed to be the next version of Mac OS, instead of OS X and iOS). None of these products ever shipped as they were canceled before the public ever saw them. Interestingly enough, the closest thing we have to that way of thinking in the mobile space now is Windows Phone 7 with their hubs concept. It reminds me of Taligent's "People, Places, and Things" metaphor.
So, yes, many researchers will argue that document-centric is better. However, getting there is tough. And it has to do with common file/data formats that all software must understand.
If fact, the only reason that people even think of "attaching a file" to email is because of the common file formats that we have today (e.g., PDF, MP3, PNG, JPG, TXT, etc.) Some people would argue (probably most people at Apple) that users shouldn't even have to know about files and file formats.
In many cases, a file may not even exist. For example, consider a To Do List app. It may let you create to-do lists, but it may store those internally in a database (i.e., there is no file to email). Regardless, people still want to be able to email their to-do lists. To do so, the app has to query the database, construct the to-do list, and then create an email that has the to-do list formatted for email. Some people would argue that it's a much better (and much simpler) approach to do this within the to-do list app itself rather than to require the email app to know how to query about every app's data or require the user to figure out which file in the system contains the to-do list that they want to email. And yes, the only reason people look for files to email (what you call "intuitive") is because that's what they know from Windows and Mac. But if they weren't trained to do that from within an email app, it probably wouldn't be intuitive at all. Having to browse the file system within an email app looking for the information you want to email is really a bad experience if you think about it. (How do you know you are selecting the correct file, for one?)
Others would argue that a more document-centric architecture is a better approach so that people work primarily with their data and not their applications (i.e., you would email the document directly from the document itself, selecting the document in the OS and saying "email" rather than from within an email app or from within the app that created it). iOS and Android are certainly application-centric. It would be a huge distinguishing characteristic if webOS was document-centric, but it's certainly not there yet. And it's not clear that that's even HP's vision.
i'm not a mac user. but is this how it works there too? you have to open the applicatin to send an attachment?
how does it work when you want to send 3 different document types? say a song, a word document, and it's PDF version? do i have to send 3 different emails?
good point. guess you should not expect an answer from the ipad crowd. you indeed have to send 3 different emails. so much to app-centric versus document centric. lol !
it rather comes down to, can do and can not do :-)
That to me is dumb. If I am in the middle of an email and want to attach a picture, then what ? leave email open photos app then choose photo for email, then go back to the composed email, copy the content , paste in the email with photo attached , Wow. I am tired.
Wait a second that is Apple way of doin things, it must be better.
It's typically not that involved.
While composing an email from the email app, you would press the home button and choose the photos app. In the photos app, press and hold on the photo you want and select copy from the popup menu. Double-press the home button to go back to email. Touch and hold on the email document and select paste.
Looks like webOS saves you two touches.
@GeorgeY, you say "It's typically not that involved", but then the process you describe is fundamentally identical to the one gbp described. He said copy-paste the text, you said copy-paste the photo.
I find the doc-centric way far more intuitive; easy vs hard is irrelevant when the hard way is more natural.
Touchpad screen sure looks dull sitting next to the iPad in that clip.
Is it just a brightness setting or is that the best it can do?
Well, it is true that we may be a little more tolerant than most. However, you are also looking at the biggest user base for this device. So either go with one persons opinion or many(here). Tim, you are so right that this info needs to be shared. And Ninja, and Mikah let me put this up against your iPads in terms of speed. I bet I can launch 8 apps to your 3...
Is launching 8 apps simultaneously a typical workflow?
I would imagine that the typical tablet user would prefer launching 3 apps of substance rather than Glyder, a read-only version of QuickOffice, and Wallpaper Switcharoo HD.
The same reason people do speed tests and benchmarks. And go ahead and pick on the apps, but at least we didn't claim that copy and paste was a new thing that is magical!
What is your argument going to be when QuickOffice is updated? Are you still going to say having multiple apps open isn't a "typical workflow"?
I'm a graphic artist. At work it is normal for me to have my email, adobe bridge, photoshop, illustrator, indesign, rip software, safari and firefox up at all times. What a pain that would be to have to open and close each one to use!
It doesn't take a leap of faith to imagine how having multiple apps open makes workflow smoother, especially the way webOS handles the multitasking. Just because it's not something you would use does not mean it's not useful.
Ironic that you should say this, since just about a week ago my bro-in-law challenged me to a "how many apps can you run" contest, Mac vs PC, and was genuinely surprised when my PC was just as good as his Mac.
And yes, on webOS, I routinely have email, web, music, messaging, another web, compose email, Internalz Pro, photos, and nav open at the same time. I have had 12 cards open at once before, and it was real usage, not just trying to crash it.
I'm running a FrankenPre on Sprint, btw. Someone bring their iPhone over to sprint and do what I just described. THAT to me is the beauty of webOS: openness, homebrew, and webOS-internals!!! :D
How about put it up against my HP Mini 311 with Nvidia Ion from three years ago that boots up faster with full Windows 7, has a better browser, plays Flash better, multitasks better, is just as light, has kazillions more apps, has a higher resolution, bigger screen, costs half as much and has tens times the storage?
I would say look at my forum posts where I've disparaged iPad again and again and again, but no one's allowed in there without a blood loyalty oath anymore, so....
ok I am a real person with with a touchpad in a family of ipad2 owners..... my experience has been excellent for what I use it for. My dad is jealous and wants webos, my brother showed off all of his apps (which kicked the trash off my touchpad) but later found out that 276 apps that he has, he only used like 12. and my brother in law got his as a gift from his boss, and only used it to surf the web and play some games. so for the web he liked mine more (flash) and the games he like his more.
all in all, the touchpad didnt "slay" the ipad2 but my family was very impressed
As an aside, has webOS user advocacy ever worked? It didn't work for the Pre when some people decided to "go viral." It didn't work for the Pre Plus made their own commercials for it. The "Veer Peer" campaign doesn't seem to be yielding any results.
Ninja, go blow off your fingers or something, instead of trying to cut something you don't have! Bigriggs, posted a very realistic opinion, that is what is appreciated here not mindless hate!
Sorry, I forgot this should be a place where the TouchPad is a good tablet, developers are working on WebOS apps, and the Pre 3 is coming out in the summer.
you need to **** /s
Ok, I will stop before I feed them after mid-night!
I often have 6 to 7 apps open on my phone:
Email, calculator, calendar, newsreader of some form, note taking app, perhaps a game, maybe a second newsreader (local paper plus BBC for example), sometimes a conversion calculator, pdf viewer.
Surprising, but 8 apps open is common.
This guy has a video where he opens a PDF in the touchpad, and then on the iPad, the difference in speed is scaring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHyj158qUDU&t=1m10s
At this state, it can't compete with either the iPad or the Android tablets.
If the TouchPad ran iOS then I would be upset at such a difference in speed. As it is, the TouchPad runs webOS, so it doesn't really matter what the iPad does.
It does, because the iPad 2 is the Touchpad direct competitor...
I'm a big fan of the webOS UI, but this guy just doesn't know how to use an iPad (which may be an indication that the iPad UI is not obvious).
Anyway, you can do exactly what he wants to do on the iPad. In the email, press and hold on the attachment icon. A menu will popup that will allow you to open the attachment in another app (provided that you have one installed on your system that can handle the document type).
Then you can switch between your email app and the other app that has the attachment open by double-pressing the home button.
It cracks me up when people complain about differences in seconds. It's like the old jokes about fat people yelling at microwaves to hurry up!! lol
Well, since it is so hard to get documents onto the iPad in the first place, I've never needed to attach a file on my iPad. Instead, "attach-worthy" files are always either on my MacBook or Pre, both of which had no issues with attaching files.
GeorgeY
What attachment icon? I thought I didn't know how to use my iPad either and tried your methodology. I opened a new email, input to send the email to my google account as a test and then searched for the attachment icon. Is this only on the ipad2? Or am I missing something?
Please never link to that guy's videos again.