HP Compaq 2710P ultralight Tablet PC

HP's rolling deep with the lappies today, and while most of them apart from that monster they call the HDX are nothing special, they did announce that new ultralight Tablet PC we'd been hearing about, the HP Compaq 2710P. This one weighs in at 3.6 pounds and has a 1280 x 800 pixel, 12.1-inch widescreen active digitizer display, an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor, 100GB hard drive, up to 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n, optional EV-DO or HSDPA module, and an ExpressCard/54 slot. OS options include Vista, XP, and FreeDOS.

[sentient.exe @ May 9th 2007 1:20AM]

Itsa very niice. How much?

[Sean Jackson @ May 9th 2007 1:42AM]

I would love a tablet if someone would make a sexy one with non integrated graphics. Why is it so difficult?

[kev @ May 9th 2007 10:25AM]

They exist, you nincompoop. The Acer C314 tablet had a GeForce 6200 go in it, and previous Toshiba models did too.

Adding graphics cards means adding more weight, both by the card and by redesigning. Unless the thing has a larger frame, it's not happening.

People have seperate laptops and desktops for a reason. Do you really need to be playing Quake 4 on a tablet?

[Ferny @ May 9th 2007 1:42AM]

is anyone else not liking the imprints on the laptops?

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2007/mobilitysummit/images/dv9000t_radiance-imprint.jpg

[Otaku @ May 9th 2007 2:04AM]

happy to see a new tablet model again.

but i wonder why is no manufacturer able (willing) to release a tablet in with a decent size screen (10 - 12 inch) which has a battery life of over 5 hours, internal optical drive and weights less than 1.5 kg? sony, panasonic, fujitsu and others already have non tablet models which all offer these specs or better. any ideas?

[Chuckles McGee @ May 9th 2007 3:16PM]

I think the tablets' LCDs are slightly thicker (to pick up digitizer input) and require more power because of this. As a result, manufacturers have deciding between a slim optical drive or bigger battery usually opt for the battery. Lack of an optical drive these days is really no big deal, external drives are cheap and fast, and how often do you really need to burn a disc away from your desk in the age of networks and massive USB flash drives?

[Keith @ May 31st 2007 2:33PM]

Having used both a Toshiba R-15 tablet with a decent sized screen and a Compaq tc4400 with the 12 inch screen, I have to say that I prefer the smaller machine. It is much more portable and easier to handle while standing.
I was also glad to see that they offered decent resolution on the screen. The Toshiba resolution was crap. This was an unfortunate side effect of pressure brought to bear by Best Buy in that they refused to sell Toshibas if Toshiba did not stop selling them on their website. By capitulating, consumers were robbed of being able to spec out a decent machine and instead I got stuck with a base line model from Best Buy.

[Christ @ May 9th 2007 3:00AM]

I'd like to know when we're going to get a tablet with more than 256 levels or pressure sensitivity. A Cintiq is out of the question for most graphic designers. If you could get a laptop along with the high-end digitizer preformance it would be an easier pill to swallow. Now excuse me as I go back to reading about the do-it-yourself cintiq's folks are building.

[Glennjamin @ May 9th 2007 3:41AM]

Most tablets with Wacom digitizers support 512 levels of sensitivity, you just need to install the Wacom driver rather than sticking with the default windows one.

[Sean D. @ May 9th 2007 3:14AM]

The Macbook-based Modbook tablet now has a Wacom digitizer with 512 levels of pressure sensitivity, so the technology is definitely out there!

After using my refurbished Gateway M275 tabletPC for a few months, I really don't mind the integrated graphics, or the lacking 256-levels of pressure sensitivity. I use it as a cheap portable Cintiq for drawing animation in flash, and it really does work great for that (and I practically bought it for a song- about as much as a DIY Cintiq, actually)! Zbrush even works pretty well on it. The only wish I have for it is a higher resolution than XGA.

My next portable will definitely be another Tablet, as my productivity has increased by leaps and bounds.

[trev @ May 9th 2007 6:51AM]

Wacom recently updated the firmware on its sensorboards to give users 512 levels of pressure sensitivity, however I think if you already have a tablet with 256 updating the driver wont help - your stuck with what yo got.

more info here - http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?p=45510

And yes, a tablet with integrated graphics would be very nice indeed!

[Aaron @ May 9th 2007 10:15AM]

That's fantastic news. Puts tablet pcs on par with the graphires.

[darkstar @ May 9th 2007 8:42AM]

i dont think 3.6 pounds is ultralight.
2 pounds is more appropriate. the toshiba r200 is tipping the scale of ultralight at 2.6 pounds already.

[trev @ May 9th 2007 11:15AM]

Kev - Acer has stepped out of the tablet game altogether and Toshiba has discontinued its M7 tablet so the only tablets your going to find with a dedicated card are old/discontinued models :P

"People have seperate laptops and desktops for a reason. Do you really need to be playing Quake 4 on a tablet?"

No, but something with a bit more grunt would be useful when running 3d apps such as Z Brush - I dont see why a dedicated card couldnt be installed, its simply a case of giving the user the option to lower the performance of the card to save power/set up different profiles depending on the app being used.

[Aprime @ May 9th 2007 10:50AM]

Definitely getting this for school.

[kev @ May 9th 2007 11:26AM]

You would think that, but the power consumption is still quite heavy. Not only that, integrated graphics are still getting better (especially the fill rate--ha), and the lowest end of graphics cards that would go into these machines would give a slight benefit. Has anyone had a chance to even run benchmarks on the latest chipset?

The bottom line is that utilitarianism wins when it comes to selling these machines. Many, if not most, of the users that these machines are intended for are perfectly happy with the integrated graphics since all their needs for functionality are basic--word processing, writing notes, and marking up documents. Hell, the processor won't say no if you decide to fire up MATLAB either.

[MNA @ May 9th 2007 12:11PM]

SEEEEXXXXXYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! I just had to say it again... ;)

[Information Central @ May 9th 2007 7:28PM]

"has a 1280 x 800 pixel"

HOORAY FOR USING REAL TERMS INSTEAD OF xxVGA+!

THANKS ENGADGET.

[Information Central @ May 9th 2007 7:31PM]

Looks nice, but note the BS four-pin Firewire port.

Come ON, HP, you're defeating the purpose of all of our cool external hard drives when they can't be powered by the computer. Yeah, I want to carry a power brick around with the laptop. And plug it into my coach seat on the plane where, exactly?

[jeremy @ May 9th 2007 10:02PM]

This new tablet isn't the lightest thing in the world, but for a convertible, it's one of the lightest on the market.

However, I don't quite agree w/ HP's decision to go for battery life on the battery/performance balancing act on both the hard drive (1.8inch 4200rpm) AND the processor (ULV instead of LV core 2 duo).

is there any place to get some solid benchmarks on the difference in performance between the ULV, LV, and regular core 2 duos? it would also be of worth to know the real-world battery life difference between the three variances...