HP ElitePad 900 Business Tablet Preview

Ganny | October 1, 2012 | 0 Comments

HP has announced its ElitePad 900 Windows 8 tablet, releasing the first official images. As HP has said earlier, it is currently looking to grab the enterprise market and the ElitePad 900 is being marketed as such. At first glance, the ElitePad 900 might seem to some, like a familiar design. This could be because this is the same tablet which showed its face a few times before in HP ads, unintentionally. ElitePad 900 comes in a sleek aluminium backed package with a black strip at the top end of the rear cover, which houses communication hardware such for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

The screen is a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution display, covered in Gorilla Glass. This Intel powered Windows 8 tablet uses an Atom ‘Clover Trail’ mobile processor, the second generation, dual core Atom processor, which features many power saving features along with integrated Intel graphics. The tablet gets 2GB of RAM and up to 64GB of SSD storage.

The tablet sports a full HD camera for video conferencing and a 8MP camera at the rear. Apart from Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, ElitePad 900 also offers mobile broadband and NFC. Sensors include accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, and an ambient light sensor.

HP offers a single MicroSD card reader on the ElitePad 900 but not a single USB port. But this is perhaps because HP intends us to use USB ports with the accessories it is providing. There are two kinds. There is a lightweight dock with a rubberised feel to it and on the sides of which are all the required ports. Four USB ports, HDMI and VGA connectors, a line-out jack and Gigabit Ethernet. The second accessory comes in the form of covers for the tablet. There are more than one kind of cover available. One comes in clamshell design with integrated keyboard and another comes as a simple plastic jacket, sporting USB ports, a card reader, an HDMI port and even a removable battery. HP is likely to release more covers in the future.

This is an interesting design idea HP has chosen, that of freeing the tablet off of all the ugly looking ports from the sides, making it look clean – just like an iPad – and instead provide all the ports (more than the tablet can, by itself hold) on accessories, making it mandatory for the consumer to purchase it. While, not everyone might favour this idea, being a business tablet this should not be a problem.

HP will provide tools to protect BIOS and encrypt storage space as part of its enterprise package. Also included will be a host of HP business legacy softwares. Release date and pricing details will be announced closer to launch date, which is in January.