Touchpad VS Ipad and How the Tablet Killed My Laptop

A few weeks ago, I was able to snag an HP Touchpad during their firesale.  It just arrived a few days ago.  I am loving it.

For those of you not geeky enough to be aware, HP scrapped its Touchpad only a few months after hitting the market.  It began to sell its remaining stock of $499 and $599 Touchpads for $99 and $149.

Since I got my first Tablet (Ipad for free) last year, my laptop gets very little usage. At one time, I was beginning to believe that I would never get another desktop... why get a desktop when a laptop has all of its power and portability too?

However, I now believe that the Tablet has saved the desktop computer, and is sending laptops down the food chain. For my everyday web tasks, movies and music, reading, etc., I find myself pulling out a Tablet. When I need to do publishing or data work, I turn to my desktop. The laptop regularly gathers a fine layer of dust.

Perhaps it is because my HP Touchpad has the novelty of new that I presently use it more; but, as nice as the Ipad is, I think the Touchpad outpaces it on several levels. Which is a shame, since a year from now Ipad will still be head of the pack, and the Touchpad production lines will have long since been dismantled.

So where does the Touchpad outperform the Ipad?

Interface: The WebOS reminds me of how I used to feel about my Palm Pilot. There is a logic and fluidity to it's interface. I love the card system that it uses; it allows you to keep items open in a more natural sense than does the Ipad. I also like the status table in the upper right which allows you to make quick adjustments to screen lock, wifi, brightness, etc. Such things are more cumbersome to adjust in the Ipad. It also allows information updates to scroll across the upper screen, rather than interrupting what I am doing with a blue box in the middle of my screen.

Integration: WebOS weaves primary programs together elegantly. Facebook, Skype, Calendar, Contacts, etc.... all know each other is there and allows them to interface at appropriate levels.

File Transfer: No Itunes? Lovely! I wish the Touchpad had an SD slot, but at least when you plug it into the computer it acts as an external drive. Moving files back and forth on the Ipad is simply painful. With the Touchpad, I can quickly move 200 comics to the appropriate folder. To perform that same task on the Ipad would require me to load them one at a time through Dropbox or watch Itunes get overloaded by the quantity. So even though the Ipad has a good comic reader, I never used it because moving the files over was just too laborious. I use my Touchpad to read comics all the time, because moving an entire series over happens in seconds.

Volume: If I want to watch something with my Ipad while cooking breakfast, I have to attach external speakers. The Ipad simply isn't loud enough. The Touchpad has twice the volume capability of the Ipad.

Hulu: I get Hulu on the Touchpad, but Netflix on the Ipad. Netflix would make the Touchpad perfect.

Browsing: The Ipad has this extremely annoying trait of refreshing your screen, whether you want it to or not. So when perusing Facebook, I have a choice to make.... Do I want to look at the article my friend posted, or do I want to keep the place I have scanned through to on the Newsfeed? When I go to my friend's article, even if I opened a new screen to view it, the Ipad is going to take me back to the begining of my Newsfeed. Very frustrating if you have already gone several pages down. The Touchpad brings me right back to where I left off.

Keyboard: The Touchpad uses a full virtual keyboard, rather than making you go to a second keyboard to use numbers or various punctuation.

It seems to me that the only place the Ipad outperforms the Touchpad is with its app and accessory selection... however, this does not pertain to the machine itself.

There is no doubt that the Ipad is a great machine... I just find the Touchpad to be better.