HP TouchPad review
The TouchPad, HP's webOS-based tablet, is finally here. Does it have what it takes to take on all the other tablets out there or is it already a has-been? Chris Finnamore flexes his fingers and finds out in our review.
HP's TouchPad may be currently hamstrung by a lack of choice in the App Catalog, but the webOS operating system and integrated applications are so good that they go a long way towards compensating. Multitasking is handled better than on Apple and Android tablets and, document editing aside, the TouchPad feels like the first tablet we've used which can truly stand up to business use - where you have several tasks on the go and need to flick easily between them.Once there's a decent Office document editing suite in the App Catalog and some of the glitches are ironed out, particularly in the calendar, HP's TouchPad could be the tablet to beat. Until then however, we'd recommend waiting until these issues are resolved before considering a roll out. If you need to roll out a tablet now, the iPad 2 is still our top pick.
The webOS keyboard on the HP TouchPad generally works well.
Copy and paste in webOS works almost identically to the way it does in iOS.
Our reactions to the TouchPad's calendar app were more mixed. It supports multiple calendars and displays each in a different, pleasing pastel shade, and the buttons at the top make it easy to turn each calendar on and off. However, when you flick between days it has a strange habit of defaulting to one o'clock in the morning, meaning you have to scroll down to find the time of day when you're awake (and so are likely to have entries in your calendar). It's also the slowest-running of the TouchPad's integrated apps we found it fairly jerky when scrolling around.
An Office-compatible editing suite has yet to appear in the HP App Catalog. This is a serious drawback and one we hope will be rectified soon.
Although you can open Word, PowerPoint and Excel files sent to you as attachments and the TouchPad lets you view documents stored in the cloud at Google Docs, looking is all you can do; the supplied Quickoffice app doesn't have an edit function and an Office-compatible editing suite has yet to appear in the HP App Catalog. This is a serious drawback and one we hope will be rectified soon.
Office files on the TouchPad look but don't edit.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2026 report - the leading resource for IT decision-maker insight on priorities and investment areas in AI, security and more.
-
Cyber researchers issue warning over 'phishing pages that exist only inside the victim’s browser'News A blob URL renders and delivers the phishing page inside the target’s own browser, making it harder for security scanners to spot
By Emma Woollacott Published
-
Google announces €13 billion infrastructure build-out in burgeoning European data center hubNews Google is capitalizing on the Finland data center market, with investments in digital and energy infrastructure
By Ross Kelly Published
-
OpenAI and Anthropic admit rogue AI agents did more than first thoughtNews The two companies have shared additional details on agent misbehavior
By Nicole Kobie Published