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HP Focuses on Business for Mobility


HP has unveiled eight new mobile devices for enterprise and education use, running Windows or Android. The company has not shared full specifications for some of these units yet, however.

We saw several of the education-focused tablets at BETT this month – watch for them in the event report in our next issue.

The HP Pro Slate 8 (not to be confused with the Slate 8 Pro) and Pro Slate 12 are 7.9″ and 12.3″ units, with a new smart pen called the Duet Pen. This device is said to be the first to use Qualcomm Snapdragon digital pen technology on both digital and physical surfaces. Users can draw or write (the nib can be swapped for an ink-based one) on a flat surface; the Duet Pen produces ultrasonic sounds that are received by microphones on the tablet, so the resulting image will appear on the digital screen.

Both Pro Slate tablets use 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800-series processors and 2GB of RAM, running Android 4.4. They are 8mm thick, and the smaller model’s screen is protected by Corning’s new Gorilla Glass 4 product. Speaking of screens, both tablets have a 4:3 aspect ratio, like Apple’s iPad: the Pro Slate 8 has 2048 x 1536 resolution and the Pro Slate 12 has 1600 x 1200.

Pricing is $450 for the Pro Slate 8 and $570 for the Pro Slate 12.