HP SlateBook x2 Targets iPad with $479 Detachable Android Tablet
HP is going right after the iPad with the SlateBook x2, the first Android detachable tablet with Nvidia's powerful Tegra 4 processor inside. Available in August, this hybrid slate has a full HD 10.2 inch display and a keyboard dock with its own battery.
Context & Ripple Effects
HP has cycled through tablet strategies without finding one that sticks: a $549 Atom-powered Slate back in 2010, a $699 Windows-and-stylus Slate 2 in 2011, and last August's Envy x2 Windows hybrid. Each attempt leaned on Windows hardware at prices above the iPad's.
The SlateBook x2 changes two variables at once — the OS moves to Android and the price drops to $479 — while keeping the keyboard-dock hybrid format. It is also the first detachable built on Nvidia's Tegra 4, making it a marquee design win for that chip, and the breadth of same-day pickups across Engadget, CNET, ZDNet, BetaNews, Inquirer and others shows how much attention an HP-versus-iPad angle still commands.
First-order effects
- HP enters the sub-$500 detachable segment directly against Apple this August, offering a full HD 10.2-inch screen plus a keyboard dock carrying its own battery — utility the iPad lacks without add-ons.
- Nvidia gets its first confirmed Android-detachable showcase for Tegra 4, a retail device that demonstrates the chip against Apple's in-house silicon in the exact category Apple defines.
Second-order effects
- Rival PC makers selling Windows hybrids now face pressure to justify their higher prices, or follow HP in swapping Android under the same detachable chassis.
- Nvidia's mobile-chip business gains leverage: every competing tablet maker evaluating Tegra 4 now has a shipping HP product to benchmark rather than a reference board.
Third-order effects
- HP's path — Windows Slate, Windows hybrid, then Android hybrid — treats the operating system as a swappable component, a hedge that points toward PC vendors running whichever OS clears the channel fastest.
- If the detachable-plus-dock format holds at mainstream prices, the boundary between the tablet and notebook categories erodes into one converging product line where chipmakers like Nvidia compete head-on with vertically integrated players like Apple.
The trend: PC makers are iterating through operating systems and hybrid form factors in search of a credible iPad challenger, turning OS choice itself into a competitive variable.