The HP TouchPad Review: webOS on the Big Screen
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 17, 2011 11:11 PM ESTMessaging
A killer feature of the original Palm Pre was its integrated messaging client - something still not duplicated today by any first party. The idea is really nothing revolutionary, we have had unified messaging clients on the desktop for over a decade now, but that doesn't make its impact here any less special.
The TouchPad's Messaging app currently supports AIM, Google, Skype and Yahoo accounts. I would like to see HP make Messaging truly universal on the TouchPad and add support for MSN and Facebook Messenger here as well. The absence of Facebook chat here is a bit of a shame considering the high quality of the Facebook app itself and the integration of Facebook contacts into the OS.
The UI is a pretty standard two column layout - contacts on the left, conversations on the right. Like many other multi-paned UIs in webOS 3, you can make the conversation window full screen if you'd like by swiping to the left.
Messaging leverages Synergy and allows you to quickly switch between IM protocols mid conversation without losing your history.
On the Pre this was most useful for having a conversation over AIM and then continuing it over SMS if your contact left their desk and went mobile. I don't know many use cases where you'd switch between IM services in the middle of a conversation, but thankfully HP included support for sending/receiving SMSes on the TouchPad.
The feature only works with phones running webOS 2.2 or later, which already eliminates a large portion of the population. But I'm hoping that HP either opens it up to other devices or puts out more competitive smartphones so more users can begin to take advantage of this feature.
All you need to do is pair your webOS phone to the TouchPad via Bluetooth and you can use the tablet to send/receive text messages. The SMSes actually go through your phone but you'd be able to manage all of your conversations on the TouchPad. I can see this being very useful if you're working and someone is trying to have an SMS conversation with you at the same time. I find that I can either have a SMS conversation or use a computer, I can't do both. The constant switching of devices inevitably hurts productivity - the TouchPad's approach fixes this problem.
There's just one small issue: SMS functionality on the TouchPad is broken. The Veer is the only phone that'll work with the TouchPad in this capacity and it needs a software update to properly support SMS via the TouchPad. The phone will pair with the TouchPad but any SMSes you send will fail, and none will be received on the tablet:
Being able to send text messages from a tablet is a huge feature. HP clearly understands the vision that devices need to work together and in a broader sense than just getting data from the same cloud. My biggest concern here is that there is no flagship webOS phone available today that you can use alongside the TouchPad to enable this functionality. The Pre 3 needs to be here now, and to be honest, its successor probably needs to show up shortly thereafter to really convince people to buy two webOS devices.
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Conner_36 - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
because its a free marketkmmatney - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
I agree - at this price there isn't much incentive. At this time, it seems like the iPad 2 is still the better device. I don't think WebOS gives you any more "freedom" than iOS.bpgd - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
This is the review I have been waiting for. As always Anand's review is gold standard. He goes into details and really tells how the thing works.NeoReaper - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
I feel bad writing this comment because this is actually the first time I've ever posted anything on Anandtech and I've been coming to this site since its inception. I have a lot of respect for virtually every article I have ever read on this site written by Anand with the exception of this one. This is only an opinion but I feel like this review isn't nearly as critical as it should be. Based on what I've read in regards to performance, battery life, bugs, etc.. this device doesn't deserve the pass that you gave (at least that's the impression I get from reading this) This device has too many underlying flaws that haven't been addressed, mainly being the OS performance issues that have existed since the original Pre. Why criticize Skype performance when the screenshot you have cleaerly shows a large number of system services sapping CPU usage for no good reason? I mean, really? Pulseaudio is using almost 27% CPU usage. Maybe I'm interpreting this review incorrectly... I just feel that you were hoping for this device to deliver but reality it doesn't and you're simply hoping that OS updates will resolve the performance issues. If you want to believe that, why not expect the competition to make an update to the OS which boasts features that will make it better for office productivity? Hope is for fanboyism, a reviewer should be deliver facts without twisting it with what could be. Your final words are completely contradictory to itself. I hope you re-examine your review. As I've said already, I have great respect for you, Anand, and I've praised virtually every article you have ever written, but this article I cannot.lunarx3dfx - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - link
One thing you might want to keep in mind though, is that while pulseaudio was using 27% of CPU resources, is that necessarily HP's fault? I would be more inclined to believe that the fault lies with the developers of pulseaudio for not making a well optimized app.Now, I'm not excusing the glaring flaws with the Touchpad, however I have not noticed the majority of the performance issues reviewers have seen with my personal TP. That's why in an earlier comment I wanted to know what build of the OS Anand's unit is running. I think reviewers got an earlier build that may not be as optimized as the release build.
I was in Staples the other day, and the demo unit was running build 16 whereas the release models are running build 41.
NeoReaper - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - link
i see your comment regarding the build number now, it would be very interesting to hear back from Anand regarding the build he was running and whether or not any performance issues have really been fixed. as for the pulseaudio thing, pulseaudio is a linux audio service so the state of its optimization would be HP's fault. It is not a third party application. As I said, my main gripe with the review is that even in the final words portion of his article, many statements are contradictory. How productive can it be when he states that the unit is runs slower than its main competitors in virtually every aspect? How can you justify weight and size with such poor battery life and performance? Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh but the problem is, all the underlying "performance" issues that he states are in the Touchpad are the same problems that plagued the Pre, Pixi, and Pre2. I would love for HP to "fix" the performance issue, but maybe its not really that easy to "fix".lunarx3dfx - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - link
I forgot about pulse being a linux service. Whoops. lol. I can expplain the extra weight and thickness of the device though. Well, HP did. The reason it is so much thicker and heavier according to them, which makes sense to me, is the inclusion of the inductive charging coils.NeoReaper - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - link
ahh, ok ok, that makes sense.Leonick - Monday, July 18, 2011 - link
The keyboard is actually pretty impressive compared to the competitors, having both a numbers row with special characters and a tab key.I also like how it handles the settings compared to iOS, having settings in the individual apps make a lot more sense in my mind that a centralized app, still iOS apps can do this if the developers choose to and when there are any settings you might want to change more than once or while running the app the generally do so.
Seems they got notifications pretty right for a tablet too. Pretty similar to how honeycomb does it it looks like. I think the system coming with iOS 5 will do fine for the iPad but it's still not perfect, it seem to be lacking statusbar icons to show that you have notifications and it would be neat if it could display upcoming calendar events and not just events with reminders (like the cydia app Lockinfo does).
Also, it was mentioned how the system was similar to notifications on a PC, well that's understandable, they do have plans to put WebOS on PCs.
Belard - Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - link
I agree with you on the keyboard. When I played with the Playbook, I noticed the keyboard right away and LOVE it... iOS and Android should COPY this onto their own devices... ah, let the lawsuits fly.When you have passwords that are combos of numbers and letters, going back and forth can through you off (it does me).
I'd give HP/WebOS a 10 for the keyboard. I'd give Android and iOS a 6 in comparison.
The Settings Icons for WebOS are a pain.... You have to open one after the other, and if you DON'T close the, they'll stay in memory - constantly running.