HP TouchPad teardown: 'made like a PC'
updated 07:05 am EDT, Thu June 30, 2011
HP TouchPad made like a PC, not like iPad
An early teardown of the new HP TouchPad has revealed that it has been made in the same way that a PC is built, in contrast to the iPad, which is manufactured in a less PC traditional manner. The upside of this approach, according to TechRepublic, is that it makes the HP TouchPad much easier to repair. The downside is that this approach contributes to making the device bulkier.
The TechRepublic team found that the TouchPad is much easier to disassemble than the iPad, but not as easy as the Motorola Xoom. The use of standard Philips head screws for the majority of the internal components allows most of them to be removed and replaced. Further, the digitizer and the display are separate components allowing one or the other to be removed if needed.
A breakdown of the componentary shows that HP has chosen a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060, which is paired with 1GB of Samsung LPDDR2 RAM, to power the tablet. It also uses 32GB of SanDisk sourced flash memory and incorporates a Wolfson audio decoder. Its battery is a 22.2Wh Li-Poly type.
Early reviews of the device suggest that the way the webOS 3.0 interface functions is very attractive, however, it is severely hampered by a lack of launch applications and is somewhat bulky by comparison the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
