iPad 2 Rival Alert : HP Adds Slate 2 Tablet With Bluetooth 4.0

Just days after Dell unveiled its new Latitude ST tablet, HP has unveiled its own new tablet, the Slate 2, which will complement rather than replace the existing Slate 500.

The device is powered by a new Intel Atom Oak Trail Z670 processor which was released back in April, has one core only, 512KB L2 cache and is clocked at 1.5GHz - hardly a work horse.

There's also a 8.9-inch N-Trig panel with a 1024x600 pixel resolution, a Swype keyboard, 2GB RAM, 64GB mSATA drive, a TPM chip for security, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, optional 3G, a Bluetooth keyboard dock, up to six hours battery life, Windows 7 Professional, a front facing camera, a rear facing three megapixel camera, HDMI, USB, and a stylus but no other accessories like its predecessor.

The device looks like a block and is unlikely to be appeal to those looking for an iPad 2 equivalent, given that it is more than 15mm thick - nearly twice the thickness of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and weighs 690g.

HP knows how to design great tablets and the HP TouchPad was an excellent example of its engineering and design expertise.

The HP Slate 2 sticks to a conservative design aimed at a business/enterprise audience and it looks as if HP will stick to this segment with its tablets for the foreseeable future.