HP Pro Slate Tablet Review: HP's Giant Android Tablet

With the hopes of boosting its market sales for large-screen Android tablets, HP rolled out its very own Pro Slate 12, which stands out with a rugged 12.3-inch display and its ability to digitize notes from regular paper. The new HP Pro Slate 12 is considered to be a standout when set against a backdrop of seven other tablet announcements. Despite its enormous display, this tablet is surprisingly easy to handle. And weighing at 850 grams, it's somewhere in between heavy and light -- in short, it's just perfect to bring along.

Let's take a closer look at its specs, as well as its features, to give you a better visibility on the HP Pro Slate 12 tablet.

When it comes to this tablet's screen, it's 1600 x 1200 display is fairly good. Similar with the iPad, the company chose to go with a 4:3 layout, since consumers spend most of the time using tablets in portrait orientation. The tablet is the company's first with a durable screen based on Corning's Concore Glass technology, which protects the glass from drops on rough surfaces such as asphalt. Another first with the Pro Slate 12 is that it comes with a "Duet Pen" stylus that you can use to take notes on paper and on the tablet. When you're using it, the pen emits an ultrasonic sound that the tablets can track and triangulate with internal microphones, which is supposed to increase suspension. You can also swap the tip out for an actual ink tip, and the tablet will map and store whatever you're writing on actual paper. Pretty neat, huh.

Under the hood, the Pro Slate 12 packs a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 2 GB of RAM, and 32 GB of storage, along with an 8-MP rear camera and a 2-MP shooter at the front. Weighing a little less than two pounds, you can say that it's actually light for its gigantic size. It also sports a microSD slot and microUSB 2.0 input -- sorry, but it doesn't have any USB 3.0 or HDMI port. Of course, it also supports the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi networking.

If you want to experience the Pro Slate 12's feature set and Duet Pen but in a smaller and sharper display version, you can go with the Pro Slate 8. It utilizes a 7.9-inch, 2048 x 1536 Gorilla Glass 4 screen, starting at $449. As for the Pro Slate 12, you'll be shelling out around $569.

The Pro Slated 12 was one of many ElitePad, Pro Slate, and Pro Tablets with Android and Windows OSes announced by HP. Screen sizes of the new tablets range from 8 to 12 inches, and are now shipping. Its closest competitor is the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, a $749 mega-tablet known for its rich 12-inch display and the ability to multitask four apps at once. Apple has also been rumored to enter this super-sized space, with a possible 12-inch "iPad Pro" expected to be in the company's pipeline sometime in the future.