HP is back. The company today revealed its newest "voice tablets," the Slate 6 VoiceTab and Slate 7 VoiceTab, which are the first handsets that it's churned out since 2011. The two devices are powered by Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and will launch in India sometime in February. HP hasn't yet revealed pricing for its new phones.
When it comes to specs, HP chose to include a quad-core processor in both the Slate 6 VoiceTab and Slate 7 VoiceTab. Also included is 16GB of storage that can be expanded upon with a microSD card, 5-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front cameras and a set of front-facing speakers. The Slate 6 VoiceTab features a 6-inch 1280x720 IPS display, while the Slate 7 VoiceTab bumps things up to a 7-inch 1280x800 IPS panel. All of those goodies are packed into frames that measure sub-9mm and 9.5mm, respectively.
HP isn't ready to reveal whether or not it will bring its new VoiceTabs to markets outside of India, but company exec Ron Coughlin told Re/code that we should expect HP "to do more in the coming months," adding that the devices received a "very positive response" at CES.
As for why HP chose India as the market to make its return to the smartphone game in, Coughlin said that there were several reasons behind the decision: The country is a growing market, HP is India's top PC brand and the VoiceTabs tested well with Indian consumers. Additionally, carriers in India don't have as much influence over phone makers there as they do in other countries.
The new Slate 6 VoiceTab and Slate 7 VoiceTab look like interesting little devices. Their design seems nice, and while their spec sheets aren't exactly bleeding edge, they sound like they've got enough power to handle most tasks. It's also worth noting that HP appears to be using a custom overlay on top of Android 4.2 on its new VoiceTabs, so I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of tweaks the company has made to try and improve the Android user experience.
What do you think of the HP Slate 6 VoiceTab and Slate 7 VoiceTab? Would you check 'em out if they came to your home country?
