Another tablet has joined the battle for supremacy among devices that sport 7-inch screens. The latest entrant is Hewlett-Packard's Slate 7 tablet which retails at $169.

The roll out of Slate 7 represents HP's second attempt at the tablet market amid dwindling demand for computers and laptops. HP stopped the production of its TouchPad in 2011.

HP admitted the release of its WebOS-powered TouchPad, aimed at the consumer market, was a disaster which prompted the company to withdraw it from the U.S. market due to poor sales, while it was on store shelves in Australia for only a week.

Slate 7, as the name implies, has a 7-inch screen. It runs on Android OS and will be available in store shelves in the U.S. in April. Its release in Australia is also on the same month, but the new device which HP unboxed at the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, will have a higher retail price of $199.

Alberto Torres, head of HP's Mobile Device unit, said Slate 7 is using a basic version of Android as part of the manufacturer's policy to avoid interface modifications that Asian tablet makers apply and deeper changes made by Amazon.

It goes against Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7.

More details of the three tablets' specs in the following chart.

Specifications

HP Slate 7

Google Nexus 7

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7

Display Size and Resolution

7-inch, FFS+LCD touchscreen, 600x1024

7-inch, LED-backlit IPS LCD touchscreen, 800x1280

7-inch, IPS LCD touchscreen, 800x1280

Android OS

4.1 Jellybean

4.1 Jellybean with 4.2.1 upgrade

4.0 customized

Processor

Dual 1.6GHz cortex A9

Quad-core 1.2Ghz cortex A9

Dual-core 1.2GHz cortex A9

Memory and Storage

1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, up to 32GB external SD card

1GB RAM, 16 or 32 internal storage

1GB RAM, 16 or 32 internal storage

Camera

3.15MP, 2048x1536, rear shooter with 720p@30fps video capture; VGA front shooter

1.2MP with 720p@30fps rear shooter

1.3MP, 1280x1024, no video recording

Graphics

NA

ULP GeForce

PowerVR SGX540

Specials

Beats Audio

Corning Gorilla Glass

Multitouch, Dolby Digital Plus

Among the difference of the new HP tablet is its inclusion of the Beats audio, although in terms of OS, it has some similar basic features with the Nexus 7.

Prior to the release of the HP's Slate 7, both Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 enjoyed good sales during the 2012 yearend holiday with Kindle logging a 51.84 per cent increase and Nexus registering an impressive 136.77 per cent boost. However, after the Christmas holidays, the Nexus 7 sales slowed down by 25.68 per cent but Kindle Fire retained its heat and added 18 per cent sales.

Experts explained the higher preference for Kindle to its improved software and media ecosystem. They added Google should improve on its hardware specs and software experience for its next generation Nexus tablets.

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