HP Unveils Windows 10 Commercial Tablet With USB-C Port

Apple’s 12-inch Retina MacBook now has some company in the small but growing USB-C club, and new competition in the enterprise oriented tablet market. HP has unveiled its first Windows 10 commercial tablet, an 8-inch diagonal mobile retail solution, as well as new capabilities and updates to HP Touchpoint Manager, its IT management solution for small and medium businesses.

The company also announced new independent software vendors (ISVs) and partners across the aviation and retail industries to continue to build out HPs business oriented approach to mobility.

“True business mobility will dramatically transform workflows to make us more efficient, connected and productive,” says Michael Park, vice president and general manager, Commercial Mobility & Software, Business Personal Systems. “We are continuing to expand on our purpose-built mobility solutions to help our customers change how business is done.”

The HP Pro Tablet 608 offers purpose-built business mobility with an 8-inch diagonal HD screen, high performance and impressive productivity with Windows 10 (1). The tablet provides audio support for Cortana (2) and videoconferencing, and includes advanced security features that build on the new OS, making it an ideal mobile productivity companion for busy travelers and executives.

Just 8.35 mm thick and under 1 lb. in weight, the tablet features 2048 x 1536 high resolution display that automatically adjusts to lighting conditions. The 4:3 aspect ratio is optimized for working with business productivity apps, providing 35% more viewing area than 16:9 displays for more natural readability of full-page content.

The Pro Tablet 608 offers a full Windows Professional experience with up to eight hours of battery life (3). Designed with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 and a metal-reinforced chassis, HP says this tablet endured more than 120,000 hours of durability testing. Productivity is enabled in the office and at the work site with dual-band WLAN ac/b/g/n (4) and a choice of optional 3G or 4G WWAN (5).

Dual front-facing stereo speakers, dual microphones, DTS Studio Sound and noise-cancelling software are paired with a front-facing 2 MP camera for superb web conferencing, even in noisy public areas like airports or hotels. An 8 MP rear-facing camera provides high-definition image capture, important in industries such as insurance or real estate.

Powered by the latest generation Intel Core Atom Quad Core Z8500 processor with up to 4 GB of memory (6) and 128 GB eMMc storage (7), the enterprise-ready Pro Tablet 608 includes a robust set of built-in IT tools such as HP Client Security, firmware 2.0 (8) and certified hardware like TPM and NFC. There is also support for a customizable image or BIOS settings, industry-standard manageability tools, and HP Touchpoint Manager (9) for enhanced security and manageability for businesses of most any size.

The Pro Tablet 608 is also HP’s first tablet to integrate the USB-C port (pioneered by Apple with its new 12-inch MacBook) for fast charging and data transfer and a wide array of adapters to support legacy wired connectivity. One wonders if Apple will eventually replace the iPad’s Lightning port with USB-C, which is not much larger in size, but much more versatile and virtually certain to become an industry standard.

Pro Tablet 608 optional accessories, include a pen, rugged case, travel keyboards and a portable dock take advantage of the Windows 10 DPI scaling feature for expansive display and accessories connectivity to enable a desktop that can travel.

For aviation, Lufthansa Systems is working with HP on delivering mobile cabin crew solutions and applications that will enable cabin crews to improve crew satisfaction and enhance the passenger experience. The result of this effort is the mCabin solution from Lufthansa Systems coupled with the HP ElitePad 1000 G2, which offers commercial grade mobility for aviation customers.

The Pro Tablet 608 also offers a form factor for industry-specific use cases that require something smaller than larger tablet offerings to deliver great customer service and improved operational efficiency. The HP Pro Tablet Mobile Retail Solution is a durable case that combines with the new 8-inch diagonal tablet to accommodate a range of third-party mobile payment terminals, including EMV, NFC, MSR, and most digital wallets.

HP Pro Tablet 608 G1 will start at $479, and will ship pre-installed with Windows 10 starting in August.

The HP Pro Tablet Mobile Retail Solution is expected to be available in October.

For more information, visit:
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ads/new-style-it/protablet608.html

Notes:

1 Not all features are available in all editions or versions of Windows of Windows 10. Systems may require upgraded and/or separately purchased hardware, drivers, software or BIOS update to take full advantage of Windows 10 functionality. Windows 10 is automatically updated, which is always enabled. ISP fees may apply and additional requirements may apply over time for updates. See http://www.microsoft.com.

2 Cortana experience may vary by device.

3 Windows 8 MM12 battery life will vary depending on various factors including product model, configuration, loaded applications, features, use, wireless functionality, and power management settings. The maximum capacity of the battery will naturally decrease with time and usage. See http://www.bapco.com for additional details.

4 Wireless access point and internet service required. Availability of public wireless access points limited.

5 WWAN module is optional, must be configured at the factory and requires separately purchased service contract. Check with service provider for coverage and availability in your area. Connection speeds will vary due to location, environment, network conditions, and other factors. 4G LTE not available on all products, in all regions.

6 Maximum memory capacities assume Windows 64-bit operating systems or Linux. With Windows 32-bit operating systems, memory above 3 GB may not all be available due to system resource requirements.

7 For storage drives, GB = 1 billion bytes. Actual formatted capacity is less. Up to 15GB of system disk is reserved for system and/or recovery software.

8 Firmware TPM is version 2.0. Hardware TPM is v1.2, which is a subset of the TPM 2.0 specification version v0.89 as implemented by Intel Platform Trust Technology (PTT).

9 HP Touchpoint Manager supports Android, iOS and Windows operating systems and PCs, notebooks, tablets and smartphones from various manufacturers. Not available in all countries see www.hp.com/touchpoint for availability information. Touchpoint Manager requires purchase of a subscription. Out-of-band HP only Wipe, Lock, Unlock and reporting of BIOS boot error codes is planned to be available on select HP EliteBooks and requires an internet connection, Intel vPro technology and functions in S3/Sleep, S4/Hibernate and S5/Soft Off power states. SATA drives are wiped. The remote wipe of Self Encrypting Drives that have hardware encryption active is not supported.

10 Limited to devices with Windows 7 SP1 or higher, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (Intel-based x86/x64) operating systems.

11 Estimated U.S. street prices. Actual prices may vary.

Source: HP