HP’s new Slate 7 tablet is not selling so well. Just three months after its release, HP has knocked 18 percent off the retail price, bringing the formerly $169 seven-inch Android tablet down to $140. That makes the Slate 7 the cheapest in its class — if you don’t count those sub-$100, no-name tablets with much older versions of Android.
That the Slate 7 has seen poor sales shouldn’t surprise, because the tablet faces several competitors in its price range that have better display resolutions, among other specs. These include the top-ranked $199 Google Nexus 7, the $199 (now $169) Amazon Kindle Fire 7 HD, and even the $149 Hisense Sero 7 Pro sold at WalMart.
The Hisense tablet has earned consistently good marks by reviewers and by Android communities. The Slate 7, on the other hand, has earned rather – poor – reviews.
So if your wallet has a date with a 7-inch slate and a display is important to you, you may want to pony up a few extra dollars and skip the Slate 7. Sorry, HP, but sometimes a price cut is not quite enough to make up for a relatively inferior product.
