HP Slate tablet with Windows 7 embarrasses, Samsung Galaxy Tab impresses (videos)

We couldn’t have asked for a better-timed tablet comparison. A cunning YouTube user managed to record a quick overview of a prototype HP Slate tablet running Windows 7, and not surprisingly, the results are thoroughly disappointing.

Meanwhile, Samsung unveiled the latest video demonstration of its Galaxy Tab Android tablet, and it doesn’t fail to impress.

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The veracity of the HP Slate video is still in question — but the hardware resembles an earlier preview of the HP Slate, and it honestly seems too polished to be a hoax. Throughout the video, it’s clear that the biggest problem with HP’s tablet is that it’s running Windows 7, which isn’t the most tablet-friendly operating system.

Windows 7 is so ill-suited to the device that you have to hit a physical button to pull up its virtual keyboard — it’s not even smart enough to determine when a user needs to enter text. The Slate appears to boot up quickly and overall touch response seems zippy, but it’s clear that using Windows 7 with your fingers will be a usability nightmare. And let’s not even get into its physical Control-Alt-Delete button.

Samsung’s video, on the other hand, shows off just how elegantly Google’s Android mobile operating system translates to tablets. While it’s certainly far from a “real world” overview like the HP video, the Galaxy Tab still appears to handle web surfing, productivity tasks, and even video chats with ease. It also appears to have a slick e-mail client that can fully integrate with Gmail’s starred e-mails (though that still needs to be confirmed).

The HP Slate “review”:

Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab demo:

Via John Gruber on Twitter, Engadget