HP Touchpad 32GB WebOS tablet

EDITOR'S NOTE: This review was written, and the above video recorded, before yesterday's announcement by HP that it is going to discontinue the Touchpad and other WebOS devices. However, the Touchpad is still on sale and we expect to see it priced at a discount over the coming weeks.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of tablet computer: those that are iPads and those that are not.

The HP Touchpad, obviously, falls into the latter category. Unlike most tablets that 'aren't iPads', however, the Touchpad does something rather different – it doesn't use Android either.

The HP Touchpad has its own operating system, called WebOS, which is based upon the old operating system used by early touch-sensitive Palm handheld computers, so it has some pedigree.

That showed through in use: we really liked how simple it was to use and it had some excellent built-in features. Apps were easy to access from the menu at the bottom of the screen, with more stored in the Launcher menu.

Navigating through open applications was swift and the Touchpad breezed along rather well.

The attention to detail HP has put into the Touchpad made a real difference. We liked the gestures for navigating around the tablet. Removing an app from the homepage was done with a swish upwards or a pull and release downwards.

Unfortunately, the Touchpad was let down, predictably, by a lack of available apps: if your smartphone or tablet operating system doesn't have enough apps to offer users, it's not much good these days.

While the ones developed by HP for the WebOS were great, there wasn't much else available. A quick browse through the WebOS app store revealed a barren world in which many of the apps that were there were unofficial versions of mainstream ones, and most of them were not specifically developed for the Touchpad (instead they will have been made for HP's Palm Pre phone).

The calendar app that comes installed on the Touchpad was excellent and very easy to navigate and update. Elsewhere, we were also impressed by the Facebook app and the web browser.

The Touchpad can also synchronise with a number of email and social-networking accounts to collate contact and calendar details as well as other information.

Much like the iPad, there is one button at the bottom of the Touchpad, which is used for exiting menus and apps to return to the main home screen. There's also a volume control button on the side and a lock button at the top.

While the Touchpad looked great at first, that only lasted until we started to use it. The black plastic finish started picking up fingerprint smudges almost as soon as we touched it.

The extensive use of shiny black plastic also made the Touchpad feel poorly made, which is a shame given how polished the software is. Battery life was fine: it lasted for between six and seven hours with regular use of various different applications.

The Touchpad we reviewed only connected to wireless networks, not mobile networks. This limited its portability somewhat – we couldn't check our email or catch up on the latest news on the go unless we were near a wireless connection.

The price is unsurprising: the 16GB version costs £349 and the 32GB we reviewed, £429.

While it is an impressive first effort, the HP Touchpad suffers from teething problems: tablets are all about apps, and this one doesn't have anywhere near enough.