So we recently bought an HP Touchpad at a price of $350.  Can anyone say we overpaid?  After the news of its discontinuation, retailers from HP Direct, Best Buy, and Staples to many other places have dropped the price of the TouchPad to $150 for a 32GB version and $100 for the 16GB version.  Ow.  We are now flirting with an abandoned technology where things work now, but may be broke later.  In any case, the device as long as things work does have high intrinsic value.  From being able to check email and web surfing to enjoying multimedia entertainment such as Pandora and Netflix (using PlayOn), this tablet works great!  We’ll talk more about the great stuff you can do with this tablet at a later time – for now though, let’s get onto the unboxing!

After getting our shipment from Datasvis, we pulled out the main HP box.  HP tape surrounded the unit showing that this is a new item indeed.  Let’s open this up!

Ooo..this is what’s inside!  The packaging design is clean and simple with just a photo of the TouchPad on the front (shown above).  The back (shown below) only had some text such as package contents.

The side of the box (shown below) is white with the exception of one side which has the UPC model and serial numbers.

As soon as you pull the box out (it slides out like a drawer), you’ll see the TouchPad itself.  The TouchPad is wrapped in plastic which can simply be peeled off.

Shown in the photo below you can see the front of the unit.  HP took the effort to point out the buttons on the unit – Power and volume on the upper-left portion of the photo and the “Home” button on the side of the unit shown on the right side of the photo.

The back of the unit simply shows the HP logo.  The TouchPad looks very much like the Apple iPad…I wonder if this by any chance had any legal repercussions?

Going back to the box after I took out the TouchPad, you’ll see 2 things.  The charging cord on the left and directly right beneath where the TouchPad was is a box labeled “Now comes the fun part”.

Opening up that packet and you’ll see that HP provides an “Apple-like” experience, you’re presented with the “quickstart” guide.

As well as some other documentation such as safety information, technical assistance which they call “Butler Support”, as well as a more in depth manual.

Here’s what was inside the the other compartment of the box we should earlier which was next to the packet of stuff.  We have a wall charger and a micro USB cord.

After turning the unit on (it comes with about an 80% charged battery) we are greeted with the HP logo.

We’ll first choose our language.  Sadly I don’t see any Asian language support.

Upon selection, you’ll confirm your language.

Next, you’ll setup the lifeline of the tablet – the Wi-Fi!

I simply choose join network and enter my information (SSID and Password) to get connected.

Upon connection, I am presented with the terms of agreement to use the device.

After accepting the agreement, it will take a couple of minutes to restart.

I finally turned the tablet on it’s side and the rotation has a adjusted.

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I finally get to my “Home Screen”.  There are a couple of apps already and I can start stuff using “Just type” at the top which allows me to enter a phrase and click on what I want to do with that text….such as do a Google search.

After this, you’ll be able to setup your calendars, email accounts, HP WebOS account, and more.  Time to start using this thing!  Next time we’ll show you how we are using our TouchPad…but this ends our journey in unboxing and setting up this device.  Until next time JAMM readers!

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