HP Slate detailed: $549, 1.6 GHz Atom, 5 hour battery, dual cameras

A leaked HP internal slide details the the company’s upcoming Windows 7-powered iPad competitor, dubbed the HP Slate.  The base model will cost $549 and sports an 8.9″ 1024×600 capacitive multitouch display with pen support, a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU, Intel integrated graphics, a video accelerator for 1080p playback, 32 GB storage, and 1 GB RAM.  The Slate includes a five-hour, 2-cell battery, an SDXC slot, front- (1.3 MP) and rear-facing (3 MP) cameras, a USB 2.0 slot, a SIM card slot for 3G wireless, and a dock connector (with HDMI video, audio, and power connections).  For $599, HP will offer a 64 GB version of the tablet.

While the Slate’s specs suggest it’ll get half of the iPad’s 10-hour rated battery life, it’s a very different device.  The iPad uses a smartphone processor and the simplified iPhone OS, while the Slate runs full-blown Windows 7, with an HP TouchSmart interface on top, on a netbook-style Intel Atom platform.