HP launches Android-based SlateBook 'PC'

The SlateBook x2, Hewlett-Packard's foray into the Android convertible market, is now available on the company's Web site.

The tablet-laptop hybrid was slated to be available in August but has arrived early on HP's U.S. sales site. HP also launched the SlateBook in Japan on Monday.

Listed as the HP SlateBook 10-h010nr x2, it is branded as a "PC," even though it runs AndroidJelly Bean -- not Windows 8.

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The specs are pretty impressive. A 10.1-inch 1,920x1,200-pixel display (with a respectable 224 pixels per inch pixel density), a Tegra 4 quad-core processor (Nvidia's latest ARM processor), a 16GB SATA solid-state drive, and 2GB of system memory.

Other specs include Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, a magnetic docking mechanism to switch from tablet to laptop mode, and a full-size keyboard.

It sells for $480 and runs Android 4.2. (Full PDF spec sheet here).

Note that HP has been selling a similar -- but more expensive ($649) -- hybrid, the Envy x2, for a while. That is an 11.6-inch model that runs Windows 8 on top of an Intel Atom processor.