When the HP TouchPad was released, the biggest complaints about the device were performance-based. Apps took several seconds to launch, screen rotation was laggy, and Web sites loaded at a painfully slow rate. When paired with beautiful hardware and a clever operating system, these minor problems were a frustrating miss of the mark.
HP's been listening, and on Tuesday, it released an update for the TouchPad, aimed squarely at those issues. WebOS 3.0.2 doesn't offer anything particularly noteworthy, but it does claim to fix many of the performance issues users had, from browser speed to autocorrection lag to general sluggishness. Unfortunately, upon installing and testing out the updated TouchPad, I was a bit underwhelmed. Some of what HP promised really did come true, but webOS 3.0.2 ignores some of the major issues with the TouchPad and only marginally improves others.
After taking the "improvements" for a spin, it's clear there's a trend here: small performance issues, like slow scrolling in email and Web pages, have definitely been improved. Scrolling is better, though it's still somewhat jittery and not nearly as smooth as the iPad. Speed issues within the Music, Photos, and Video apps have been improved slightly, though some problems still apply (in large albums, every third photo or so needs a second to sharpen). Autocorrection is also faster.
Only one of what many seem to think are the mission-critical problems with the TouchPad—its rotation sensor is too sensitive, it takes forever to flip between portrait and landscape modes, and apps take several seconds to launch—was even ostensibly solved. The TouchPad is now a bit less sensitive to rotation, no longer flipping to landscape at the slightest tilt. But apps still take far too long to open the first time, and if you rotate the device, be prepared to wait at least two seconds for the screen to catch up.
HP is clearly committed to the TouchPad, and even the lingering issues seem like solvable software problems rather than issues with the device's internals. But until the big problems are solved, the TouchPad remains an otherwise excellent tablet hampered by a couple of unfortunate quirks.
Be sure to read PCMag's updated review of the TouchPad, which we'll keep up-to-date as HP continues to tweak its software.