HP ElitePad 900 is the business-oriontated Windows 8 tablet you’ve craved for

Windows 8 arrives in under a month. Microsoft’s Surface, roughly the same time. Makes sense then to smash out the HP ElitePad 900. This is a business focused tablet with a 10.1-inch display and a machine-focused level of ruggedness. Premium Windows 8 tablet sexiness for the man on the move. Let’s dig in.

It’s cold and I need a jacket

The HP ElitePad Productivity Jacket is the crux of the Windows 8 tablet offering. It’s the whole point really and delivers an integrated keyboard, the standard suite of connectivity ports, an SD card reader plus “adjustable viewing angles for a complete computing experience.” Not sure about you lot, but without adjustable viewing angles my whole world turns to shit.

One of the two SmartJackets is crammed with optional extras and turns the ElitePad 900 into something resembling a grown-up laptop. Try room for another battery, two USB slots, a memory card slot and HDMI out. Madness. Speaking of the battery, HP says it can last for close to eight hours which is standard for a tablet, but immense for a laptop.

The ElitePad 900 is playing with a full deck of cards and sounds nigh-on indestructible. There’s the Rugged Case for “military-grade reliability”, a really thick looking pen for the tablet, drive encryption, a 1080p front-facing camera, an 8MP rear camera, 32/64GB storage options, 2GB RAM and an Intel Clover CPU which is yet to be clocked in. Our best guess is a 1.5 or 2Ghz CPU.