HP Compaq Airlife 100 Android Netbook Gets Official

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How does HP counter the iPad? Well with a tablet of its own of course. We’ve seen the HP slate presented by Steve Ballmer at CES but we’ll have to wait a while until it gets official. In the mean time HP is practicing with a new netbook. The HP Compaq Airlife 100 netbook has been unveiled today and it’s probably one of the coolest mini laptops in town.

The Compaq Airlife 100 is going to offer some more than awesome features. You can expect a 10.1-inch touchscreen display, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 16GB SSD, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, SD card slot, webcam, full QWERTY keyboard, and Android OS running neatly in the background.

That, my friends, looks like a tablet that’s waiting to be tested. Remove that keyboard and you could end up looking at HP’s upcoming tablet. The Compaq Airlife 100 will offer you a battery capable of 12 hours of life on a single charge or, alternatively 10-day standby.

Before we start wondering where Windows 7 really is, we’ll ask ourselves if HP is going to offer you any content. The iPad has music, video, apps and eBooks to offer you though the iTunes Store, the App Store and the iBook Store. Will HP be able to offer you any of that once its slates get launched?

And whatever happened to Windows 7? Sure Android is fine for a mobile OS but does it have what it takes to run smoothly on a netbook or tablet? Doesn’t Google have Chrome OS to do that particular job?

The HP Compaq Airlife 100 will be in stores this spring. Those are European stores for now and we have no idea when the device will be launched in the USA. No pricing details have been leaked so far but you can expect this machine to be available for less if purchased with data plans from Telefonica, and other European carriers. Anyone interested in a netbook that also has a touchscreen?