After nearly exiting the PC business, then changing its mind last week, Hewlett-Packard has proved it's still interested in capturing a piece of the tablet market with the launch of Windows 7-based Slate 2.

The device sports an 8.9-inch capacitive multi-touch screen, an Intel Atom Z670 CPU, 32 GB of storage space and a 3-megapixel back camera, as well as a front-facing VGA camera for video calls.

If all of this sounds familiar, you're right: the device is just a slight upgrade of the business-oriented Slate 500 which launched in October 2010, with the addition of HP's Swype technology for easier text entry.

The Slate 2 probably won't make a big ripple in the market, as Windows 7 was never a great OS for tablets, which is visible from the minute market share of Windows-based devices in the tablet market.

Now that HP has openly committed to the upcoming Windows 8 as its tablet platform, we're much more interested in devices based on that OS. We'll have to wait a while to see them, though, as the final version of Windows 8 is expected sometime next year.

The HP Slate 2 starts at $699 and is expected to be available worldwide later this month.