Inevitable, perhaps, and admittedly not fair: HP isn't marketing the Zeen on its own, selling it instead as the . So before you ask, no, you haven't missed the memo on HP's jumping into the Android-tablet fray.

That's what the planned will do, whenever it ships--and it will be a tablet with Windows, not Android.

Regardless of HP's intent, however, it's worth considering the Zeen alongside the tablet competition. And after we did our comparison, the Zeen's role became clear.

On the surface, the Zeen certainly resembles a tablet. Aside from a slightly wider bezel around its capactive touch screen and its touch buttons running along the border in landscape orientation (as opposed to portrait), the Zeen looks just like any of the on my desk right now.