This isn't too surprising. The slate seems too much like a "me too" device, with more hardware features than the iPad, but not enough thought put into the UI and UX
Win7 is very good on a touch screen, assuming the screen is any good. I don't know what the HP front end is about, but it's not really necessary. It's not going for the same market either, it's more of a netbook sans keyboard than the iPad, which, as far as I can tell, is a very pretty, but aimless media toy.
Which is is fine, but their custom shell seems to smack of some attempt to be like the iPad home screen, but overly-complex. I'd rather just have the Windows desktop on it