The second peripheral is the £200 J3400 FlexDock, a tilt-adjustable docking station that provides four USB ports, a DisplayPort connector, an Ethernet port, a DVI connector and a pair of audio jacks. With a USB keyboard and mouse plugged in, and a network connection, this makes the J3400 a perfectly acceptable office-bound system should the need arise, although you can only dock the J3400 in landscape orientation. There's also a bay at the top of the FlexDock where you can recharge a third battery pack.
Features
Our review sample of the J3400 used the ultra-low voltage 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, which has 3MB of Level 2 cache and a 800MHz front-side bus. It's also available with the slightly less sprightly 1.2GHz SU9300. All variants use the Mobile Intel GS45 Express chipset and its GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics. The operating system is Windows Vista Business, and our system came with the maximum 4GB of DDR3 RAM to drive it along at a decent clip.
Another speed-boosting component is the 64GB Samsung solid-state drive, which also makes sense for a rugged system that's likely to take a few knocks. If you need more storage, conventional hard disks with 80GB or 120GB of capacity can be fitted instead. These 1.8-inch, 5,400rpm drives are shock-protected and come with a DataGuard accelerometer that senses an impending impact and parks the drive heads safely.
Wireless connectivity is excellent, as you'd expect from an outdoor-bound tablet PC. Intel's WiFi Link 5300AGN provides the (802.11a/b/g, draft n) wireless networking, while short-range connections are handled by Bluetooth 2.1. Our review sample also had the mobile-broadband option, a Qualcomm Gobi unit that supports both HSDPA and GPS -- the SIM card slot is under one of the battery compartments at the back. Wired connectivity is provided in the shape of Gigabit Ethernet, but there's no modem.
There are two battery compartments at the back, for the pair of supplied hot-swappable 30Wh Li-ion battery packs. Both have indicator LEDs to show the amount of charge remaining. If you opt for the docking station, you can charge a third battery in the slot provided for a maximum of 90Wh of mains-free power.
Performance
Our J3400 review sample had a couple of things going for it as far as performance is concerned -- 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 64GB solid-state drive. Both are reflected in good component scores (4.9 and 5.9 out of 5.9 respectively) in Windows Vista's Windows Experience Index (WEI). The overall WEI score corresponds to the lowest component score, which was for graphics (3.2), with gaming graphics (3.3) close behind. The processor score (4.6) was more than respectable and, overall, we found the J3400 reasonably quick to boot -- for a Vista machine -- and responsive once up and running. The system's integrated graphics are unlikely to cause any performance bottlenecks for most tablet-usage modes.
Motion claims a battery life of 3.5 hours with one 30Wh pack fitted, and 7.4 hours with two. We measured the system's power consumption using a Voltcraft VC940 digital multimeter with the system in 'performance' and 'power save' modes, under a variety of conditions, and got results ranging from 10.4W (power save/idling) to 22W (performance/fully loaded, with Wi-Fi active). This translates to battery life (from two battery packs totalling 60Wh) of between 2.7 and 5.8 hours. This suggests that, if you want to be absolutely certain of a full 8-hour day's worth of battery-powered operation, you may need to invest in a third battery pack.
Conclusion
If you need a rugged tablet PC that can do a full day's work in the field, Motion's widescreen J3400 will do the job very satisfactorily. It's not the lightest tablet we've seen, and the specification reviewed here is expensive, at around £2,340. To that you may need to add £100 for the Mobile Keyboard, £200 for the FlexDock and £90 for the Work Anywhere Kit, consisting of a shoulder strap, tablet pouch and battery sleeve. The standard warranty is for one year, and you'll pay £200 for three years' cover, plus another £100 for a one-year display-protection plan. Clearly, you can rack up a big price tag if you pile on the options.
Additional editing by Charles Kloet
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