• Intel Core i5 or i7 technology with ultra-low voltage 1.06GHz Core i5 520UM or 1.2GHz Core i7 640UM processors provides significantly higher performance than the predecessor model.

• You can now get projected capacity multi touch in conjunction with the standard digitizer. Yes, that means swiping, dragging, two-finger pinching and rotating.

• It's the first major update to the Motion J3400 which was a brand-new design in early 2009.

• The machine now runs Windows 7 Professional (there is a Windows XP downgrade option).

• You can now get Gorilla glass that offers very high break resistance (albeit not available with the capacitive screen)

• You can get more storage (up to 160GB hard disk, up to 128GB SSD, up to 4GB RAM)

• Integrated auto-focus 3-megapixel documentation camera (up from 2mp) can take time/date and GPS-stamped documentation pictures.

• Integrated Gobi 2000 is available (includes GPS), supporting all major RF bands around the world in one chipset (see Gobi 2000 product sheet).

That means the newest ultra low voltage Core processors from Intel, the fastest memory, the largest solid state disks, the incomparable Hydis AFFS+ display technology, and now even digitizer technology that effortlessly melds the fashionable multi touch with the tried-and-true Wacom digitizer. All of this comes in a handy 12.7 x 9.1 inch tablet that's not even an inch thick and weighs just four pounds flat, dual batteries included. There's a big wide-format 12.1-inch screen and all the power of Windows 7 Professional. If that's what you need in a tablet, that's what you get with the J3500, and it currently doesn't get any better than this.

What performance increase does the Intel Core i5/i7 bring to the table?

To find out, we ran Passmark Software's PerformanceTest 6.1 that runs about 30 tests covering CPU, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, memory, and disk and then computes scores for each category and an overall PassMark score. For comparison, we're listing the predecessor Motion J3400 and also both the original and the latest version of Motion's F5 semi-rugged tablet computer. This shows not only how the J3500 compares to the F5v, but also by how much the latest versions improved over their respective predecessors.

PERFORMANCE COMPARISON PASSMARK	Motion J3500	Motion J3400	Motion F5v	Motion F5
Processor	1.2GHz Intel Core i7-640UM	1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400	1.2GHz Intel Core i7-640UM	1.2GHz Intel Core Solo U1400
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	18.0 watts	10.0 watts	18.0 watts	5.5 watts
CPU Mark	699.2	834.9	781.4	324.9
2D Graphics Mark	181.5	172.9	184.6	153.8
Memory Mark	502.5	347.1	496.1	235.1
Disk Mark	1004.6	552.5	1040.2	168.8
3D Graphics Mark	276.1	105.3	256.3	75.6
Overall PassMark	538.6	435.2	564.9	194.4

The total battery capacity of the J3500 remains unchanged; That's provided via dual hot-swappable 14.8V/2,000mAH Li-Ion batteries fitting into the bottom of the machine where they become part of the design. The batteries have an external push button that instantly shows, via 5 LEDs, how much charge is left. One word about the hot-swappable aspect. In the J3500 it means you can take out one battery and replace it with a fresh one; you cannot take out both at once. And if you only use one battery, it is not hot-swappable. We'd have liked to see a true hot-swap feature as in the new Motion F5v where an internal backup battery gives you about a minute to replace the spent battery with a freshly charged one.

As was the case with the predecessor J3400, our BatteryMon power drawdown tester was unable to measure battery draw. The program, however, did compute estimated battery life based on remaining charge compared to full charge and we saw as much as seven hours. This was with WiFi on and the system idling along. During a typical day, power savings modes will make the system go to sleep and wake up again when the computer is being used, and that works much better in Windows 7 than in Vista or XP. While in sleep mode, the power consumption is extremely low, and greatly extends battery life. This makes an exact estimate of real life battery life more difficult as a typical machine will not be used continuously.

A tap on the "About" button in the J3500's "Touch Settings" control panel said "Touch Driver v3.2.1-1 Wacom Co. Ltd., 2007-2010". So there. Wacom. Now Wacom's been the undisputed leader in electromagnetic digitizers pretty much since the dawn of tablets and digitizers, but the company had struggled with capacitive digitizers, and especially something that would integrate with their electromagnetic digitizer. In 2007, Wacom bought Austin, Texas-based TouchKO, a company that had specialized in surface capacity touchscreens, an interesting technology, but one that cannot do multi touch.

If you dig deeper into Wacom's website, you also find a technology page on RRFC (Reversing Ramped Field Capacitive) touch technology. The technology was said to allow combination with Wacom's EMR digitizer for a true dual-mode input solution. RRFC apparently used four separate electrostatic fields (as opposed to the single field in standard surface capactive designs). However, a check with Motion indicated that they did not use RRFC but Wacom's "gen 6 P-Cap multi touch technology" instead.

Now PCAP simply stands for projected capacity and there doesn't seem to be any further information on the technology Wacom used here. In general, projected capacitive is a good step up from the simpler surface capacitive screens as projected technology uses an x-y grid that's usually etched into the conductive layer.

So here's the scoop on what capacitive touch on the J3500 can do and what it can't (and the video to the right provides a demonstration).

When you check the Touch Settings control panel, it says "Two Finger Touch Device" and that is what the technology appears to be set up to do. You can use either one finger or two, but not three or more. That is technically multi touch, and it's what the iPhone and the iPad do. They also only acknowledge two fingers, and that's how all the magic is done.

On the Motion J3500, you can, for example, draw two simultaneous lines in Microsoft's simple Paint application. You can drag and whirl two images in Microsoft's Collage demo program, and you can use two fingers in Microsoft Surface Globe. It all works remarkably well, and actually much better than in any other PC-based multi touch system we tested. However, this is, of course, still Windows, and so there are applications where multi touch works and others where it doesn't.

In the Windows Photo Viewer, for example, you can pinch and expand to zoom in and out, and you can also rotate pictures in 90 degree increments. However, in Google Earth, which would be a natural for multi touch, none of the two-finger gestures work and you have to resort to old-fashioned tapping on controls.

In everyday use, the J3500 display's outdoor performance is excellent. The perfect viewing angle from all directions means you never have to tilt and angle the tablet to see what's on the screen. The display itself excels in eliminating unwanted reflection or diffusion. Where other displays appear matte or milky or are overcome with reflections, the J3500's stays perfectly readable. In head-on, direct sunlight the display is still readable, here thanks to the inner reflectance of the Hydis LCD.

How does it all work? Hydis claims that the reflective polarizer used in AFFS+ displays lowers surface reflectance and minimizes screen scattering. They claim a screen reflectance of under 0.3% (and here I assume the value supplied by Hydis means total reflectance of all surfaces). Given that the effective contrast ratio of an LCD used outdoors is computed as 1 + (emitted light / reflected light) and that average sunlight is about 10,000 nits, the J3500 screen has an effective contrast ratio of 1 + (320 / >.003 x 10,000) = 1 + >10.66 = >11.66. On our scale that means "definitely readable in sunlight" and subjective viewing tests confirm that.

The J3500 display also seems to have fixed the predecessor J3400 display's tendency to attract fingerprints and other smudges like a magnet. The new display seems almost immune to it.

While detailed specifications help in determining how easy it is to view and use a display outdoors, you won't know how good it is until you take it outdoors into the sunlight. It also helps to have a point of reference, in this case other displays to compare to. We felt it would be interesting to see how the Motion J3500 compared to two types of displays common these days—an example of a high gloss screen that most current consumer and business notebooks have these days, and a sample of a "matte" display with anti-glare treatment. The comparison machines we chose are a Gateway notebook we use around the office and a Toshiba Portege M700 Tablet PC convertible, predecessor to the still available Portege M780, and beneficiary of almost two decades of Toshiba pen computing experience.

The 2006-vintage Gateway does not specifically have an outdoor screen but despite its glossy screen, a degree of anti-reflective treatment makes it useful enough to be taken along on trips.

The picture below shows the Gateway and the J3500 in the shade on a bright, sunny day, facing away from the sun. Both displays are bright and readable in this outdoor setting, and even though the Gateway screen is glossy, from this angle there are few reflections. The J3500's somewhat brighter backlight is clearly noticeable.

The next picture shows the computers in bright daylight from an angle. Here, the Gateway's glossy display becomes totally mirror-like and unreadable. In contrast, the J3500 screen has no problems at all.

Toshiba took a different approach and used a matte display with anti-glare coating. This works under many circumstances, but not in strong daylight where the anti-glare treatment simply diffuses the light, making the display milky and unreadable. The J3500's AFFS+ display remains perfectly readable.

Direct sunlight is always the toughest test because no amount of backlight is a match for the sun. Readability then relies on how well the LCD can reduce the amount of day/sunlight reflected from its various surfaces. The less daylight reflected, the higher the ratio between backlight and reflected daylight, and the more readable the display remains. Clearly, the J3500 does as good a job as can be done.

The secret, according to Corning's Dr. Shashidhar with whom I had the pleasure of talking with on the phone about Gorilla glass, lies in a special chemical ion-exchange strengthening process that results in what Corning calls a "compression layer" on the surface of the glass. The primary purpose of that layer is to act as an armor that guards against the nicks and tiny cracks that then result in the glass breaking. And even if there are tiny nicks, the layer keeps them from propagating.

Gorilla Glass adds peace of mind because you just know it won't break. And Gorilla Glass has another benefit that may turn out to be quite a selling point for Motion: it's nearly immune to smudges. There's nothing worse than a display that's full of grime and fingerprints, and that just doesn't seem to be an issue with Gorilla Glass.

Windows 7 continues to offer the standard Microsoft input panel that can be used as an onscreen keyboard (see top screen in the picture to the right) or for free-form (or character-by-character) handwriting. The Microsoft keyboard can now be resized to any size, and is much better than in the past.

Motion's QuickNav utility adds a handy numeric input pad along the right side of the display. QuickNav lets you switch from the keypad to the standard horizontal keyboard to an ergonomically designed, rounded layout (see middle screen in the image to the right) that works well with the pen/ It can be moved around, minimized into a single key icon, but not resized.

The bottom screen capture to the right shows Microsoft WordPad with handwriting recognition. While handwriting recognition was intended to be an integral part in the original pen computers of the early 1990s, the challenge of making recognition work in real world situations proved daunting. Recognition, however, is still there and under Windows 7 works better than ever, with new handy new editing tools. J3500 users should learn how to use it and give it a chance.

There was a time when the Microsoft recognizer let you write all over the screen. That feature was dropped several years ago, and instead, you now need to write into the input panel. Ink goes on very smoothly and without jaggies, and without any of the lag that still hampered the J3400 with Vista. Most Windows software, of course, was never meant to be used with handwriting recognition and is not optimized for it, but recognition itself works very well on the J3500. And that includes punctuation and editing.

QuickNav also includes an image capture feature that can also do time and GPS stamps if the J3500 has GPS. A GPS Locator feature snatches GPS information that you can then easily include into documents such as surveying notes or anything else that uses GPS tracking.

The J3500 comes with an interesting (albeit difficult to figure out) "Picture Snapper" interface that is embedded in the QuickNav utility and has the ability to add time/date stamping and geotagging information to images. The picture to the right shows the Picture Snapper in a potential application: Assume that an inspector needs to document label data and safety stickers on compressor units. They could then use the J3500 to take a close-up of the systems and QuickNav would automatically add a date and time stamp as well as full GPS data. Talk about comprehensive documentation! The potential for this kind of information via integration of onboard functionality is tremendous.

For expansion, the J3500 has a single Express Card 34 slot and an optional Smart Card slot. With space at a premium and both USB and Express Card SD adapters, Motion decided to forego a separate SD slot. A SIM card slot can be found under one of the batteries.

For communications, there is a Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi module and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. Optionally available is Mobile Broadband powered by Gobi, now in the form of the Gobi2000 module. Gobi (Global Mobile Internet technology) is a Qualcomm wireless technology that supports the various wireless networking technologies around the world, so users can select whatever carrier is available to them.

As is, the Motion J3500 tablet is sealed to IP52 specifications. That means it keeps dust from getting inside the computer and can also handle water spray falling onto the device. As far as temperature goes, the recommended operating range is 41 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Units also can handle 8-80% non-condensing humidity, and altitudes of up to 15,000 feet with SSD and 10,000 feet with a hard disk. While Motion said the predecessor J3400 could handle a 36-inch drop to plywood over concrete, no such claim is listed in the J3500's specs. An oversight?

Design hasn't changed, and there's still an elastomer overmolded bottom case that cushions shock, seals seams, and insulates for a cool, non-slip grip. Inside is a rigid magnesium frame that makes for a strong, solid base for mounting and attaching components, using replaceable strap mounts where it matters. The design philosophy here is to use strength where it matters, and "give" where that's a better approach. A "floating" foam mount for the LCD avoids strees, and despite the J3500's slender design, there is enough space to allow some flexing instead of transmitting blunt force to the rigid frame.

Also inherited from the J3400 are a number of intelligent details. The two batteries, for example, have molded elastomer "lips" along the perimeter to keep water out. Microphones and speakers are protected from water with special water-sealing membranes that do not affect functionality. Special elastomer guards behind the hardware buttons also seal against water.

The QWERTY part of the keyboard is 94%-scale, which makes for a slightly cramped feeling that can throw off touch-typists. The distance between the center of the letter "Q" on the left and the letter "P" on the right is 6.75 inches on a full-scale keyboard. Here the distance is only 6.375 inches. That could have been fixed by making the punctuation keys a bit narrower, the same way the keyboard's designers made the period and comma keys a bit narrower in order to have an ergonomically correct navigation diamond. Not making the QWERTY part of smaller keyboards wide enough is something I often find on mobile keyboards, and I cannot explain in any other way than assuming Asian language designers (who use an entirely different input method where touch-typing does not matter) don't realize how important 100%-scale of the QWERTY part is to Westerners.

Thin keyboards are often difficult to type on because they offer little tactile feedback or feel flimsy. The Motion keyboard works better than most. One interesting aspect is that the keyboard has a very thin, form-fitting translucent protective rubber skin over it. It doesn't affect typing at all and provides protection. The skin is glued on along the top and bottom but open on the left and right and it looks like you can just take it off (which I probably would).

You can't adjust the angle of the stand. Thanks to the superb display with its 180-degree viewing angle and total lack of any color shifts, that is not an issue. The keyboard has a built-in standard touchpad with left and right mouse buttons. They work great and are very responsive.

Motion also offers a FlexDock that essentially converts the J3500 into a full-featured desktop computing solution (see picture above to the right). The FlexDock consists of an elegant, heavy metal base and a plastic docking part that continues the look, materials and design theme of the J3500. The tablet snaps onto the FlexDock and can then be rotated from vertical to about a 45 degree angle. There is a charging slot for a battery and the FlexDock also provides extra connectivity.

An approximately 40% overall performance increase compared to the predecessor model comes courtesy of an ultra low voltage Intel Core i7 processor that incurs no penalty in battery life. In fact, between the very efficient processor design and Windows 7's excellent power management, the J3500 can well meet Motion's 7-hour estimate.

A substantial functionality increase comes via Motion's new capacitive dual touch technology that combines projected capacitive multi touch for effortless swiping, pinching and rotating, with a standard electromagnetic Wacom pen digitizer for precision work. Switching between the two is automatic, and the system is a pleasure to use.

The J3500's 12.1" wide-format display is among the very best, with a perfect 180 degree viewing angle from all directions, and excellent indoor as well as outdoor performance. The display surface is also much less smudge-prone than before. Virtually unbreakable "Gorilla" glass is available as an option, though not in conjunction with the capacitive digitizer.

The new model also benefits from the availability of more RAM and larger disks, both of the rotating and solid state variety. The J3500 also has an integrated biometric fingerprint sensor, a 3-megapixel integrated camera with auto focus, an optional Gobi2000 wireless broadband module and GPS, a very good convertible keyboard, good onboard connectivity and expansion, Motion's Speak Anywhere multi-directional array microphones with their excellent noise cancellation technology, and a SIM card slot.