As a long time Tablet PC user, this new Tablet PC really fascinated me. It was launched last month in Australia by Motion Computing, and it’s called the F5. It’s based on the motion C5 tablet PC which has been a huge hit in hospitals and medical clinics.

The first thing that strikes you of course is the handle. And it’s very strange to say, but a handle on a pc is actually a very practical thing. Now this Tablet PC is perfect for anyone who is likely to use a Tablet PC in an industrial, construction or manufacturing environment. And for that matter, it’s perfect for anyone who’s working outside a lot who would like to have a computer with them.

So you’re going to see this Tablet PC in:

• Warehouses
• On manufacturers shop floors
• Storage facilities
• On builders, carpenters, plumbers etc
• With engineers
• Supervisors
• Surveyors

… you get the picture.

In addition to the handle the F5 carries over some great feature from the C5. Firstly, there’s the inbuilt 2 megapixel camera. Here’s a demonstration… I simply click the camera button on the side and click it again to take a picture.

You can imagine how many applications this has out in the field. Not having to carry an extra device around or having to try and make connections is a great thing. You can take the picture and save it, or you can capture it straight into a document or your database depending on how you set your system up. It’s a brilliant feature.

Then there’s the Barcode Reader & RFID Scanner. Now I don’t personally know too much about RFID yet, however, I’ll show you how to use the barcode scanner. You just click the button on the front here, and scan away. I think you might see this showing up in some warehouses soon. Imagine how much time this could save you.

Motion also has one of the best outdoor viewable displays on the market, the View Anywhere® Display. I’ve demonstrated this many times, and you can use this outside in direct sunlight just fine. Now that is awesome. Couple with the sealed water resistant cover, this Tablet PC is extremely capable outdoors.

So, here you have an ultra-mobile personal computer running windows XP or vista that is powerful enough to replace a desktop pc, but it is 1.5 kg and can go anywhere with you. So that means that you don’t have to rewrite applications for a different operating system. You don’t have to teach your staff a different system either. They can take the windows programs that they already know with them.

So there you have it, the semi rugged and extremely durable Motion F5 Tablet PC.