Motion Computing – makers the world’s most powerful slate Tablet computers – recently gave their F5v and J3500 tablets an upgrade. We consider the F5v and J3500 to be the computing equivalent to the Aussie ute. In fact, they are used in many of the same places.

The Intel Core i7 versions of the J3500 and F5v went from the i7-640UM 1.2Ghz processor up to the i7-680UM processor at 1.46Ghz. The core i5 version also got a bump.

Whilst the low power Intel Core i7 processor in the F5v and J3500 is still the last generation “Arrandale” chip, it is still between four to ten times more powerful than the Intel Atom based processors found in many rugged Tablet PCs depending on the test performed.

Of course you can’t beat an Intel Atom based tablet for battery life, but there are several reasons that sales of F5v and J3500 with Intel Core i7 have increased at pace with the introduction of the Motion Computing CL900:

• 4-10 Times more powerful than Intel Atom
• Up to 8Gb of RAM
• Desktop replacement power

Whilst the CL900 is fantastic for basic computing tasks like field data collection into web forms, PDF files or Microsoft Excel, it cannot match the performance of the F5v or J3500 for people who need a go-anywhere mobile office.

Judging by the number F5v and J3500s going out with 8Gb RAM on board, a surprising number of people do need brute computing power in the field.

The Motion J3500 also gets a bump up to the faster Gobi 3000 mobile broadband chip with GPS.