Motion Computing J3500 review

It seems almost unfair to subject the J3500 to the same benchmarks as other, less remarkable systems, but test it we must, not least because it's the first machine we've encountered to be powered by the new Intel Core i7 ultra low voltage CPU. In this case it's the 1.2GHz dual-core i7-640UM vPro version, boasting Hyper-Threading and support for Turbo Boost - which can bump the base speed up to a maximum of 2.266GHz when necessary. Backed up by 4GB of DDR3 RAM, this helped the J3500 to deliver a score in our application benchmarks of 1.14. That's around 70% quicker than the 1.3GHz SU4100 processor in the Acer Aspire Timeline 3810TZ (web ID: 356191), and with a TDP of just 18W, it should be frugal too.

Alas, in the one area where it really needs to shine, the J3500 produced a damp squib of a result, only achieving a time of 4hrs 39mins in our light use battery test, and 1hr 44mins under intense conditions. That's despite the presence of two 2,000mAh batteries. At least they're hot-swappable, so when the juice runs out you can simply clip out one and insert your spare. But if you're going to use a J3500 in the field, you'll certainly need to make room in your bag for one, if not two extra packs.

The other problem we have with the J3500 is with its screen. We're impressed with the LED-backlit display's brightness and viewing angles, but the colours are all over the place, with a subtle muddy-brown tinge colouring everything in sight. In isolation it isn't too bad, but sit it next to any decent laptop display and it just looks odd.

These are serious issues, and it would be remiss of us to ignore them; plus the price is very high. But this is a product of unique talents and we can see plenty of businesses putting up with its foibles and investing. If you need a single device for stock-taking, note-taking or form-filling duties that will operate equally well as a desktop and rugged field laptop, there isn't much around that will do the job as well as this.

Author: Jonathan Bray