Jerry Fahrni

I received a new Motion J3400 tablet PC today from our IT department. It’s for our ICU pharmacists and will be replacing the Motion LE1700 tablet PC they are currently using. The tablet has the same application configuration as our desktop machines: Siemens Pharmacy, Soarian Clinicals, internet access, etc.

The J3400 is a slate model tablet PC, i.e. no attached keyboard. It’s solid, but doesn’t feel all that heavy. In fact, I think it’s easier to hold than the LE1700 it’s replacing. The back of the J3400 is covered with a hard rubber like material that makes it resistant to falls from a height up to 36”. That’s a nice feature as our pharmacists tend to be hard on their equipment.

Attached to the back of the J3400 is a Motion Mobile Keyboard. The keyboard pops off and can be used to create a small docking station for the tablet when a keyboard is absolutely necessary. The keyboard is small, spill-resistant, attached via four magnetic connectors, and not very user friendly. I wouldn’t want to type on it for very long. Most of our pharmacists have no need for the keyboard as they use the tablet to access patient information during rounds. So, I think I’ll just remove the mobile keyboard and put it in a drawer for now. You would never know it was missing by simply looking at the J3400.

This particular tablet came with Microsoft Vista Business edition installed. I’m not quite sure how that happened as all of our computers throughout the facility run XP Professional. I have no real opinions on Vista versus XP, except to say that the “ink” experience on Vista appears to be a little bit more robust than XP.

One thing is for certain, this little dude is much faster then our LE1700. Overall, I’m impressed. I prefer a convertible tablet PCs to a slate, but I’ll certainly have fun with this one for a few days before I turn it over to the ICU crew.