That's really sad they've abandoned the consumer market and won't even consider an upgrade to their popular LS800.

Agreed, all the agonizing guessing games that went on last week for this. Anonymous did give enough clues for the name (F5), rugged nature, and 3lb 9oz weight!

No thank you. This has officially narrowed my field down to the P1620 and the mythical beast that is the LG P100. Has anyone ever found a way to get one shipped to the US?

It sounds like it is hard to get the pen out. The pen on the M1300 was simple and it was easy to get out and there were no moving parts to break. For the LS800 the pen became fancier but I had to get the pen bay repaired after it broke. I'd have gone back to the M1300 style instead of having a pen that is hard to get out without pulling it by the tether.

Does the pen tether get in the way of the camera? Is this the new version of the lens cap on the lens?

The F5 is a C5 clone for mobile field workers. No multi-touch, though it has WWAN (yawn). For my use case, fergetaboutit. On the bright side, Anonymous can stop torturing us!

Kevin, I'm with you on the P1620 vs. P100. I've blogged on the P100 (http://blogs.genghiskhent.com/?p=19). There's a link there to a thread where some Aussies are trying to get the P100, without much success so far.

I'm not sure if this is the new camera lens or not.

The tether string can get in the way of picture taking. I have the tether on there mostly to help in removing the pen. Otherwise, the pen is difficult to remove.

Ironically, for the past week, I've been enjoying using my new/old school HP DK503A ruggedized case for my TC1100. It's just $75 brand new boxed on eBay right now.

I've been very surprised and pleased how well the TC1100 functions within, while fully sealed against grease, dust and light water exposure. All ports are available via rubber gasket seals and LCD fully protected behind glare-reduction and stylus feel maintained textured hard covering. While adding bulk and 1.5lb weight, the rubber covered case handles well in such real adverse conditions. The DK503A used the same 26 drops onto plywood/concrete stress test as F5, although not running.

As a slate, the ruggedized combination functions very well, even for hours sessions. The case sealed raises temps 10 degrees (130's to 140's) but externally feels cool due to suspension design.

The TC1100 at $300-500 used, new HP batteries at $50 and the 503 case slashed deal offers a really viable alternative to the F5 at a fraction as low-end but still truly ruggedized 10.5" slate. The low risk/loss ratio, my 1Gz 1100 runs Vista well and handles any USB devices hooked up makes singularly unique package still relevant. Not as sleek or feature rich, but fills huge category price gap range.

The case slips open in seconds and the 1100 snaps onto desktop dock, selling now under $100 in continuous stream on eBay. The top ten ranked best ever tablet now has secondary market re purpose unmatched with accessories cheap and easily found, instead of rare and over-priced.
My IT grade dual charger cost $15 sealed new and two sealed new HP batteries found for $30 each. Those three retailed over $600 new. An ideal complete package for small-business tight budgets.

Slates in harsh field use need good software not horsepower armed with surplus of batteries exceeding expectations. When commodity priced, tools fit into workflow without lingering fears ever-present for damage handling the really expensive inside busy job sites. A red-hot metal shard falling onto either would melt hole right through. Among heavy machine environments, such risks soar. Few $4,000 slates will be left outside cases laying around, even ruggedized. Industrial settings are far more harsh than medical clinical situations, where conditions vary little. The market for the F5 seems the same slate users, supervisory or estimators or white collar perimeters on-site. The water-proof, drop-tolerance makes those users easy sales, but expanding within next frontier: actual workers in harsh settings and who need stylus input won't.

Touch input priced far, far cheaper, seen as commodity tool maybe. The new design looks like an appliance already at best and scarily child's toy wholly out of place at jobsites. One style right for nurses doesn't also fit for hardhats and filthy hands. Toughbooks look the part. The ribbing also helps holding smooth slab lacks. No one mistakes they're costly at glance, looking $300 when $3,000 impresses few of this crowd. The inability to display blueprints handed to on USB stick smacks of Steve Jobs arrogance to abuse customers. Unbelievable. Imagine how Fisher-Price your tablet will project explaining the flaw. Repeatedly.

It's one thing to bring in a ruggedized tablet for short-term, specialty tasks one owner responsible for and quite another thing adding one into workplace as new tool expected to survive daily assaults indefinitely. Losing individual control to group use of any slate better have bullet-proof design throughout. Swelling rubber fittings can't slip by.

Forgot to mention that links to the TC1100 accessories sited can be found at 1100 accessories thread in HP forum at tabletpcbuzz.com for anyone interested. I haven't posted here since 1100's are being sold while the secondary market buyers go there.

I agree wholeheartedly about the TC1100 still being packed with value. I recently sold all my accessories to another TC1100 user, and gave the slate and the rest to my father for Xmas. Damn was he happy ;) But I will admit to being a bit jealous, giving away such a slick machine :) It served me well for years.

That LG P100, for those that are having trouble finding it, is already for sale and in-stock here in Canada...

http://www.cdw.ca/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1409797

I thought of getting LG P100 myself but the fact that it uses passive digitizer turned me off. I still prefer active digitizer.