The durability issue will probably be the biggest thing when considering field devices. Currently our field data terminals (pretty rugged, but about $5000 each) are beaten up pretty badly on a daily basis. We go into some very dirty and hazardous environments and of course it will probably eventually be subjected to the 5 foot drop to concrete test. Several of our field data terminals have been subjected to 50 foot drop to concrete from the top of a tower, of course it required a broom and dustpan to pickup the pieces. We will continue using the current field collection devices for normal daily data collection.

The main use for the tablet will be in setting up a new database or editing existing records in the field. Currently, I'm looking to replace a laptop and have a development platform that I can use for testing. In field use the final selected unit will be industrial duty and probably use offline data and will not use any wireless connection. Battery life of 4 hours with ability to swap out batteries in the field would suffice.

>our environment, while in a factory, is not harsh. It is temp controlled (within reason) and really not all that dusty. These tablets would NOT work in a harsh environment. I do know that if the wirless connection is not active, the battery life does much better.
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>In the end, the VFP app running on the windows platform does great. So if you can find the right tablet and it runs win2K or XP, you definently won't have any trouble running a VFP app.
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>Alan