"Doing the breakdown of the cost, you've got the motherboard, display, digitizers, batteries, housing, and so at a minimum you can just replace the motherboard without replacing the cost of the whole system. That's what drives the whole serviceability concept on the unit," Gupta said.

The tablet is held together by latches and magnets instead of screws. A special tool provided by HP helps open up the tablet, giving access to the components.

"If anything needs to be serviced three years down the road and the battery life is no longer what it was in its first year, you can put a new battery. If the motherboard needs to be replaced, you can put a new motherboard. You can replace the display without sending the unit back to us and without worrying about compromising your data," Gupta said.

But as is with highly integrated devices, there are some exceptions. For example, the storage is built into the motherboard, so that's difficult to replace, Gupta said.

The ElitePad 900 succeeds the Slate 2, which was introduced in November last year with an older Atom tablet processor and Windows 7. The tablet was released after a rough period in which HP exited the consumer tablet business and decided to retain its PC unit after considering selling or spinning it off. This time, HP is approaching the market with caution, and is starting an extensive evaluation program for the tablet by sending it to 2,500 customers globally for testing before commercial release.