HP TouchPad arrives… with a 3G slot?

HP’s shiny debut TouchPad tablet arrived late this afternoon at GadgetGuy, and while we haven’t spent much time with it, we have discovered something rather curious.

At last week’s Australian launch, HP mentioned that 3G would not be included in the initial TouchPads slated to hit Australia, but wouldn’t rule out one later down the track.

Strangely, one of the first things we’ve noticed on our review unit is a slot and tray that looks curiously like a SIM card slot. We’ve tried fitting our SIM cards in and have yet been successful, the tray not offering enough room for us to get the SIM inside.

Also of note is the software which has room for a “carrier” in the settings screen (above).

We expect that if there’s no actual 3G hardware inside, HP could be leaving this open to future upgrades. Still, we’re quite surprised that the slot is easily opened.

HP sent us quite a few accessories to go with the TouchPad, so we’ll have a full unboxing online tomorrow!

We can make out what appears to be edges for a SIM card slot in the back of the tray. (Serial number and barcodes have been blurred)