You’re still not any closer to being able to buy one, but HP’s mysterious 7-inch TouchPad has now gotten a bit less mysterious. After turning up at the FCC under the TouchPad Go moniker in August, the device has now shown up for some less-than-flattering pictures on the Chinese ZooPDA forums — you may have heard of some other complications that happened in the interim. As you can see, this model packs the same 4:3 aspect ratio as the standard TouchPad, as well as most of the same internals — the notable exceptions being both front and rear-facing cameras, and what appears to be an NFC chip (conveniently mentioned in a spec list printed on the back of the unit). This particular unit also has a removable back cover, which appears to provide access to the battery and a SIM card slot, although it’s possible that’s simply a result of its prototype status.

HP’s 7-inch TouchPad Go surfaces on a website that isn’t selling it originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:38:00 EST.