Archive for the ‘Rugged’ Category

The Sonim XP1 is a rugged, IP54 rated, MIL-810F drop tested mobile phone that is pretty close to unbreakable… That is until this BBC reporter got hold of it (Click on the screenshot to watch the video):

As you can see, the weak point of this phone is its glass screen. We find that the glass screen is the weak point on many of the Tablet PCs on the market too – even the rugged ones. Even though standard screens are made from chemically hardened glass, they are still prone to break when a little force is applied.

Corning turned this problem on its head when they released Gorilla Glass last year – Gorilla Glass is strengthened with a process that achieves a much deeper level of strengthening. You can see a demonstration of Gorilla Glass by Andrew Moore-Crispin of butterscotch.com here at CES in Las Vegas last week.

Motion Computing were the first Tablet PC manufacturer with Corning Gorilla Glass on the rugged F5 and C5 tablets last year. Gorilla Glass is up to four times stronger than other glass used in Tablet PCs and as yet, Motion are still the only Tablet manufacturer using the technology.

Having used Tablet PCs for nearly 10 years (and broken at least 4 screens), I can attest to the value of this glass. It should be an essential component on all Tablet PCs along with a low power Hydis AFFS+ outdoor viewable display – another Motion Computing first.

Sonim should plan a visit to Corning to make their rugged phone even tougher (so that this doesn’t happen in future)!

The Xplore iX104C4 is a super tough IP65 rated rugged Tablet PC. Because the Xplore is ATEX certified we have been able to deploy it on gas inspection work for the coal seam gas projects in Western Queensland.

Whilst the Xplore is not intrinsically safe (no computer is), it is safe for use in certain dangerous environments (ATEX / UL1604 Class I / Div II.). You will need to check to be sure that the ATEX certification that this device carries will satisfy the requirements of your work environment. Give us a call to discuss it.

The Xplore is built with a triple layer magnesium housing and a unique patented bumper system that enables it to pass a direct drop test onto concrete from 4 feet. It also comes with a choice of Wacom active digitiser or a Wacom digitiser / touch screen combination.

Importantly Xplore also uses smart outdoor screen technology to ensure maximum viewing without needless power draining backlighting. And best of all, with Xplore you don’t have to sacrifice computing power for ruggedness. The iX104C4 uses an Intel Core 2 Duo processor giving it great computing performance.

Thanks to www.RuggedPCReview.com for the pictures in this video. You can read their review of the Xplore iX104C4 here.

I got caught out in one of Melbourne’s four seasons (the rainy one) with one of our Motion F5 tablet PCs recently. As you can see from the video below, the Motion F5 has an IP 54 rating, so it takes it all in stride…

The Motion F5 has an IP54 rating for water and dust resistance. IP is an industrial rating scale for Intrusion Protection. The first number, in this case a 5 relates to the dust rating, and the second number relates to the water rating.

To achieve these ratings, the Motion F5 – and for that matter the Motion C5 – must run through a series of physical endurance tests. The machines must operate through the testing without failure. To see the tests in action, watch below:

Motion F5 Water Test

Water is sprayed constantly onto the Motion F5 from all sides for 1 hour. It must continue to operate throughout the test.

Motion Dust Protection Test

Whilst this video shows the Motion J3400, the Motion F5 and C5 pass the same test. The Tablet PCs are subjected to a fine dust cloud for 8 hours and must continue to operate.

Motion F5 Drop Test

The Motion F5 unit is dropped from 3 feet onto all sides, corners and faces. It must continue to operate throughout this test to pass.

Motion F5 Gorilla Glass Test

This demonstration shows a 1kg ball bearing dropped onto the screen. As you can see, the screen flexes but does not break thanks to the Corning Gorilla Glass technology.

Tablet PCs like these go into places that regular computers don’t go. It is important that you choose a Tablet PC that is designed to go where you want it to go!

The Motion F5 and Motion C5 Tablet PCs are now officially tougher!

Motion Computing has officially launched the new C5 MCA and F5 Field Tablet PC with Corning Gorilla Glass – 4 times stronger than regular display glass.

Motion have also put together a great demonstration video for you, check this out:

To find out more about Corning Gorilla Glass, read this article where we leaked the news in August… Sorry Motion, but we have been delivering these to our customers for a while now…!

Of course this not only means better breakage protection, it will also limit scratching on the screen surface.

The Motion C5 and F5 were already certified to rugged US Military standards (MIL-810F) for drop and IP54 rated for dust and water protection.

Now when you couple this new tough display with the new Hydis AFFS+ outdoor display and Core 2 Duo processor and you have a very tough and cutting edge Tablet PC.

We have the Motion F5 and Motion C5 with Corning Gorilla Glass available for demonstrations now. Call us on 0400 687 887 or fill in the enquiry form on our website.

Screen breakage and scratching have always been a risk with Tablet PCs. Most Tablets are fairly resistant to scratching – particularly the rugged ones – due to the special glass that they use.

However, we have seen plenty of scratched up and broken screens over the last 7 years – especially after years of hard use.

Thanks to the innovators at Motion Computing and Corning that risk can now been significantly reduced. Motion have introduced Corning Gorilla Glass to the rugged F5 Tablet PC and C5 MCA. Gorilla Glass significantly improves scratch and breakage resistance for the F5 and C5 screens.

Motion recently updated the display on the F5 and C5 to include Hydis AFFS+ technology which puts C5 and F5 on par with the J3400 for outdoor readability. This is undoubtedly the best outdoor display technology on the market now (remember that outdoor viewing is not about brightness – nits).

The combination of Gorilla Glass and the Hydis AFFS+ outdoor display is a giant leap forward for the C5 and F5.

Motion Computing keep pushing the envelope in the Tablet PC game. These two innovations are huge for rugged tablet computing!

To make way for new models, we are having a clearance on Motion Computing F5 Rugged Tablet PCs until the end of next week.

If you are looking to trial a Tablet PC for an upcoming project, then why not take advantage of this offer before the end of financial year. You may also be able to take advantage to the Federal Government Investment Allowance.

The F5 features:

• Ultra Mobile design
  • Weighs only 1.5kg
  • Compact 10.4” screen
  • Convenient carry handle
• Rugged construction
  • Drop tested to Military Standards (MIL810F)
  • Water and dust resistant IP54 Rated
• Versatile connectivity
  • Bar code and RFID Scanner inbuilt (Optional)
  • Bluetooth, Wireless and 3G / Next G inbuilt
  • Docking station with spare battery charger

Check the demo section of our website for more information on the Motion F5 demo and stock clearance models available.

Working in the field in direct sunlight has always been challenging. Most Tablet PC vendors now offer some sort of daylight readable display. Beware though, not all daylight displays are created equal.

Some hardware vendors try to pass off daylight readability in terms of brightness, and brightness is measured in nits. So you might see a claim like “500 nits outdoor display.”

We all love to measure things with numbers, but nits is not a good measure of daylight readability.

Simply cranking up the brightness with a stronger backlight on a display causes a number of issues:

1. Significantly reduced battery life
2. Washed out colours
3. Low contrast

The very best solution is actually a display that is readable on little to no brightness on.

In other words, the more readable it is with the least possible nits the better. To achieve the best outdoor readability, you need to address:

• Reflection – Minimising sunlight reflection with Anti-reflective screen coatings
• Diffusing – Reflective, transmissive and transflective technologies work to diffuse light out effectively
• Viewing angles – some achieve up to 180 degrees in all directions, so you can read the display easily at any angle
• Contrast – This is the true benchmark of daylight readability.

According to Rugged PC Review, the effective contrast of an outdoor display is:

1 + (emitted light / reflected light)

So if the reflected light is high, the emitted light needs to be higher just for the screen to be readable.

Getting reflection, diffusion, viewing angles and contrast right can mean that your display is readable outdoors with very little brightness to speak of.

The new motion J3400 is by far the best example of this. As we demonstrated in our product video, you can actually read this display in direct sunlight on the ZERO brightness setting.

That means that you can go out into the field and run much, much closer to the manufacturers claimed battery life of 7.5 hours.

The J3400 is actually the best outdoor readable screen that we’ve seen on a Tablet PC by far and it sports only 320nits. 

A display that has to run at 1000nits to be viewable will of course, not be so good on batteries. So if you have to sacrifice hours in the field just to be able to read the screen, how daylight readable is it really?

Motion Computing claim that their new J3400 has the best outdoor display on the market. That’s a big claim to make, so we had to check it out for ourselves.

Verdict: J3400 has the best outdoor display on the market.

How? Motion have adopted a technology called Hydis AFFS+ for the J3400. According to Motion, that creates a reflective and a transflective area in the display. So when you’re outside with the J3400, the sun is actually working for you, and not against!

Of course, the colour on the display do wash out when you’re in direct sun, but while other displays struggle, the J3400’s Ultraview Anywhere display is still extremely viewable.

What we found is that you do not have to have the display at full brightness to see the screen outside, and that allows you to significantly extend your operational battery life.

Example 1: J3400 compared to Toshiba M700 with anti-glare coating in direct sunlight.

Example 2: Compared to a gateway notebook PC:

These photos come from the comprehensive Rugged PC Review article. Here’s what they had to say about the J3400’s display:

“The J3400 display’s outdoor performance is simply superb. The perfect viewing angle from all directions means you never have to tilt and angle the tablet to see what’s on the screen. The display itself absolutely excels in eliminating unwanted reflection or diffusion. Where other displays appear matte or milky or are overcome with reflections, the J3400′s stays perfectly readable. In head-on, direct sunlight the display is still readable, here thanks to the inner reflectance of the Hydis LCD."

Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, Editor-in-Chief
RuggedPCReview – www.ruggedpcreview.com

Out tip: This is the biggest development in field computing since the Tablet PC came to market.

Motion J3400 is a really awesome step forward in field rugged Tablet PCs from Motion computing. We love it for 3 main reasons:

1. Amazing outdoor display – best available right now
2. Dual battery setup
3. 3G/Next G with GPS.

Cheek out our outdoor video review here:

We recently took a look at the Panasonic Toughbook CF-19. What can we say? It’s tough!

Check out our video review here: 

For more information on the Toughbook CF-19 visit our website.