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The $5,600 Tablet
An anonymous reader writes "Tablets have come a long way in the past few years, and it has become possible to find a capable device for under $200. But what about the tablets pushing toward the high end of the spectrum? Xplore Technologies sells a line of tablets that top out at $5,600. Who on earth would pay that much? The military, of course. 'The DMSR models both have handles and are encased in tough protective covers. They can be dropped more than 2 meters onto a plywood floor and 1.2 meters onto concrete, and can operate in temperatures between -30 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit (-34 to 60 degrees Celsius). They've been tested to the U.S. military's tough MIL-STD-810G standard for extreme conditions. The tablets run Windows and come with Intel's latest Core i5 or i7 Haswell processors. Solid-state drive options extend to 480GB. ... They display images at 1024 x 768 resolution. That's less than some cheaper Windows tablets, but Xplore claims to offer excellent LCD visibility in sunlight thanks to a display luminescence of 1,300 NITS. The tablets have internal fans but can still run for up to eight-and-a-half hours on a 10-cell battery, Xplore said. They weigh a hefty 2.4 kilograms.'"
I handled procurement of a few of these for a client two years ago. They are impressive for their sturdiness and resistance to the environment, and I was able to view the screen very well even in the mid-day sunlight. The model I played with was everything the summary described and a bit more. It was submersible for up to two hours in salt or fresh water as long as the ports were sealed with the silicone port glands.
It is an impressive device for what it provides to people on the move in challenging environments.
If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law;
Bear Grylls would open it with a coconut and a shoelace, pee in it and then survive a week by eating its insides.
Curiously yours, crip.
I rock a Panasonic Toughbook laptop and a Panasonic Toughbook tablet.
Toughpad FZ-A1 for my android tablet and a toughbook 31 I carry for work more money in tablet and laptop than most of you have every owned in your car. I work in very dusty and dirty environments programming smartbuildings while they are under construction.
The number of people that whine the ,"OMG why did you buy that expensive thing" I then drop it on it's edge from 4 feet and then ask if their Nexus 7 is "the exact same thing" that they drop their on the edge right now. I own a nexus 7 they break if you look at them funny. I can read the screens better in direct sunlight, consumer tablets are unusable out in the direct sun.
Note: panasonic is a lot cheaper than this botique brand, and the Govt uses them on a regular basis.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Will it blend?
Its impressive when a computer does it.
Took a class in computer reliability in the face of all sorts of problems, and the instructor was a bit taken aback when those of us from the DoD started talking about having the computer system take a 50 caliber round. It wasn't a failure mode he was familiar with.
I would guess that there is a big difference between "guaranteed to survive a 1.2m drop onto concrete" or even "99% chance of surviving the drop" (which is probably what they offer) and the anecdotal "I dropped shit from longer distances and they were fine".
My S3 was seriously damaged by a much smaller drop. You can be lucky or unlucky with such devices. Military doesn't like that :)
For that price, you could buy 50 regular Android tablets and luggage to keep them in. Just grab a new tablet when you break one.
Why, oh why, would anyone go through the trouble of making hardware that could survive those extreme conditions and then put Windows(!?!?!?!?) on it? Talk about the most pointless exercise ever. They couldn't be bothered to go check what the OS market share for tablets was? Hell, I wouldn't surprised if those tablets were running Windows XP. If you're going to choose to go stupid, might as well double down.
I can't help but think of the old saying "A fool and his money are soon parted."
That these tablets never leave the truck or tank because they are heavy and very likely not all that usable.
We tooled around with a general dynamics tablet with similar capabilities and it wasn't good for anything except blocking bullets.
1.2 Meters onto concrete or 2 Meters onto wood is not extreme by and standard, extreme would mean it could take a 40 cal bullet right to the screen and not break, or drop from 100 meters onto concrete. Also a tablet running Windows for field use dangerous on its own right. I would really hope I'm not the solder in the field who has to deal with blue screens on the battle field.
missile_guidance.exe has stopped working.
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.
Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.