Dell Latitude 7220 Rugged Extreme Tablet, hands on: Fully equipped for harsh environments Review

Dell has created a popularity as a provider of rugged tablets, and the Latitude 7220 Rugged Extraordinary Tablet is a powerful addition to the range. It has gone through military-quality (MIL-STD 810G and 810H) testing (together with transit and running fall-tests), can do the job in temperatures ranging from -28°C to 62°C, and is IP65 rated for dust and drinking water resistance — as befits a tablet that’s designed to endure the toughest of conditions. 

The 11.6-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,080) contact monitor has a optimum brightness of a thousand nits, so it truly is entirely outside readable. It can also be utilised with gloved hands. The monitor sits in deep bezels and has a chunky, rubberised surround that’s more bolstered at the corners by an further layer of defense. The aforementioned fall testing involves transit drops from 1.22m (four toes) and running drops from .91m (3 toes).

There’s a caddy in the best edge for a compact, light-weight but serviceable stylus that’s tethered properly to the body. If you really don’t want the stylus and the tether, the two are quickly eradicated.

As you would be expecting offered all the defense, the Latitude 7220 Rugged Extraordinary Tablet is chunky for its 11.6-inch monitor dimension. It actions 312.2mm extensive by 203mm deep and is 24.4mm thick (twelve.3in. x 7.99in. x .96in.). It can be hefty far too, commencing at 1.33kg (2.93lbs). None of these measurements are as relevant as they would be if you were being selecting an day to day tablet or laptop — in actuality, the further dimension and excess weight to some extent point out the degree of defense for the innards.

This defense extends to putting the ports and connectors guiding hinged addresses. These all sit on the appropriate edge (in landscape method), and comprise a mini serial (RS-232) port guiding its personal hinged deal with, the electricity connector (all over again guiding its personal deal with), and then, all guiding one particular deal with: USB-C with DisplayPort USB 3. 3.5mm headset jack and MicroSD card slot. 

Beneath the monitor (in landscape method) there is certainly an array of 8 buttons, a few of which are user configurable. The non-configurable buttons are volume up and down, monitor brightness up and down, and automobile-rotate toggle. All of these buttons light-weight up an eerie green when one particular is pressed.

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On the back again there is certainly a smartcard reader and a fingerprint scanner, in addition a removable deal with for an optional scorching-swappable secondary battery (£20.fifteen ex. VAT). The two the primary and secondary batteries are 2-cell 32Wh Li-ion units.

There is an optional ‘all or nothing’ digital camera setup that contains a 5MP digital camera and Home windows Hello there IR digital camera on the front, and an 8MP digital camera at the back again. The two the primary cameras have sliding privacy addresses, despite the fact that the IR digital camera does not. A keyboard is also optional, but I was not despatched one particular to complete the exam package.

The style and design is extremely modular, enabling for lots of configuration solutions. You can go away out the cameras, for illustration, preserving you £28.60 (ex. VAT), or specify 802.11ax wi-fi (Wi-Fi 6) in its place of 802.11ac a shoulder strap will price tag you £15.46 (ex. VAT), though a comfortable handle is just £10.02 (ex. VAT).

Taking part in all-around with other specs can be much more pricey. Relocating up from the foundation 8th-generation Core i3-8145U processor to the best-close Core i7-8665U adds £207.35 (ex. VAT), though storage updates from the foundation 128GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Course forty SSD can mount up: a 256GB drive adds just £29.twenty five (ex. VAT), but decide for a 1TB drive and you’re wanting at £324 (ex. VAT). Meanwhile, mobile broadband (Snapdragon X20 LTE) adds £103.35 (ex. VAT) to the price tag.

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Even at the foundation rate, exactly where the Core i3-8145U processor is teamed with 8GB of RAM and an 128GB SSD, the Dell Latitude 7220 Rugged Extraordinary Tablet will established you back again £1,791.forty (ex. VAT £2,149.sixty eight inc. VAT) or $1,899. Begin adding in extras and the rate actually mounts up. But that’s the way with rugged tablets, and the extremely configurable mother nature of this one particular, along with its ultra-bright monitor, stylus, programmable buttons and exceptional defense definitely make it healthy for reason.

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