Second gen of Winmate's rugged industrial Android-based PDA with 4.3-inch capacitive multi-touch WVGA sunlight-viewable display
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

Back in November 2011, customers weren't sure whether Winmate was misguided or prescient when they introduced the E430 industrial PDA with a large display, capacitive multi-touch, and available with the Android operating environment. That was quite unusual, but Winmate's crystal ball was right. Handheld screens have been getting larger, capacitive touch is more and more accepted even in rugged/industrial devices, and Android is now considered a strong alternative to Windows CE/Mobile in many vertical markets.

It certainly helped that the E430 was an exceptionally attractive device. Its simple yet elegant design and eye-catching black and yellow color scheme are utterly devoid of the utilitarian look prevalent in many industrial handhelds and PDAs. Its handy size, too, felt just right. Measuring 3.2 x 5.2 inches, being less than an inch thick, and weighing just over eight ounces, the E430 was thicker and heavier than a popular smartphones of the time, but hardly larger. So it was no surprise that the Winmate E430 was well received by customers and resellers alike.

The E430M2 model shown here actually represents the second generation of the platform. A 1GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor has replaced the 650MHz ARM 11 chip of the original version. RAM memory has doubled to 1GB, and users now get 4GB of storage via microSD card (and optionally up to 32GB). Most importantly, the new E430M2 is based on Android 4.1 ("Jelly Bean"), which offers full dual-core support as well as numerous technical and a slew of user interface improvements over Android 2.3.4 ("Ginger Bread") used in the older version.

Despite its modest size and weight, the second-gen Winmate E430M2 is a remarkably rugged device, even more so than the orginal version. It can now handle 5-foot drops to concrete without additional protection, it can handle a very wide operating temperature range of -22 (used to be -4) to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Sealing has been improved as well; whereas the original carried IP65 designation (completely impervious to dust and can handle water jets from all directions), that's now been boosted to IP67 (completely impervious to dust and protected against immersion to one meter).

The Android-based Winmate E430 is available in four versions. The standard model is designed to accommodate optional 3G WWAN. The E430M2-3B2 and E430M2-3BL offer optional 2D barcode and 1D laser, respectively. And the E430M2-3HF can be equipped with optional HF RFID.