What general size class is B360? Its 13.3-inch display is right where rugged laptop screens have been for literally decades, though, of course, the B360 has a modern wide-format display with full HD resolution. Compared to today's super-slender consumer and business laptops, even a compact rugged like the B360 is fairly substantial. Its footprint of 13.5 x 11.1 inches, it's 1.4 inches thick and it starts at 5.1 pounds. The table below shows where the B360 fits into Getac's roster of semi-rugged and fully rugged laptops:

Model	V110	B360	S410	X500	X600
Display size	11.6-inch	13.3-inch	14.0-inch	15.6-inch	15.6-inch
Ruggedness	Fully rugged	Fully rugged	Semi rugged	Fully rugged	Fully rugged
Resolution	1920 x 1080	1920 x 1080	1366 x 768 or 1920 x 1080 1200	1920 x 1080	1920 x 1080
Pixels/inch	190 ppi	166 ppi	112 or 157 ppi	141 ppi	141 ppi
Aspect ratio	16 : 9	16 : 9	16 : 9	16 : 9	16 : 9
Luminance	1000 nits	1400 nits	1000/1000 nits	1000 nits	1000 nits
Size	12.3 x 9.4 x 1.5 inches	13.5 x 11.1 x 1.4 inches	13.8 x 11.5 x 1.5 inches	16.1 x 12.6 x 2.5 inches	16.2 x 12.7 x 2.1 inches
Volume	173.4 cubic inches	209.8 cubic inches	222.2 cubic inches	507.2 cubic inches	432.1 cubic inches
Weight (lbs.)	4.6	5.1	5.25	11.4	9.7
CPUs	12th gen Core	12th gen Core	11th gen Core	7th gen Core	11th gen Core
CPU Code	Alder Lake	Alder Lake	Tiger Lake	Kaby Lake	Tiger Lake
Max RAM	64GB	64GB	64GB	64GB	128GB
Max primary storage	2TB PCIe NVMe SSD	2TB PCIe NVMe SSD	2TB PCIe NVMe SSD	2TB SATA SSD or 1TB HDD	6TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Std. Battery	46.6 whr	46.6 whr	74.5 whr	99.8 whr	149.0 whr
Operating temp	-20° to 145° F	-20° to 145° F	-20° to 145° F	-4° to 131° F	-20° to 145° F
IP rating	IP65	IP66	IP53	IP65	IP66
5G	Optional 5G Sub-6	Optional 5G Sub-6	Optional 5G Sub-6	No	No
Pro version	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Server version	No	No	No	Yes	Yes

Coming up with an elegant, attractive laptop design that communicates toughness, competence, professionalism, and a unique brand identity isn't easy. But Getac has decades of experience with that and the B360 is a very good-looking piece of equipment. Colors, materials, textures, lines, corners, labels, everything looks, works, and fits just right.

The attention to detail on this laptop is more than impressive. Yes, form follows function, but form also contributes to ergonomics, ease-of-use, and also eye-pleasing visual design. Just like the big Getac X600 and X600 Pro rugged workstations we reviewed a few months ago, the Getac B360 convinces on all levels.

And that includes the details. The mustachioed German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once observed that that's where the devil is, in the details. In all the small little things that often get overlooked, and that, if not properly designed and attended to, will come back to haunt you.

A laptop has lots of details, and Getac quite obviously thought them through. Below are some of the details that showcase this impressive attention to every detail:

Clockwise and starting from the upper left, you can see:

1. The clasp that secures the LCD screen against the computer case with the keyboard is one of the most important parts of every laptop. You don't want for the screen to open up when it shouldn't, and you don't want a clasp/lock that's clumsy and hard to operate. Getac got it just right with a spring-loaded clasp that automatically locks, but also easily lets go with just a tap on the clasp.

2. If a rugged computer gets dropped (and it will), the screen must not be jarred open upon impact. Two steel bolts make sure that would never happen in the B360.

3. If you use a stylus with your laptop, it should be tethered and it should have a stylus garage in a convenient and easily located spot. The B360 has that. And it says "Getac" on it. Most of us have many styli. To know which one goes with which device is a very good idea.

4. Too many buttons are confusing, especially if they are poorly labeled. Getac gave the B360 just three, a good number. They are backlit and clearly labeled. A green power button and two programmable function buttons. Excellent.

5. Annunciator lights tell the user what the computer is doing. All too often such lights are poorly labeled and in hard-to-see places. On the B360 they are clearly labeled and where you can easily see them, as it should be.

6. The Getac B360's hot-swappable batteries are flush-mounted into the bottom of the computer case. It'd require a big seal to keep the entire battery compartment dry. So Getac used just an O-ring seal around the battery connector. A common solution, but especially well implemented here.

And another set of nice details: clockwise and starting from the upper left, you can see:

7. It's great to have hot-swappable batteries, but do you always know if your spares are actually charged? And how much? With the B360's batteries there's never any doubt; just push a button and five LEDs show the charge level.

8. Many touch pads are too deeply recessed for convenient use. The B360's 3-1/2 x 2 inch capacitive multi-touch pad is recessed only as much so you can easily sense its perimeter with your finger(s). It's also very responsive and has the exact right surface stiction.

9. You want to be able to replace hot-swappable batteries quickly and easily, but you don't want to have them come loose or fall out by mistake. The B360 has lockable spring-loaded levers that work just right.

10. The B360 has a small fan and a fan grille. Have no fear, though: the fan's housing is completely sealed to the interior of the laptop, and the fan itself works even underwater.

11. This is the port sealing method Getac uses on the B360. Sealing external standard ports is never easy, designing such ports isn't easy, and making sure they are properly secured requires a conscious effort. It takes a bit of getting used to the ports on the B360, but they get the job done.

12. Hard carry handles are almost a must on a rugged laptop, but many are bulky and not all are convenient to use. We like the B360's design where the handle is nicely integrated but then clicks into a carrying position when you need it.

In terms of layout and look, these days almost everyone uses the "island-style" look with fairly short key travel but good tactile feedback. That's important in the field; everything must be optimized for functionality, clarity and ease of use. The thick type and white-on-black icons make the B360 keyboard look a bit busy and cluttered. Function labels are icon-style black on white, sometimes below and sometimes to the right of the default character of the key. The whole design looks and feels much like the standard Apple keyboard, which today is as much praised for its "look and feel" as the original IBM PC keyboard was at the dawn of personal computing.

Placement of the keyboard in relation to the slightly recessed capacitive multi-touch touchpad and the two "mouse" buttons is just right. The touchpad itself is a bit larger in the prior version. And, almost needless to say for full-size laptop, the all-important QWERTY layout is 100%-scale. That means the distance between the center of the letter Q and the center of the letter P is exactly 6-3/4 inches. This way, anyone used to a standard keyboard will have no problem finding the key and feeling at home, even if they are not full touch typists.

The LED-based backlight can be toggled on/off via a function key combination. Illumination is reddish-tinted white, and it clearly illuminates the keys in semi and full darkness.

More often than not, one of the faster chip options of a prior generation is likely to still be quicker than one of the lower-end options of the next generation or even the one after. As stated, there are exceptions. One was when quad-core processors became available for the first time. That made a big difference. Another was the "Tiger Lake" 11th generation that brought manufacturer-side dynamic tuning, Thunderbolt 4 support, Iris Xe, and was just generally a great design.

Is the "Alder Lake" 12th generation one of those exceptional ones? Hard to say. It is different, because it is Intel's first mainstream "hybrid" architecture. What does hybrid mean in this context? It means that "Alder Lake" chips have two different kinds of processing cores. There are complex, powerful P-cores (power cores) and smaller, less complex E-cores (efficient cores). The idea behind this is that the P-cores, which draw a lot of power, do the heavy lifting, whereas the economical E-cores do all the less-demanding routine everyday tasks. That's the way the ARM-based processors used in virtually all smartphones have been doing it for many years: power cores for maximum performance, and economy cores to save battery life — packing the best of both worlds into one chip.

But who makes the decision of what ought to run where and when? That task falls to a scheduler program designed to make sure everything runs as quickly as possible AND as economically as possible. For that to happen, Intel and Microsoft worked together on a hardware/software approach. On the hardware side, Intel Alder Lake chips have a special embedded controller — a Thread Director — that keeps track of all the metrics and passes on that information to the operating system scheduler program that then uses all that information to make intelligent decisions. This teamwork between hardware and software, however, requires Windows 11. Alder Lake chips can, of course, run Windows 10, but to take full advantage of Intel's new hybrid technology, you need Windows 11. To read our interpretation of all of this, see Intel's 12th generation "Alder Lake" Hybrid processors.

The B360 comes by default with an Intel Core i5-1240P, but Getac also offers four higher level chip options. The table below shows all five of them:

Looking at the table, you'll see right away that Alder Lake's hybrid technology means a lot more computing cores. All five options have eight efficiency cores. On top of that, there are four power cores in four of the five options, and six in the top-end chip. Each of the power cores has two threads. So these new chips have 12 to 14 cores and 16 to 20 threads!

And the different kinds and numbers of cores is not the only thing that has changed. The two types of cores have different default and top frequencies. And whereas the 10th generation processors in the original B360 were all rated as having a Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 15 watts, the 12th generation chips are all listed as having 28 watts "base power" and 64 watts "max turbo power." What is TDP in the first place? It's a somewhat vague Intel measure of how much heat a tablet or laptop must be able to dissipate for a certain processor. So a jump from 15 watts to 64 watts is quite large. And it is also large compared to Intel's 12/28 watts designation for "Tiger Lake" 11th generation processors.

So we're a little bit in uncharted water here, what with Intel's changing classifications and specifications. As is, Getac chose "P-Series" processors for the new B360. Intel designates those for "thin and light laptops," which would make them the perfect chice for a machine like the B360. However, for years rugged laptops and tablets have been using "U-Series" processors, and that also goes for the few rugged systems that have already switched to Alder Lake. So it's not entirely clear if "P" is the new "U" in premium rugged systems, or if the choice signals Getac's return to using high-powered CPUs even at the cost of higher power draw, as the company has in the past?

In order to get a sense of where the new Getac B360 stands in terms of raw performance compared to its primary fully-rugged laptop competition, we ran our standard benchmark suites (PassMark 6.1 and 9, CrystalMark, PCMark10, 3DMark, and GeekBench 5). The results are as follows:

What do the benchmarks show? Some of the results are obvious and expected, others less so.

First, the new B360 is a very powerful machine, outperforming the original B360 we tested in almost all benchmarks, even though the early test machine had the optional discrete graphics which our new B360 didn't have. That said, the overall margin of extra performance wasn't quite as much as we had expected from P-Series chip. Why might that be? The most likely reason is that the new hybrid architecture hasn't matured yet to a point where the OS and software can take full advantage of the powerful hardware with all of its processors. So it's quite possible that Windows 11 updates, especially on the thread director, will unlock additional performance over time.

Battery technology has come a long way, but progress remains slower than overall progress in electronics and miniaturization. Does that mean today's slender power packs have less capacity? Often they do. Rugged devices of the past routinely had standard batteries with 90 or 100 watt-hour capacities. Today it's often just half of that. Combined, the B360's two slender (just 3/8-inch thick) batteries, for example, only pack 46.6 watt-hours, a far cry from the semi-rugged Getac S410's 74.5 watt-hours, let alone the Getac X600's default 149 watt-hours.

Getac specs don't list expected battery life in the B360's specs, probably because battery life depends on so many cariables. So, given the B360's substantial performance and super-bright screen, what will we find?

We used PassMark's BatteryMon to measure basic power draw. Selecting the Getac "Best Power Efficiency" mode, and screen brightness toggle set to its lowest setting, we saw a minimum of 4.2 watts, not bad, but a lot more than the original B360's minimum draw of just 2.0 watts. With the backlight set to 50% it was 5.6 watts (compared to the old machine's 2.9 watts), and with the backlight at 100%, amazingly, 10.7 watts — more than the predecessor's 7.9 watts but really not much given the very bright screen. Dividing the full available 46.6 watt-hours by the lowest observed power draw of 4.2 watts would indicate a theoretical battery life of 11.1 hours.

Putting the B360 into Windows' "Best Performance" power mode and toggling the backlight to 0%, power draw was 5.5 watts, good for a theoretical 8.5 hours. With the backlight set to the 50% level, it was 6.5 watts, still good for 7.2 hours.

With the backlight at 100%, power draw rose to 12.2 watts. This means that in "Best Performance" mode and backlight as bright as Windows sets it, theoretical battery life is down quite a bit, to just 3.8 hours.

Getting 11 hours of (theoretical) run time out of two small batteries combining to just 46 watt-hours would be adequate — anything that can cover a full shift is. And the batteries are hot-swappable, carrying a spare or two means that battery life should be less of an issue. If the lowest possible weight is desirable, you can operate a B360 with just one battery. It then weighs just 4.825 pounds. We would, however, not recommend hitting the road with just one single battery.

Finally, Getac's rugged mobile computer decontamination document (see here) recommends a number of commonly available disinfectants for the B360. Those have all been tested for 10,000 swipe-downs at a pressure of 14.22 psi.

LumiBond® 2 display works well indoors and out

Computer displays have come a very long way since the early days of the PC, with many of today's displays being pretty much perfect. Indoors, that is. Outdoors, the sun can overwhelm the brightest display, and there are reflections that can make a screen difficult to see and use. Clearly, outdoor/sunlight viewability is of crucial importance to users of rugged laptops such as the Getac B360.

As a result, rugged computer manufacturers have long been in a race for the best possible outdoor/sunlight-viewable display technology.

Several years ago, Getac came up with their "QuadraClear®" (see QuadraClear® page) display technology. The term refers to its four core features: a bright backlight, anti-reflective coatings, linear polarizer, and circular polarizer.

All major manufacturers of outdoor-usable mobile computing equipment use those technologies, and so the difference boils down to a) backlight brightness and b) the extent to which the expensive optical coatings are applied and how the various layers are bonded (the fewer reflective surfaces, the better). Getac calls their layer bonding process "LumiBond®" (see LumiBond® page).

What constitutes a "powerful" backlight? That's where luminance, the intensity of light emitted, comes in.

Luminance is measured in candela per square meter, where candela refers to luminous intensity, the power emitted by a light source. Since "candela per square meter" is a bit cumbersome, the industry uses "nits" which really is just short for "units".

A standard laptop display is generally in the 200 nits range, and rarely reaches 300 nits. Premium tablets are in the 400-600 nits range. Some heavy-duty rugged gear went as high as 1500 nits, but that generally required a massive, heavy battery.

The Getac B360 display is listed as 1400 nits, which is very bright. And its various optical treatments cut down the percentage of incoming ambient light. That's important because the ratio between the backlight and the reflected incoming ambient light determines the effective contrast ratio, which then translates into the degree of real world outdoor readability of a display. And as if 1400 nits weren't bright enough, in our own testing we actually saw a maximum of almost 1550 nits!

The matrix below shows the B360 display under a wide variety of viewing conditions.

Overall, its sheer brightness precludes the picture from washing out, the way it does on lesser screens, under almost any lighting condition. The semi-matte surface also totally eliminates the sharp reflections that bedevil standard "glossy" displays outdoors.

There are, however, no completely perfectly solutions to outdoor viewability with current display technology. Getac made this display as bright as possible while, with prudent use of full brightness, still offering generous battery life. But even with a semi-matte displays surface, reflections manifest — not in a distracting mirror-like way, but a degree of milkiness when the display diffuses light.

As is, the B360 display is excellent. Both glossy and semi-matte screens have their pros and cons, but outdoors and in the sun, semi-matte's ability to diffuse the sharp reflections of glossy screens can be a distinct advantage. This is about as good as it currently gets.

One thing, though: It's time to increase screen resolution. Machines such as the Getac B360 are increasingly used to perform complex and very detailed imaging tasks and computations, and the old "Full HD" 1920 x 1080 pixel is starting to be a weak link. It'd be nice to get 1440p 2560 x 1440 resolution at least as an option.

Glove touch and handling rain

One of the limiting issues with capacitive multi-touch is that in its generic form, it only works with human fingers or, to a lesser extent, with capacitive styli. Capacitive touch doesn't like rain and it won't accept thick gloves and such. Unfortunately, wetness and the need for gloves is exactly what one encounters out there where machines such as the Getac B360 are often used.

Getac was one of the first to address these issues, and solutions have been part of the LumiBond® 2.0 technology for several years. There's a special G-Manager "Touch Screen" display where users can select "Touch," "Glove," or "Pen." Here's how it works:

Drops near the hand on the "Touch" icon indicate that touch continues to work "with direct exposure to rain." How exactly Getac does that is part of their intellectual property.

Water is so conductive that it affects the capacitance between two electrodes, which is the concept upon which projected capacitive touch is built. What can be done is switching from a standard mutual capacitance mode to self-capacitance where the capacitance between one electrode and the ground is measured instead of the capacitance between two electrodes. That would preclude a capacitive pen from working in this mode because a fairly large touch area is required. The capacitive pen does work, however, so what Getac did is make sure the light touch of a rain drop is not interpreted as a finger touch.

"Glove" allows the B360 to be operated with gloves. That is done by increasing the sensitivity of the touch controller, so that it can recognize a finger even a brief distance away from the screen, as in the distance that the material of a glove adds to the finger's distance from the screen. That's the way Getac seemed to have done it, as not only do gloves work in this mode, but the cursor now follows the finger even when it is a short distance away from the surface, and touch operations no longer require a firm touch.

"Pen" mode is for use with the dual-mode input option. Touch continues to work in pen mode, but the system will not recognize touch when it sense the pen in use, and vice versa. Pen mode is also for use with narrow-tip capacitive pens, where the smaller contact area of the stylus takes priority over the large contact of finger touch.

Summary: Getac B360 fully rugged notebook computer

With the next generation of the B360, Getac leapfrogs its primary competition in the modern, full-size, fully rugged laptop race. The B360 is a fully-rugged computer for the field that isn't bulky and doesn't weigh a lot. In fact, even in this new and more powerful version, Getac does the seemingly impossible: make a machine that can handle whatever hazard or abuse comes its way, yet is no bulkier, and weighs no more, than most semi-ruggeds. That is remarkable.

So to just quickly reiterate, the Getac B360 still only weighs just a little over five pounds even with two batteries, offers excellent performance thanks to using state-of-the-art technology (like Intel 12th gen Core chips and PCIe NVMe storage), and sports the kind of full, uncompromising ruggedness needed on so many jobs.

Now add to that a smoothly operating capacitive multi-touch display that's also the brightest available screen in this class (or most others), hot-swappable batteries, things you don't usually get in laptops (like an optional integrated scanner), and also the availability of a B360 "Pro" model for those who need additional features and build options as well as more on-board battery power, and you have a platform that is hard to beat. – Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, July 2023

Getac B360 G2 fully-rugged laptop Specs

Status	Introduced June 2023, full review July 2023
Type	Fully rugged notebook
Processor	Intel Core i7-1280P (6 P-cores/8 E-cores, 4.8 GHz max turbo) Intel Core i7-1270P (4 P-cores/8 E-cores, 4.8 GHz max turbo) Intel Core i5-1260P (4 P-cores/8 E-cores, 4.7 GHz max turbo) Intel Core i5-1250P (4 P-cores/8 E-cores, 4.4 GHz max turbo) Intel Core i5-1240P (4 P-cores/8 E-cores, 4.4 GHz max turbo)
Thermal Design Power	28/64 watts (all available processors)
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe Graphics, opt. NVIDIA GTX 1650
OS	Windows 11 Professional (64-bit)
Memory	8GB DDR4 expandable to 64GB
Storage	Main storage: 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD Optional 2nd storage: 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB NVMe SSD
Expansion slots	1 x SD card, 1 x Smart Card
Display type	IPS TFT LCD, LumiBond® 2.0 sunlight readable LED display
Display size/res	13.3"/1920 x 1080 pixel (166 ppi) 1400 NITs (measured 1549 NITs)
Digitizer	10-point capacitive multi-touch
Keyboard	LED backlit membrane keyboard; optional LED backlit rubber keyboard
Housing	Unknown
Size	13.46" x 11.06" x 1.37" inches (342 x 281 x 35 mm)
Weight	Starting at 5.1 pounds (2.3 kg); weight as tested with two batteries and stylus: 5.17 lbs.
Operating temperature	-20° to 145°F (-29° to 63°C)
Drop test	MIL-STD-810H 6-ft drop
Ingress protection	IP66
Vibration	e-Mark certified for vehicle usage
Humidity	95% RH, non-condensing
Disinfectants	See Getac rugged mobile computer decontamination
EMI	MIL-STD-461G certified
Power	Hot swappable dual 11.1V 2,100 mAH 23.3 whr Li-Ion batteries
Cameras	Front-facing FHD webcam or optional Windows Hello webcam
Scanning	Optional barcode scanner
Security	TPM 2.0, cable lock slot, Smart Card reader, opt. HF RFID reader
Interface	1 x Headphone out/mic-in combo, DC-in Jack, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A, 1 x PowerShare USB 3.2 Type A, 1 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, 1 x LAN (RJ45), 1 x HDMI 2.0, Docking connector. Configurable I/O Options: 1. 9-pin D-sub serial + 15-pin VGA 2. 9-pin D-sub serial + DisplayPort 3. 9-pin D-sub serial + 15-pin VGA + 2nd RJ45 LAN 4. 9-pin D-sub serial + DisplayPort + 2nd RJ45 LAN
Wireless	Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211, 802.11ax Bluetooth (v5.3); opt. dedicated GPS OR opt. 4G LTE mobile broadband with integrated GPS, opt. 5G Sub-6 with integrated GPS, opt. RF antenna pass-through for GPS, WLAN and WWAN
Price	Inquire
Web page	Getac B360 web page
Brochure	Getac B360 brochure/specs
Warranty	3-year bumper-to-bumper warranty standard