Now that we've looked at the S510's performance, what's the price to pay for it all in terms of battery life?.

Battery life of laptops has come a long way. Gone are the days where a charge just lasted an hour or two. These days, we expect an electronic tool for the job to make it through a full shift on a charge, and ideally without needing to change batteries. That puts manufacturers in a difficult position. Big batteries make a laptop heavy and bulky, and customers don't like that. But customers also don't like it if their laptops can't make it through a shift because the battery is too small.

A common solution to this is to equip rugged laptops with dual batteries. If weight matters, use just one. If battery life matters, use two, with the added benefit of being able to hot-swap batteries. That's the way it is with the S510. It has room for two powerful 74.5 watt-hour batteries, for a total of 149 watt-hours. Now let's see how much power the S510 uses.

We tested the power draw of the S510 with our standard BatteryMon benchmark. With the Windows 11 Power setting set to "Best Power Efficiency" and the display backlight set to its lowest setting, we saw a minimum draw of about 6.3 watts. That's theoretically good for 23.7 hours, way more than any shift.

Getac S510 BatteryMon Power Draws (at idle)
	Backlight level	Darkest	50%	Brightest
	Max Battery	6.3 watts (23.7 hrs.)	7.6 watts (19.6 hrs.)	13.4 watts (11.1 hrs.)
	Max Performance	8.6 watts (17.3 hrs.)	10.2 watts (14.6 hrs.)	15.4 watts (9.7 hrs.)

With the backlight set to roughly 50% for comfortable indoor viewing, we saw a minimum of 7.6 watts, still theoretically good for almost 20 hours. And with the backlight set to maximum brightness, power draw rose to 13.4 watts, theoretically good for 11.1 hours. We then switched the Windows 11 Power setting set to "Best performance." That way, with the display backlight set to its lowest setting, we saw only a higher minimum of about 8.6 watts. With the backlight set to 50% for comfortable indoor viewing, we recorded 10.2 watts, and with the backlight set to maximum brightness, power draw was 15.4 watts, still theoretically good for 9.7 hours.

Those values, however, only show how much power a system draws just idling along, without doing any actual user work. Real-world power draw depends on a good number of variables — different types of software, periods of heavy use and then periods of sleep or idling.

To measure real world battery life, we used UL Solutions' PCMark 10's Battery test. This demanding test shows how long a charge lasts with the system never sleeping and constantly being exercised with a variety of typical tasks. In that test, with two batteries, the Getac S510 lasted 13:24 hours, more than enough to make it through the longest shift with continuous use of the system. This result also translates into power consumption of 10.75 watt-hours per hour, or 5.6 minutes of operation per watt-hour. By comparison, the 14-inch Getac S410 with its 13th gen Core i5-1350P processor and the same amount of battery power ran 16:12 hours, used 9.2 watt-hours per hour, and ran 6.5 minutes on a watt-hour.

Nice big display

The Getac 510's big display measures 15.6 inches diagonally and it uses the "full HD" 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, which makes for the popular wide-format 16:9 aspect ratio. 1920 x 1080 resolution in this size display amounts to 141 pixels per inch.

That's reasonably sharp, and still the norm in today's rugged laptops. But given the extremely high pixel density of today's smartphones and consumer tablets (without needing to be THAT high), as well as the 4k resolution of PC monitors and almost all TVs, it'd be nice to see higher resolution is rugged laptops also, like 2560 x 1440 pixel QHD.

That said, at least 1080p is standard on the S510. We're still seeing products in this range where 1366 x 768 pixel resolution is standard and 1920 x 1080 is an option. That'd definitely be too coarse for a big 15.6-inch screen, and so we're glad the S510 comes standard with 1920 x 1080.

And it doesn't end there — laptop displays must be bright enough to be easily viewed where they are used most, and for this type of machine that's often outdoors. The S510 comes standard with 1000 nits luminance, and thanks, Getac, for that.

Standard laptop backlights are in the 250 nits luminance range (1 nit = 1 candela per square meter) range, with some reaching into the 300-400 nits range, not nearly enough for working outdoors. Which is why high-end rugged notebooks may offer up to 1,500 nits of luminance. Our review S510 test unit clocked in at 1062 nits. Nice.

And Getac also observed two other important features of outdoor laptop displays. One is horizontal and vertical viewing angles. There is nothing worse than a display that changes in color or contrast or both when viewed from different angles. The S510 display doesn't have this problem. It has near perfect horizontal and vertical viewing angles. That makes a BIG difference.

Glossy displays rule in consumer laptops and tablets because they "pop" indoors and look great in environments with few reflections, but matte or semi-matte displays can be much better outdoors where they diffuse light in a controlled manner, making it easier and more pleasant to view them under the typically high-contrast and ever-changing outdoor lighting conditions.

As far as touch goes, it's really not totally mandatory in laptops, but as time goes on, everyone is getting so used to touch and tap and pinch and zoom on displays that most people are expecting it now. As is, the S510 comes standard without touch; Getac's very good LumiBond™ multi-touch is optional.

Below a few pictures of the S510 outdoors, on a bright afternoon. Note how brightness and contrast change only minimally at different viewing angles. What you can't see is how the semi-matte display often mute reflections t the extent where they aren't a distraction.

How rugged is the Getac S510?

Until recently, Getac would have called the S510 as a "semi-rugged" laptop, just like their 14-inch S410. Over the years, we've often expressed discontent and frustration with the terminology used to describe the ruggedness of computing equipment. Because, in the absence of any official standards, "semi-rugged" and "rugged" and "fully rugged" really mean nothing at all. "Semi-rugged" in particular was grating — what's that? Semi-good? Semi-sufficient? Half of what it should be? You get the idea.

Now it seems that Getac is no longer using the term. The S510 is called rugged, as is the S410, whereas the B360 and Getac's other machines of heavier, more protected build are "fully rugged." Still not perfect, but better.

As is, Getac says the S510 was designed "to meet or exceed MIL-STD-810H temperature, shock, humidity, altitude and vibration specifications." Getac also claims a 3-foot drop. That's generally enough to let a unit survive a fall from a desk. The S510's corner rubber bumpers certainly help, as does the integrated rubber handle. And it could likely be, it could be four feet with just a bit of extra corner protection.

As is, the Getac S510 spec sheet claims MIL-STD-810H certification for having passed drop, shock, vibration, dust, altitude, high/low temperature and humidity tests.

Getac says the S510 can operate between -20° and 145° Fahrenheit (-29° to 63°C). That's a wider range than such machines used to cover (mostly thanks to the wholesale switch from rotating to solid state disk) and makes the S510 suitable for use in almost any environment. The wide range comes in handy in several targeted deployments, such as closed vehicles or around freezers.

As far as sealing goes, there's been steady progress over the years in this class where initially there was no ingress protection against liquids at all. Over time, manufacturers realized that it does get wet outdoors on the job, and protection against liquids gradually improved. It's now generally up to IP53 in the class previously known as semi-rugged. In IP53, the "5" means that the unit is protected against dust and the "3" means that it's also protected against water spray from above within a 15 degree angle. So Getac designed the S510 to handle common occurrences such as spills onto the keyboard and keypad, and all ports have protective covers that, while not sealed against water, do a good job keeping it away.

Else, Getac refers to MIL-STD-810H certifications. We'd like to see all those listed in any rugged computer's spec sheet, but for some reason we usually only see brief references. What became clear in our testing, though, is that the S510 feels remarkably sturdy and trust-inspiring, and plenty capable of handling the likely abuse encountered in its intended deployments. Interested parties may also want to take a look at Getac's Certifications page.

What it boils down to is that the Getac S510 is much more damage-resistant than any of the sleek, fragile consumer or enterprise laptops, but it's not waterproof like a fully rugged (and much more costly) laptop and can't quite take the same abuse.

Summary: The Getac S510

The Getac S510 is an entirely new design. It isn't an upgrade or update to an existing model. The S510 is for those who'd simply like a state-of-the-art rugged laptop with a somewhat larger screen, and the S510's 15.6-inch display addresses just that.

Weighing in at barely over five pounds, the S510 is remarkably compact and handy, especially for a rugged design with a big screen, extensive connectivity, an integrated carry handle, and a media bay that can still accommodate an optical drive for those who need one. The S510's build is practical and looks fairly invulnerable, so there isn't the constant fear that it may get scratched up.

Although the S510 is quite affordable for a rugged laptop, it comes with leading edge technology. Getac says it is the very first rugged laptop built around Intel's 14th generation "Meteor Lake" Core Ultra processors that include neural processing technology, making them "AI-ready" for the rapidly increasing number of AI-based applications. And that even includes a special Microsoft Copilot key on the S510's keyboard.

The Getac S510's 15.6-inch display with full HD resolution offers 24% more display area than a 14-inch screen, and 37.5% more than the common 13.3-inch screen format. The display surface is semi-matte, which makes it more pleasant to use than a glossy screen. The display has near 180 degree horizontal and vertical viewing angles. And it comes standard with a strong 1000 nits backlight.

With its remarkably light and compact design and build, and its novel AI-ready high performance processing technology, the Getac S510 is a convincing design and value. -- Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, May 2024