Sleek, rugged Intel Haswell-powered 10.1-inch Windows procap tablet with superior computing and graphics performance
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

Samwell will show and demonstrate their new Rugged Tablet PC 770 at the 2014 Computex show in Taipei (June 3 through 7, 2014) at their booth No. M1031a at 4F, TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall. Below is a first look at the new tablet.

The Ruggedbook Tablet PC 770 is the top-of-the-line and most powerful of the quartet of new tablets Samwell introduced at the June 2014 Computex show in Taipei. Available with a choice of three Intel "Haswell" 4th generation Core processors, the Ruggedbook 770 provides the kind of computing and graphics performance to handle just about any task in the office or in the field.

The Ruggedbook 770 has a spacious 10.1-inch HD display with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, making for a wide 16:9 aspect ratio. There's projected capacitive multi-touch, allowing for all the tapping, panning, pinching and zooming all those hundreds of millions of smartphone and media tablet users the world over now except. The screen size and aspect ratio make the 770 well suitable for use with Windows 8.1.

The Ruggedbook 770 is powered by a choice of one of three Intel "Haswell" 4th generation Core processors. Note that Intel's i3/i5/i7 naming roughly stands for "good," "better," "best," with i3 processors missing the popular "turbo" and hyperthreading features, i5 processors offering what most users want and need, and i7 chips including additional high-end features. Additional differences are in the amount of smart cache, number of cores and threads, and also in the configuration of integrated graphics. There is, for example a large difference between the HD Graphics 5000 in the available Core i7-4650U and the HD Graphics 440 in the i5-4300U.

Below are the three processors available for the Ruggedbook 770:

PROCESSOR COMPARISON	Intel Core	Intel Core	Intel Core
Model	i3-4010U	i5-4300U	i7-4650U
Cores/Threads	2/4	2/4	2/4
Clock Speed	1.7 GHz	1.9 GHz	1.7 GHz
Turbo Speed	NA	2.9 GHz	3.3 GHz
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	15 watts	15 watts	15 watts
Cache	3MB	3MB	4MB
Integrated graphics	HD Graphics 4400	HD Graphics 4400	HD Graphics 5000
Graphics EUs	20	20	40
Graphics base speed	200 MHz	200 MHz	200 MHz
Graphics max speed	1.0 GHz	1.1 GHz	1.1 GHz
Intel vPro	No	Yes	Yes
Intel TSX-NI	No	Yes	Yes
Intel Trusted Exec.	No	Yes	Yes

With its emphasis on professional high-end computing, the elegant 770 foregoes legacy RS232 or VGA ports in favor of two high-speed USB 3.0 ports, an additional USB 2.0 port, a standard HDMI 1.4 port, and an audio in/out combo jack. For documentation and video communication, the 770 has two cameras, a rear-facing 5-megapixel autofocus unit with LED illuminator for documentation, and a front-facing 2-megapixel webcam.

Despite its elegant looks, the 770 remains a Ruggedbook with a wealth of industrial-grade data capture options. Both 1D laser and 2D imager scanners are available. Dedicated GPS is available, as is a magnetic stripe reader extension module. For wireless communication, the 770 includes Bluetooth 4.0 Class II, 802.11ac WiFi, and RFID. There are also 3G or 4G LTE WWAN modules. No word yet on included sensors.

As for ruggedness, even with its elegant design, the 770 is a well-protected device that's substantially tougher than any consumer media tablet. It can survive 4-feet drops, there's impressive IP65 sealing (total protection against dust, protection against low pressure water jets from all directions), a reasonably wide operating temperature range of 14 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 to +50 Celsius), and a variety of other MIL-STD-810G testing.

For battery power, the specs incomplete as of yet. In our testing, we have found Haswell-based devices to be exceptionally power-efficient, easily reaching battery run times that would have been considered unthinkable just a few years ago, and they can do so without large, heavy batteries.

The 770 is a new design and we have not yet had hands-on with it yet. It certainly appears to be an attractive state-of-the-art solution for all sorts of field data capture and communications deployments, and one that can deliver exceptional computing and graphics performance.