Getac S510AD

So why did Getac create an AMD version of a rugged laptop that already existed and was barely a year and a half old? At first, the answer wasn't obvious to us. There certainly are organizations that prefer one processor architecture over another, and AMD's current Ryzen AI technology brings strong graphics and considerably more NPU performance. As we'll see, however, there may be more to Getac's move toward AMD than simply processor preference.

Design, look and feel

The S510AD may have an entirely different processor architecture inside, but externally it's still very much an S510 — and a Getac. It's a tool for work in the field, practical and functional and, well, kind of industrial. There is no futuristic George Jetson design here. If anything, the S510AD looks almost subdued even by Getac's standards of understated form-follows-function design. There is a bit of Getac's embossing and beveling design language, but zero gloss or trim. It's almost a stealth machine.

In fact, physically the S510AD is essentially identical to the Intel-based S510 we reviewed in 2024. It measures the same 14.8 x 10.9 x 1.5 inches and has the same 5.18-pound starting weight. Even with two batteries and a number of options, that's surprisingly trim for a rugged laptop with a big 15.6-inch display.

Six pounds is six pounds, but that's really not much for a rugged 15.6-inch laptop that can even accommodate an optical drive (yes, those are still around). And Getac includes a nicely designed flexible carry handle, something that makes a lot of sense on a larger laptop that's likely to be carried around in the field.

Below is the S510AD from the top and all four sides. Outside, the laptop is all some sort of black polycarbonate and rubberized materials. It won't dent, ever, and doesn't look like it easily scratches. When you close the lid, you can lock it in place.

The businesslike, utilitarian looks of the S510AD almost make one forget that, unlike Getac's fully rugged models, this laptop was not designed to be waterproof. It is, however, "water resistant," which means it can handle a spill onto its keyboard and also a good bit of rain. And there are protective doors that keep liquids away from ports. But the S510AD is not a sealed machine. There are air vents and other openings to the inside through which liquids might get in.

As far as wired connectivity goes, the S510AD is nicely equipped. As on the original S510, Getac provides a configurable I/O area for additional legacy and specialized connectivity. In the image below, along the backside (shown below with protective port covers removed) are from left to right an HDMI 2.0 port to connect a monitor, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, an RJ45 gigabit LAN jack and an optional Nano-SIM card slot.

On the right side are, from left to right, the stylus slot, the optional Smart card reader slot, the 3.5mm combo audio jack, the optional microSD card reader, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, two USB4 Type-C ports, and finally the power connector. Of particular note are the USB4 Type-C ports, one standard and a second optional. These replace the Thunderbolt 4 connectivity of the Intel-based S510 while providing much the same type of high-speed, multi-purpose USB-C functionality.

The front features a nicely designed and fully integrated flexible and spring-loaded rubber handle, as well as the unit's two speakers and a couple of annunciator LEDs for battery and power/sleep status.

On the bottom of the S510AD are the two batteries, one standard and one optional. Both are the exact same size and type. The batteries snap into place and have a spring-loaded lock, but they don't have a seal like they would on a fully rugged design. There is no access door to system RAM and expansion slots. On the bottom right is the quick-release Solid State Disk.

We didn't take the S510AD apart to see what things look inside. From the looks of it, it appears as if electronics and such would be accessible not from the bottom, but from beneath the keyboard on top.

As usual with Getac: screw holes where the long screws go are clearly marked. This way getting all the screws back into their proper place isn't trial-and-error. Service technicians will be grateful.

The protective doors are all screwed on. That makes for easy replacement. Or S510 users who work on their laptops in an office may opt to remove the protective doors entirely for easier access to the ports.

Like the Intel-based S510, the S510AD uses fast PCIe NVMe solid state storage. 256GB is standard, with options up to 2TB. There's secondary storage as well, but it's a bit limited — unlike primary storage, the secondary drive uses the older, slower SATA interface protocol, which also precludes RAID configuration. It's limited to 1TB and resides in the Multimedia bay where every option is either/or.

Getac also continues its use of PCR — Post-Consumer Recycled — materials as part of its efforts toward more sustainable manufacturing practices. The company began emphasizing PCR content with the most recent generation of the S410, and the S510 platform uses about 45% PCR materials overall.

Finally, we used one of our lab's thermal cameras to see how the S510AD handles the heat generated by its AMD Ryzen AI processor and related circuitry, including the NVIDIA Quadro RTX A500 discrete graphics controller. The images below were taken while the S510AD was running the PCMark 10 benchmark.

On the left we're looking down at the fan exhaust in the back of the unit. The highest temperature there is about 100F, which means that things are well under control. On the right, a look down onto the keyboard, underneath which all the electronics are. No problem there either, with the hottest spot only in the mid 80s. These figures are roughly the same as we recorded on the Intel-based S510.

Keyboard and touchpad

A good, solid keyboard can make or break a laptop in the field. If it doesn't get the job done, one might as well use a tablet instead of a laptop. Overall, Getac has been experimenting with their laptop keyboards quite a bit over the years.

Right off the bat, the S510AD keyboard looks good. It's an "island-style" 83-key backlit membrane design with just the right amount of travel and tactile feedback. It also feels nice and solid, without the "flex" that laptop keyboards often have.

The all-important QWERTY part of the keyboard is 100% scale, i.e. the distance from the center of the "Q" to the center of the "P" is exactly 6.75 inches. That's crucial for touch typists or anyone else used to a full-scale keyboard.

The white-on-black lettering is both functional and elegant, more so than the fatter and busier lettering on the S410. In fact, it reminds us much of the excellent standard Apple keyboard.

The touchpad and mouse button design is standard. There are two slightly curved mouse keys, and the large 4-1/4 x 2-1/2 inch pad area is very slightly recessed. It uses capacitive multi-touch and works smoothly, but, like other Getac touchpads, still has a bit too much stiction for precise movement. What is "stiction"? It's defined as "the friction that tends to prevent stationary surfaces from being set in motion." The stationary surface, in this instance, is the finger, and it takes a bit of force to move it, rather than just glide away.

The S510AD has an LED-based keyboard backlight that can be activated and toggled through three brightness settings via a function key combination. The red illumination is pleasant and clearly illuminates the keys in semi and full darkness.

Like the original S510, the S510AD also has the dedicated Microsoft Copilot key that has since become standard on many newer Windows laptops.

AMD "Krackan Point" Ryzen AI processor performance

Getac S510AD Benchmarks and Comparisons

Manufacturer	Getac	Getac	Getac	DT Research	Durabook	Winmate
Model	S510AD	S510	X600	LT355	S15	L156AD
Year tested	2026	2024	2023	2026	2023	2024
Display size	15.6	15.6	15.6	15.6	15.6	15.6
Display luminance	850 nits	1062 nits	1223 nits	1225 nits	1033 nits	766 nits
CPU Type	AMD Ryzen AI 7	Intel Core Ultra i7	Intel Core i9	Intel Core i7	Intel Core i7	Intel Core i7
CPU Model and gen	PRO 350	165U (14th)	11950H (11th)	1370P (13th)	1255U (12th)	13700H (13th)
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	15/54 watts	15/57 watts	35/45 watts	???? watts	15/55 watts	45/115 watts
Discrete GPU	RTX A500	GTX1650	RTX3000	RTX A2000	None	RTX A1000
PassMark 6.1	10,050	13,599	8,221	11,598	8,186	18,369
PassMark 9.0	7,247	5,818	6,562	6,509	5,568	7,613
CrystalMark	592,696	469,111	1,016,250	1,015,554	424,336	947,568
PCMark 10 Overall	7,043	5,599	6,258	7,923	5,881	6,546
PCMark 10 Essentials	10,171	9,740	9,613	10,086	10,856	10,509
PCMark 10 Productivity	10,777	8,958	8,378	16,182	7,293	9,514
PCMark 10 Content Creation	8,648	5,461	8,260	8,285	5,920	7,614
PCMark 10 Drive	1,892	1,094	2,059	1,468	1,785	1,119
PCMark 10 Battery	11:18 hrs	13:24 hrs	9:02 hrs	8:04 hrs	7:08 hrs	4:15 hrs
Watt-Hours/Hour	13.19	10.75	16.49	15.26	7.85	17.50
3DMark Time Spy	4,095	3,138	5,989	NA	1,624	2,476
GeekBench 5 Single	2,053	1,644	1,589	2,634	1,163	1,787
GeekBench 5 Multi	11,052	6,280	6,490	7,855	6,471	10,429
GeekBench 5 Open CL	78,546	37,375	76,335	67,135	17,404	19,990

So what can we learn from these benchmarks? Quite a bit. And for this review, the most interesting comparison isn't necessarily between the S510AD and all the other 15.6-inch rugged laptops in the table. It's between the AMD-based S510AD and the original Intel-based S510. The two use essentially the same Getac platform, which makes this about as close to an AMD-versus-Intel comparison as we're likely to get in rugged laptops.

The results are interesting. In the PCMark 10 overall benchmark, which exercises the kind of tasks typically encountered in everyday Windows use, the AMD-based S510AD scored 7,043 versus 5,599 for the Intel S510. That's a substantial 26% advantage. CrystalMark likewise showed the S510AD about 26% ahead, and in PassMark 9.0 the AMD machine held a roughly 25% advantage.

Not every benchmark favored AMD. Our old PassMark 6.1 suite actually had the Intel S510 well ahead, 13,599 versus 10,050. That's a reminder that benchmarks don't all measure the same things, and that old benchmark suites in particular may not take equal advantage of newer processor architectures. That's one reason why we continue to run several different benchmark suites rather than relying on just one number.

Geekbench 5 showed much the same picture. In single-core performance, the S510AD scored 2,053 versus 1,644 for the Intel S510, an advantage of about 25%. The difference was considerably larger in multi-core performance, where the AMD system scored 11,052 versus 6,280, an advantage of about 76%. OpenCL graphics performance was also much higher, though that comparison needs to be viewed with caution because our S510AD came with NVIDIA RTX A500 discrete graphics whereas the original S510 test unit had a GTX 1650.

The 3DMark Time Spy results likewise favored the S510AD, 4,095 versus 3,138, but here again we're not comparing just AMD Radeon against Intel integrated graphics; the two review units had different NVIDIA discrete graphics options. So those numbers tell us more about the performance of the tested systems than about AMD versus Intel graphics alone.

There is another side to the performance story: power consumption. In our PCMark 10 battery test, the Intel S510 lasted 13 hours and 24 minutes, whereas the S510AD ran for 11 hours and 18 minutes. Since both use the same 74.5 watt-hour battery, the calculated average draw tells the story: 10.75 watt-hours per hour for the Intel machine versus 13.19 for the AMD S510AD. So in our testing, the additional performance of the AMD system came with measurably higher power consumption.

Overall, that's a pretty compelling showing for AMD. The S510AD isn't simply an S510 for customers who happen to prefer AMD processors. In most of our current benchmark suites, the AMD-equipped S510AD substantially outperformed the Intel-equipped S510 as Getac configured the two systems we tested. It didn't win everything, and some of the graphics results are influenced by different discrete GPUs, but the overall performance advantage is difficult to miss.

And none of these traditional benchmarks really measures what may be the biggest architectural difference between the two systems: AI processing. The first-generation Core Ultra processor in the original S510 has an Intel AI Boost NPU rated at 11 TOPS. The AMD Ryzen AI processor in our S510AD has an XDNA 2 NPU rated at up to 50 TOPS. That's more than four times the theoretical NPU performance, and enough to qualify the S510AD as a Microsoft Copilot+ PC.

So, at least in terms of performance, Getac's decision to offer an AMD version of the S510 makes considerable sense. The AMD machine is generally faster in our testing, has much more NPU performance, and brings a different processor architecture to what is otherwise essentially the same rugged laptop. The tradeoff, based on our test unit, is higher power consumption and somewhat shorter battery life.

But in this era of "AI PCs," how well does the S510AD do in AI testing? We did run AI benchmarks, but the results were more difficult to interpret. Geekbench AI 1.7, for example, ran its OpenVINO CPU tests on the AMD-based S510AD — even though OpenVINO is an Intel-developed framework — and the S510AD performed very well. Geekbench AI, however, could not run its OpenVINO GPU or NPU tests on the S510AD.

On the other hand, the Intel Core Ultra 7 268V in the Getac F120 we tested a few months ago performed considerably better in our ONNX DirectML testing. That's a reminder that AI performance depends not only on nominal NPU TOPS ratings — which are almost identical between the F120 and the S510AD — but also heavily on software frameworks, drivers, hardware support, and the particular workloads being run.

Power and battery life