Emdoor was founded in 2002 as a designer and manufacturer of rugged handhelds, tablets, notebooks, PCs, and vehicle mount computers, as well as a provider of customized hardware and software solutions. Even today, Emdoor doesn't sell products under its own brand name, although that may happen at some point in the future. For now Emdoor is one of the largest and most experienced Chinese providers of rugged computing systems and serves as an ODM or OEM partner to many Tier One companies.

Emdoor Info has its headquarter and a factory in Shenzhen, and also an R&D team of over 300 people. They can produce 15,000 to 30,000 rugged devices a month, and currently have a roster of about 50 rugged mobile products. Emdoor's goal is to provide cost-efficient industrial hardware and sometimes also software solutions for use in warehouse logistics, industrial automation, health care, petroleum exploration, outdoor mapping, automotive inspection, road enforcement, education, border patrol, retail services, self-service terminals, machine vision, smart home, intelligent transportation, and the like.

Today's marketplace is a global one, and producing everything in one location is generally no longer feasible. There are, of course, exceptions, but for the most part components are procured from all kinds of places and assembled in various locations, all depending on cost, logistics and profitability. This dynamic gave rise to the formation of OEMs — Original Equipment Manufacturers — and ODMs — Original Design Manufactures. OEMs make a product per the exact design and specifications of the company that ultimately sells the product with its name on it. ODMs design and manufacture a product entirely by themselves. and then sell the product to companies who put their name and brand on it.

What roles are OEMs and ODMs playing today? Very important ones. Almost all consumer electronics products today are no longer manufactured by the companies most people think make them. Few who are not industry insiders, for example, have heard of Hon Hai Precision Industry. Better known as Foxconn, Hoi Han had 2020 revenues of US$181 billion. That's way more than the annual revenues of Microsoft, HP, IBM or Dell.

What's the impact of this on the rugged mobile computing market? At this point a large variety of rugged handhelds, tablets, laptops and panel PCs are made by OEMs and ODMs, and then sold under names familiar to end users and local may be structured in many different forms. An OEM may manufacture a product line to very precise specifications for one customer only, and that customer may have an exclusive to the line. Such products are then only available from only one single company, in essence making them a "virtual manufacturer." It is, however, also common that an ODM creates a product and then sells that exact product to several customers. Those customers may then put their label on it and nothing more. Between those two extremes are many shades of gray.

Hoes does all of that apply to Emdoor Info and the EM-T40 rugged Android handheld? Emdoor is both an ODM and an OEM, and one that specializes in making rugged computing products. Emdoor's customers are companies that provide rugged technology to their own end user customers. The rugged computing market is, of course, way smaller than the consumer technology market, and Emdoor is much smaller than Foxconn (which gets about half of its revenue from Apple). But it's basically the same thing.

While many customers like doing business with one of the major rugged hardware and services brands, for others working with an OEM/ODM like Emdoor makes more sense. As an OEM/ODM, companies like Emdoor can offer cost advantaged. OEM/ODM designs are more easily customizable to meet the needs of different customers, including personalizing products with established labels, color schemes, and materials. OEM/ODMs are also more likely to offer a large variety of I/O and they may support different technologies, standards, and performance levels.

So let's look at the EM-T40 and see how the company went about the difficult job of creating a rugged Android keypad handheld that merges the technology of a modern smartphone form factor with the toughness and functionality of a handheld computer for the job. Below you can see the EM-T40 from the front and from all four sides.

In this day and age of touchscreens everywhere, why a numeric keypad? If one is necessary, why not just display it onscreen? True, but onscreen keypads are small and take up valuable display real estate. And sometimes it's just better to have physical buttons that provide reliable, solid tactile feedback. There's a "click" — no need to verify every digit, making sure it's correct.

But aren't physical keypads cumbersome? Yes, they take a bit of getting used to, but remember that not too long ago ALL phones had small physical keypads, and not just for data entry, but also for texting. Today, of course, small handhelds with physical keypads are mostly used for heavy numeric data entry on the job.

While many pf today's keypad handhelds are fairly large, heavy, and industrial-looking, the EM-T40 isn't. Its footprint of 6.25 by about 2-3/4; a bit narrower than a modern smartphones, but pretty much in the same size range. Since the EM-T40 is a rugged device with an integrated industrial grade barcode scanner and a big removable battery, the ET40 is thicker, but still measures only about 3/4 inches. How heavy is it? Just 8.7 ounces with battery and scanner. That's just a smidgen more than the 8.5 ounce Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Since the Emdoor EM-T40 doesn't need a case to handle everyday work and life, all of its buttons and controls are easily accessible. On the left side that's the volume up/down buttons (you can assign other functions to them) and an orange scanner button. On the right side are another orange scanner button and the on/off/sleep button.

When it comes to rugged mobile computers — be they handhelds, tablets or laptops — the inside matters as much or more than the outside. A strong chassis and the absence of components that may come loose are all essential for the durability and ruggedness of a device. The two halves of the EM-T40 are secured together by ten small Phillips screws. Disassembly is easy, but really never should be required.

The EM-T40 is unlike a modern smartphone in one important respect: it has an eternally accessible and removable battery. It is a fairly powerful 17.1 watt-hour Li-Ion design custom-fit for the EM-T40. The battery presses against an o-ring seal embedded in the battery compartment, keeping liquids out. On top of that is a protective battery compartment cover. This means that EM-T40 users can exchange the device battery for a freshly charged one anytime; no need to plug the handheld in for charging.

As is the case with most industrial handhelds, the T40's card slots are inside the battery compartment, underneath the battery. Cards are placed on a small caddy that is then pushed into the device. That little caddy can accommodate a nano-SIM card and a micro-SD card, or two nano-SIMs.

OEM companies like Emdoor must carefully plan the overall performance levels of their mobile computing product offerings. In addition to the usual size/weight/cost tradeoffs and balancing inherent in any mobile design, OEM customers may have widely differing priorities, ranging from lowest possible cost to highest possible performance. That conundrum is relatively easily addressed in Windows tablets or laptops that may be available with a wide range of processors of difference performance levels, that option isn't available with handheld computers. Each model comes with its own chip, and OEMs must choose that one carefully.

Performance	Emdoor Info	Emdoor Info	Emdoor Info
Model (version tested)	EM-T40	EM-T50	EM-T60
Year tested	2022	2022	2021
Processor	MediaTek	MediaTek	MediaTek
Processor Model	MT6762	MT6762	MT6762
CPU Speed	2.00/1.50 GHz	2.00/1.50 GHz	2.00/1.50 GHz
Cores	Octa-core	Octa-core	Octa-core
AnTuTu	96,711	95,367	95,380
PC Mark Work 3	4,992	4,915	4,971
- PC Mark Browsing	4,483	4,327	5,074
- PC Mark Video Editing	4,487	4,489	4,256
- PC Mark Writing	4,840	4,851	4,310
- PC Mark Photo Editing	8,383	8,285	8,901
- PC Mark Data Manipulation	3,798	3,675	3,664
- PC Mark Battery Life	11:37 hrs	10:32 hrs	11:57 hrs
Geekbench 5 Single Core	149	151	152
Geekbench 5 Multi Core	838	865	934
Geekbench 5 Vulkan	82	85	73

Everyone, of course, loves the kind of effortless responsiveness that makes modern smartphones so easy and pleasant to use, and the performance that won't slow things down even when running demanding apps. All smartphones look pretty much the same, and that's why consumer smartphone makers seek to differentiate themselves from the competition with new and faster chips each year, as well as better cameras, more memory and so on. All that comes at a price that not everyone can pay. And price is definitely a big issue in OEM designs.

The latest top-of-the-line SoCs (System-on-Chips) are way too expensive to be feasible for most OEM devices, and so OEMs will/must select SOCs that are fast enough to get the job done at a low enough cost to be financially feasible for the OEM, the OEM's customers, and the end user.

What Emdoor did with the EM-T40 is use an octa-core SoC from MediaTek. While not as well known as Qualcomm and its SnapDragon chips that are in most high-end Android phones, MediaTek is actually the world's largest smartphone application processor supplier.

The Helio P22 MT6762 Emdoor chose uses eight Cortex A53 cores, four running at up to 2.0GHz and the other four at up to 1.5GHz. The idea here is speed when needed, and economic operation when maximum speed doesn't matter. The SoC includes a 600MHz PowerVR GE8320 and also controls other important system functions. It is a popular chip used in many devices by most leading smartphone makers.

It is, however, not the latest and greatest. The Helio P22 was introduced almost four years ago and it definitely gets the job done. But the emphasis here is in a balance between cost and performance that works for OEMs and OEM customers.

The table above shows the EM-T40's performance in some of the leading Android benchmark test suites. Overall, it performed at the level of SnapDragon SD450-based devices, which is very respectable for an OEM device. Compared to relatively recent popular higher end models based on the SD855 we saw roughly half the PCMark 10 Works 3.0 performance. For comparison we also added the results of Emdoor's EM-T50 and EM-T60, both of which are based on the same SoC.

What kind of battery life can one expect from the Emdoor EM-T40 rugged handheld? Emdoor claims seven hours from a charge of its 3.8 Volt, 4,500mAH, 17.1 watt-hour battery. Battery life, of course, is very relative and depends on how a device is used. The screen captures below show both the results of the EM-T40's performance in PCMark for Android's Work 3.0 performance score as well as how it did in PCMark for Android's Work 3.0 battery life test and rundown.

PCMark for Android's Work 3.0 test consists of running a long list of everyday tasks, the kind of work a user may encounter while using the device for daily work. The battery life test keeps running that suite until the battery is exhausted, without turning the device ever going to sleep (we calibrated the system to operate at PCMark's recommended 200 nits luminance). In that test, the EM-T40 exceeded Emdoor's own seven hour estimate by well over four hours. The EM-T40 ran for 11 hours and 37 minutes, never stopping work. Almost no one uses their handhelds constantly for 12 hours, so real life battery life may well be higher yet. That is excellent.

Rugged industrial and enterprise handhelds usually have smaller screens than smartphones, mostly due to their larger bezels that provide extra protection.

The Emdoor EM-T40's capacitive multi-touch IPS display has 480 x 800 pixel resolution. That makes for 233 pixels per inch. That is not as sharp as leading smartphones, but still plenty sharp enough and falling into what Apple calls the "retina" category, i.e. it's so sharp that you can't see indvidual pixels. And since this is an IPS screen, there are perfect viewing angles and no color, contrast or brightness shifts when viewing the device from any angle.

Display brightness is very important for easy viewability outdoors. No current display can, of course, match direct sunlight, but display technology has advanced to a level where we can expect good outdoor viewability under most conditions, and the EM-T40 is no exception.

What makes a display appear bright is its luminance, and that is usually measured in "nits." Nits is actually candela per meter squared, or cd/m2, and that, per Google dictionary, is "the luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a source that emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 × 1012 Hz and has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1/683 watt per steradian." Whew. No wonder they just call it nits.

Emdoor's spec sheet claims 300 nits for the EM-T40 display. Premium consumer tablets and smartphones can go as high as 500 and 600 nits, so 300 seemed a bit low for a handheld that may well be used outdoors in many applications. In our testing, however, we found the EM-T40 display to actually be a good bit brighter than its specification listing — our test equipment measured 475 nits.

Like almost all smartphone, handheld computer and tablet displays today, the EM-T40 has a "glossy" transmissive screen with optical treatments to offer as much outdoor viewability as possible. Glossy screens "pop" and make for vibrant displays, but outdoors it all depends on angle and reflections. The pictures below show the handheld outdoors on a bright late morning under various viewing conditions. In shaded areas it's bright and very readable. Like in all devices using glossy screens, there will be reflections that dim the screen some.

Overall, the EM-T40 display is very good. It's bright and vibrant indoors, and bright enough for outdoor use. It offers near perfect viewing angles from all directions, without distracting changes in brightness, color, or contrast.

The three available scanners are:

• The Zebra SE4710 1D/2D imager (see here) — the SE4710 is a higher-end 1D/2D scanner with red aiming LED, a scan range of about 2 to 30 inches, and a combination of onboard software/hardware scanning for faster capture and processing.

• The Newland EM80, an integrated 1D/2D imager and decoder, comparable with the Honeywell N3680, with red LED precision aiming is designed for allround performance, supporting all common 1D and 2D codes.

• The Newland EM30, likewise, is an integrated 1D/2D imager and decoder, comparable with the Honeywell N6703, with red LED precision aiming is designed for allround performance, supporting all common 1D and 2D codes.

Camera

The included Android Camera app in our review unit could take pictures in three different resolutions — 13M (4096 x 3072 pixels), 5M (2560 x 1920 pixels, and 2M (1440 x 1080 pixels), all in 4:3 aspect ratio. Note that downloaded third party camera apps (we tried Open Camera) may offer many more image formats and sizes). Settings include 15 scene modes, eight white balance modes, self timer (2 and 10 seconds), ISO (auto, 100-1600 manual), and anti-flicker.

In video mode, the there are four resolutions, topping out at 1920 x 1080. 4K video would have been nice; the imager could easily support it. There are 13 scene modes, eight white balance modes, anti-flicker and microphone on/off. Video quality is decent, but some will miss higher resolution modes.

The pictures below were shot with the EM-T40's rear camera in 13mp 4096 x 3072 pixel mode. Click on the image to bring up a full-size version.

Unlike modern smartphones that need a protective case to survive, the EM-T40 doesn't need a case. It can be used day-in, day-out without worries that it might break or get scratched or dented. There is no need from a screen protector because the screen glass is thick and strong enough. There's no gleaming metal or plastic trim that easily scratches or breaks off.

By established ruggedness testing standards, just how tough is this tablet? That's a bit more difficult to determine. The EM-T40 carries IP65 sealing where the "6" means it's completely dustproof, and the "5" that it is protected against low-pressure water jets from all directions. So no full immersion in water, but the ET40 can easily handle rain and worse. As the image above shows, we took that to the test.

The EM-T40 can also handle drops from four feet. That means it can easily survive falling off a desk or a cart. And four feet is also about the distance a tablet falls if it slips out of one's hands while using it in a standing position.

The stated operating temperature range of 14 to 131 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 to 55 degrees Celsius) is wide enough for just about any deployment the device was designed for.

A couple of comments here: unlike the boasting we see in so many promotional materials, Emdoor seems almost too conservative. In our testing the EM-T40 had much longer battery life than the seven hours Emdoor claimed. Likewise, we think the 4-foot drop and IP65 claims are fairly conservative. And, it'd be nice if Emdoor included ALL ruggedness testing results in its specs.

The pictures below show some of the test procedures all Emdoor rugged products must go through. These include, in no particular order, waterproofing and air tightness, high and low temperature, salt spray corrosion, bare metal drop test, roller test, impact resistance, vibration resistance, screen ball drop, protective door testing, friction testing, static testing, color testing, chemicals and rub-down testing, and more.

The EM-T40 has a footprint of a modern smartphone, and weighs barely more than one. Yet, the EM-T40 is far tougher and more robust than any modern smartphone. It's 4-inch 480 x 800 pixel IPS display is bright enough (475 nits in our testing) and has excellent viewing angles.

The device is available with three different industrial-grade 1D/2D barcode scanner options. It has a very good 13mp rear camera for documentation. The 17 watt-hour externally accessible and replaceable battery can easily make it through even an extended shift.

The unit's octa-core MediaTek MT6762 SoC provides decent performance, but is not at the level of the latest premium consumer smartphones. WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC and GPS are all standard; mobile broadband is optionally available. The device has a card caddy for either a nano-SIM and a micro SD card, or two nano-SIM cards.

Overall, the EM-T40 is an attractive, competent option for OEM customers who seek an attractive keypad handheld that combines the modern smartphone size and polish with industrial handheld ruggedness and features. -- Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, May 2022

Emdoor EM-T40 Specs

		Available options
Added/changed	Full review 05/2022
Type	Rugged OEM Keypad Handheld
Processor	Octa-core MediaTek Helio P22 MT6762 (4 x Cortex A53 2.0GHz, 4 x Cortex A53 1.5GHz)	NA
Graphics	PowerVR GE8320 (600MHz)	NA
OS	Android 11	Android 11 AOSP
Standard/Max RAM	4GB LPDDR4X	NA
Disk/drive	64GB eMMC solid state disk
Display type	IPS TFT LCD, 300 nits (475 nits measured)
Display size/resolution	4.0" 480 x 800 pixel (233 pixels per inch)
Digitizer	Capacitive 5-point multi-touch, Corning Gorilla Glass	NA
Keyboard/keys	Power, volume up/down, 2 x scanner key	NA
Navigation	Touch, keypad	NA
Expansion slots	1 x micro SDXC (up to 128GB), 1 x nano SIM OR 2 x nano SIM	NA
Housing	ABS+PC	NA
Housing color	Black front and rear
Size	6.4 x 2.9 x 0.75 inches (162 x 73 x 19 mm)	NA
Weight	8.7 ounces pounds (247 grams) with battery and scanner	NA
Operating temperature	-14° to 131°F (-10° to 55°C)	NA
Ingress protection	IP65 (totally dustproof, can handle low pressure water jets from all directions)	NA
Humidity	95% non-condensing	NA
Drop	4-foot drops per MIL-STD-810G	NA
Vibration	Est: MIL-STD-810G, Method 514,6, Procedure I, Category 4 and 20	NA
ESD	Est: Connect ±8KV for all metal outside. Air ±15KV for all metal outside and touch panel.	NA
Power	Interna 3.8V, 4,500mAH, 17.1 watt-hour rechargeable Li-Ion Polymer battery	NA
Camera	Rear: 13-megapixel AF	NA
GPS	Integrated GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo	NA
Barcode reader	None	Zebra SE4710, EM03/EM80 hardware decoder
NFC	Yes	NA
Sensors	Ambient light, G-sensor, gyro, e-compass	NA
WiFi	802.11a/b/g/n/ac	NA
Bluetooth	BT 5.0 BLE	NA
WWAN 3G/4G	none	GSM 2/3/5/8 WCDMA 1/2/4/5/8 TDS B34/B39 TDD B38/B39/B40/B41 FDD B1/ B2/ B3/ B4/ B5/ B7/ B8/ B13/ B17/ B19/ B20/ B28A/ B28B
Audio	USB Type-C, single speakers	NA
Dock	Via USB Type-C	NA
USB	1 x USB Type-C	NA
Price	Inquire
Regulatory	FCC, IATA, ROHS
Spec sheet	Emdoor EM-T40 spec sheet (PDF)
Web page	Emdoor EM-T40 web
Contact	Emdoor Shenzen Headquarter 3/F, 5th Boulevard, Wonderful Life Wisdom Valley Technology Park No. 83 Daobao Road, Bao'an District Shenzhen City, China Tel: +86-(0)755-2372 2880 Cell: +86-18128844520 www.emdoorrugged.com marketing.info @ emdoor.com