The first full Windows device from Juniper Systems
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

Juniper Systems introduced the Mesa 2 rugged tablet on January 14, 2016. It's Juniper's first handheld to run full Windows — Windows 10 no less — and also the one with the largest display in the company's history. How did this come about?

Located in Logan, a small town in picturesque northern Utah, Juniper Systems is no stranger to steadily and reliably marching to the beat of its own drummer. And quite successfully so.

Take the original Mesa, for example. They called it a "rugged notepad" and it had a 5.7-inch screen. That was in 2010 when handhelds still had 3.5-inch screens and smartphones weren't much larger. It's probably fair to say that even Juniper didn't know just how far ahead of the game they were with their super-sized rugged handheld. Back then it defied conventional classification. But Juniper was right. Today, Apple and its competitors are selling hundreds of millions of big-screen smartphones.

Now, they did it again, with the Mesa 2. It's another unique rugged device with an even larger screen, one that even Juniper doesn't seem totally sure yet what it is. They call it a rugged tablet, but also a handheld product, which, of course, it is. Here's a table that shows how the new Mesa 2 compares to the original:

Juniper Systems Mesa 2 vs. original Mesa

Model	Mesa 2	Mesa
Introduced	2016	2010
OS:	Windows 10 (or 8.1)	Windows Mobile 6.5.3
Processor	1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3745	806MHz Marvell PXA320
CPU cores/threads	4/4	1/1
RAM	4GB	256MB
Mass storage	64GB or 128GB	4GB
Expansion slots	SDXC Card	SDHC Card
Display	7.0"/1280 x 800 (216 ppi)	5.7"/640 x 480 (140 ppi)
Digitizer	Projected capacitive	Resistive
Battery Life	12 to 15 hrs.	up to 16 hrs.
Keypad	nav pad + functions	nav pad + functions
Size (inches)	5.4 x 8.5 x 1.4	5.3 x 7.9 x 2.0
Weight (lbs.)	2.0 (dual batteries)	2.2 (dual batteries)
Sealing	IP68 (dustproof and totally waterproof)	IP67 (dustproof and limited immersion)
Temp. range	-4° to 122°F	-4° to 122°F
Camera	2mp front + 8mp rear	3.2mp rear
USB	1 x USB 3.0	USB 2.0 host + client
Serial	optional	1 x RS232
Bluetooth	v4.0 Class 1.5 (100+ ft)	v2.1 Class 1 (65 ft)
WiFi	802.11a/b/g/n	802.11b/g
WWAN	4G LTE	3G
Scanning	Integrated (scan models)	required extended cap

The major difference between the Mesa 2 and the original is not the screen — even though that does go from 5.7 to 7.0 inches diagonally — but that the Mesa 2 is a full Windows computer whereas the original ran Microsoft's Windows Mobile mini-OS. While Windows Mobile is very widely supported, full Windows has an inherently much broader range of software options. It makes perfect sense for Juniper to tap into that.

Below you can see what the Mesa 2 looks like from all sides. As we've come to expect from Juniper, it's a clean, attractive design with the trademark orange bumpers, one that's easy to figure out and use.

While the original Mesa was somewhat hard to classify with its, for the time, unusually large display, the Mesa 2 is clearly in the small tablet category. But unlike most current tablets, the Mesa 2's labeling and hardware controls show that Juniper designed it to primarily be used in portrait mode. So in that sense, it's still more like a handheld than a tablet.

As far as size and weight go, despite its larger screen the Mesa 2 has a footprint that is only a bit larger than that of the original Mesa. Thanks to advances in packaging and component miniaturization, its volume is actually 23% less and its weight 9% less than the original Mesa (both with standard and optional batteries). With the standard battery alone, the super-rugged Mesa 2 actually weighs just a pound and a half, no more than the original iPad.

We haven't had a Mesa 2 in the RuggedPCReview.com lab for testing yet, and so we don't have a sense whether it inherently feels like a tablet or a large handheld. We'll report on all this once we have a tester.

The Mesa 2 Rugged Tablet — an initial overview