Opticon H-31 and H-33

Opticon's handy, rugged 5-inch Android mobile computer for data collection and communication gets a hardware and software upgrade
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

The Opticon H-31 and H-33 were introduced in September 2020 as technologically updated and refined successors to the company's H-28. As such they are scanning, analyzing and service solutions for industries within a wide range of sectors including logistics, postal, healthcare, retail, industrial and transportation among others. The sole difference between the H-31 and the H-33 is that the H-31 is Wi-Fi only whereas the H-33 includes 4G WWAN and GPS. The H-31/33 is a ruggedized handheld computer platform with an integrated industrial-grade 2D imager, one that's roughly the size of a modern big-screen smartphone while being significantly tougher than any consumer phone.

The updated hardware is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon SDM450 with eight ARM Cortex A53 CPU cores running at up to 1.8GHz, and an integrated Qualcomm Adreno 506 graphics processing unit. There's 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM (twice that of the H-28) and 64GB of eMMC Flash (4 times what the H-28 had), with storage being expandable via a user-accessible microSDHC card slot. For an operating environment, the Opticon H-31/33 uses Android version 9 (the H-28 ran Android 6).

The H-31/33 measures 3 x 6.2 inches, about the footprint the size of an Apple iPhone 12/13 Pro Max. The device is 0.82 inches thick — quite thin for a rugged handheld. The H-31/33 weighs 10.8 ounces, more than a consumer smartphone and a little more than the older H-28, but still very manageable. The display remains at 5 inches diagonal and has FHD resolution, which generally means 1920 x 1080 pixels. If that's the case, it'd be right up there with current smartphones in sharpness. It uses capacitive multi-touch, as is standard for a modern Android handheld. The display uses the tough Gorilla 3 glass, and the specs now include a nits rating (520 nits).

Since one of the H-31/33's major intended tasks is data capture device, the platform comes with an integrated Opticon 1D/2D imager with green aiming LED (Opticon also includes a software development kit and comprehensive scanner symbologies documentation), an NFC reader, and GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou/QZSS for rapid positioning. Unlike the H-28, the H31/33 doesn't seem to have a front camera, but there's still an 16mp rear auto-focus camera with flash illuminator for documenting.

For communication, there's dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, and, with the H-33, WWAN (WCDMA, GSM, TDD LTE, FDD TLE). On the wired side there's now an USB Type-C port. Wired LAN is available via a USB-to-Ethernet adapter cable. The standard Li-Ion battery packs 14.8 watt-hours Li-Ion; an extended 21.2 watt-hour battery is available also.

The Opticon H-31/33 offers impressive ruggedness specs. There's a very wide operating temperature range (-4 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit), it survives five feet drops onto concrete (6 feet with an optional screw-on protective bumper kit), and it's sealed to IP67 specifications where the "6" means it's totally dust-proof, and the "7" that it can handle full immersion down to a meter for up to 30 minutes.

Like their H-28 predecessor, the new Opticon H-31 and H-33 are well conceived, well executed modern handhelds with a sharp display that's big enough for work on the job, a housing tough enough to handle drops and rain and heat and (very) cold, industrial grade scanning and data capture technology, reliable wireless communication, and now updated hardware and Android software. -- C. H. Blickenstorfer, September 2020

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Opticon is a worldwide supplier of automatic identification and data collection equipment. The company, which is based in the Netherlands and has been around for over a quarter of a century, was an early manufacturer of barcode scanners and from there branched out into a large variety of data collection modules and devices, as well as ruggedized handhelds such as the H-31/33 described on this page. Opticon has a sales office in Renton, WA.