What this is, in essence, is a considerably larger version of a ruggedized handheld, one that eliminates the eye-squinting necessary to make out tiny text on the tiny screen of a small handheld or smartphone. This actually makes a lot of sense. When the pioneers of mobile computing designed the first PDAs, they gave them screens large enough for people to easily see and use. Early Pocket PCs still had fairly large screens. Then came a period where displays got smaller and smaller until users were expected to do their work on tiny windows measuring as little as 2.8 inches diagonally—smaller than the LCD of a pocket camera. Now the trend is reversing again and we're seeing smartphones with 4.5-inch screens and larger. Juniper was clearly on to something here.

The picture on the right shows how the RAMPAGE fits into one's hands (and also how nice and bright the display is). The image on the left shows how the RAMPAGE 6 compares in size to an iPhone 4s.

But let's take a closer look at this dominant element of the RAMPAGE. The LCD measures 5.7 inches diagonally and offers 480 x 640 VGA resolution. VGA, of course, has been available on Pocket PCs for years, and it's become pretty much standard in higher-end vertical market handhelds, and it's a huge advance over the marginal 240 x 320 QVGA that was the standard on handhelds for many years. Problem is that time doesn't stand still, and modern smartphones have moved on to 800 x 480 and even 1280 x 720 and 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. The iPhone 5's "retina" display has 1136 x 640 pixel on a comparatively small 4-inch display. And, truth be told, even Android-oriented websites are now such that high res definitely comes in handy. Below is a picture that shows the RuggedPCReview.com website on the RAMPAGE. The site displays just as it would on a PC or Mac, with all formatting intact, but the tiny text becomes a bit fuzzy to read unless you zoom in.

However, there's more to a good display implementation than just resolution and size. For example, the display must also be bright enough, have good color characteristics, low power consumption, and it must fit into the overall concept of a device. The display is sharp, solid and bright. Surface luminance seems to be in the 500 nits range, about 2.5 times as bright than most commercial notebooks, though not as bright as some of the specialized sunlight-viewable notebooks that offer 1,000 nits or more. The display doesn't have any of the irritating sparkling/iridescence we often see in small outdoor LCDs.

Viewing angle is very important in a LCD display. Ideally, you should be able to look at a display from any angle without loss of clarity or color shifts. The horizontal viewing angle (when viewed in the RAMPAGE's primary portrait mode) is about 155 degrees and the vertical viewing angle 145 degrees, but as you rotate the device on its long axis, there are some color shifts.

Despite it being an Android device, the RAMPAGE's digitizer is of the standard resistive variety. A few years ago virtually all small devices had resistive digitizers operated with a stylus. Windows CE itself was designed for use with a stylus. The iPhone changed everything with its use of a projected capacitive digitizer and a totally touch-optimized interface. Android followed suit, and was also designed with projected capacitive touch in mind. As a result, hundreds of millions now expect handhelds to work with a slight touch, and they expect effortless panning and pinching and so on. Unfortunately, and that's the primary reason why Juniper stayed with resistive technology when it designed the original Mesa platform, capacitive displays lack the level of precision often needed on the screen to select discrete objects. They consume more power, and cannot be used effectively with gloves, a stylus, and in rainy conditions. So that was Juniper's choice and it works quite well on the Mesa and its Windows Embedded Handheld OS. For Android, we'd probably prefer procap.

One vexing issue with resistive digitizers is inherent in their concept: a resistive digitizer has a flexible top layer on top of a rigid glass layer, with a bit of space between. When you touch the flexible top layer, it makes contact with the glass underneath and generates an electrical signal. The signal is broken down into an x and a y component, and that's how the computer knows where you touched. There are advantages to this approach. You can operate it with a stylus or with your finger, so you don't have to worry about losing an expensive active pen. You can also use a resistive digitizer with gloves on, and that can be a major advantage in the field, or even a requirement. However, apart from not having multi-touch, the soft top layer "pools," i.e. the glossy, reflective surface gets distorted around the tip of the stylus. That's one of the platform's less attractive characteristics.

The RAMPAGE is a substantial unit with a magnesium top, a plastic bottom, and protective elastomer end caps. Going around the unit:

• The left side is unadorned except for two mounting points for the carry strap.

• The bottom is protected by an elastomer bumper.

• The top also doesn't have connectors or ports; the extended protective elastomer bumper fits over the protective housing of the external GPS antenna.

• The right side is where all of the RAMPAGE's external ports are: power, audio, USB host, USB client, and a DB9 serial port. They are all individually protected by rubber plugs.

In order to get a better idea of the RAMPAGE's construction and manufacturing, we took a peek inside.

The top and bottom end caps snap and then screw on with four small Phillips head screws each.

The two main parts of the body are a solid metal (magnesium) front part that is the actual chassis and mounting point for all electronics. The backside is a hard, gray plastic assembly. The two halves are secured against each other with ten long Philips head screws, and sealed with a standard rubber o-ring seal along the entire perimeter of the metal part.

The unit has two powerful batteries that fit into separate recessed battery compartments. The doors have pressure seals to keep water out. Each compartment door has two screws that cannot fall out. They can be operated with a coin and only require about a 30-degree twist to lock.

The RAMPAGE's communications block (shown on the right, with the I/O block lifted and lightened in color for emphasis) looks like it is an integral part of the device, but it's actually a separate module outside of the body of the RAMPAGE. It snaps on via a low-profile connector with a silicon pressure seal. The I/O module is secured with four small Philips head screws and can be replaced in minutes. This means that SDG Systems and its customers have potentially great freedom in providing custom I/O modules that require nothing more than four screws and a couple of minutes to install.

The rubber plug assembly is mostly for the physical protection of the ports. Since the ports are outside of the system, it doesn't matter if they get a bit wet as the water won't get inside. The five plugs are all in one piece that can easily be replaced. The plugs go in hard, though, and twisting and coaxing them into place isn't always easy and takes away a bit of the ultra-precision look and feel of the unit.

The center back between the two battery compartments has a hard plastic cover sealed with a silicone/rubber pressure seal. Inside you can see a low profile connector that is designed to accommodate other expansion modules that either fit inside underneath the standard back cover, or use more spacious custom back covers. The bumpers are the same light gray as the magnesium housing itself. Our review unit came with a Class I laser scanner module.

The pictures above show the RAMPAGE with its battery and expansion space back covers removed (left), the plastic bottom part of the unit removed (center), and main system board removed (right).

The main system board is a large affair with pretty much the footprint of the RAMPAGE itself. It is mounted to the metal chassis via eight Philips head screws. The board is custom designed for the RAMPAGE. It is neat and clean and exceptionally well labeled. On the board you can see the SDHC card slot and next to it the SIM card slot. In the top left corner you can see two backup battery assemblies next to Battery 2.

The display of the RAMPAGE is shock-mounted in what is one of the most intricate LCD mounting designs we've ever seen. Displays are usually just held down with four screws or so, and press against a bit of foam. The RAMPAGE display actually has its own metal subframe assembly that is an absolute thing of beauty. It also provides complete structural integrity to the display without adding unacceptable weight.

Overall, the RAMPAGE is extremely well designed, machined, manufactured, assembled and implemented. There are, however, a good many seals that all must work perfectly to keep the device dust and water-proof. While the seals are all solid, precise and well designed, and perfectly capable of doing their job, seals are finicky and the slightest cut or tear or even a hair or a bit of sand can cause leaks. So any RAMPAGE that will be operated near its sealing limits should be carefully inspected.

The picture below shows the hardware buttons located along the bottom of the display. For now, they are the same as those used on the Juniper Mesa version. Those used to Android would probably prefer the standard Android Menu, Home, Back, Search arrangement. That could easily be done with different key caps.