More often than not, one of the faster chip options of a prior generation is likely to still be quicker than one of the lower-end options of the next generation or even the one after. As stated, there are exceptions. One was when quad-core processors became available for the first time. That made a big difference. Another was the "Tiger Lake" 11th generation that brought manufacturer-side dynamic tuning, Thunderbolt 4 support, Iris Xe, and was just generally a great design.

V110 CPU options	Core i7-1265U	Core i7-1255U	Core i5-1245U	Core i5-1235U
Total Cores	10	10	10	10
Performance Cores	2	2	2	2
Efficient Cores	8	8	8	8
Total Threads	12	12	12	12
Max Turbo P-Cores	4.80 GHz	4.70 GHz	4.40 GHz	4.40 GHz
Max Turbo E-Cores	3.60 GHz	3.50 GHz	3.30 GHz	3.30 GHz
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	15/55 watts	15/55 watts	15/55 watts	15/55 watts
Smart Cache	12MB	12MB	12MB	12MB
Integrated graphics	Intel Iris Xe	Intel Iris Xe	Intel Iris Xe	Intel Iris Xe
Graphics max speed	1.25 GHz	1.25 GHz	1.20 GHz	1.20 GHz
Execution Units	96	96	80	80
Intel vPro	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Intel TSX-NI	Yes	No	Yes	No
Intel SIPP	Yes	No	Yes	No
Intel Trusted Execution	Yes	No	Yes	No

Is the "Alder Lake" 12th generation one of those exceptional ones? Hard to say. It is different, because it is Intel's first mainstream "hybrid" architecture.

What does hybrid mean in this context? It means that "Alder Lake" chips have two different kinds of processing cores. There are complex, powerful P-cores (power cores) and smaller, less complex E-cores (efficient cores).

The idea behind this is that the P-cores, which draw a lot of power, do the heavy lifting, whereas the economical E-cores do all the less-demanding routine everyday tasks. That's the way the ARM-based processors used in virtually all smartphones have been working for years: power cores for maximum performance, and economy cores to save battery life — packing the best of both worlds into one chip.

But who makes the decision of what software code ought to run where and when? That task falls to a scheduler program designed to make sure everything runs as quickly as possible AND as economically as possible. For that to happen, Intel and Microsoft worked together on a hardware/software approach. On the hardware side, Intel Alder Lake chips have a special embedded controller — a Thread Director — that keeps track of all the metrics and passes on that information to the operating system scheduler program that then uses all that information to make intelligent decisions.

This teamwork between hardware and software, however, requires Windows 11 to really work well. Alder Lake chips can, of course, run Windows 10, but to take full advantage of Intel's new hybrid technology, you need Windows 11. For our interpretation of all of this, read Intel's 12th generation "Alder Lake" Hybrid processors in the RuggedPCReview.com blog.

An important decision systems designers must make is whether to use passive cooling or an active system fan. In the past, Getac used advanced passive cooling systems even in powerful standard voltage systems. The rationale was the elimination of fan noise and potential mechanical failure. The V110 platform does have that small fan. It's unobtrusive and doesn't come on often, but it is a fan. The likely reason for that is that an active fan offers better protection against overheating and makes it possible for the CPU to operate without significant performance drops even at the upper end of its operating temperature range.

In order to get a sense of where the 7th generation V110's performance stands compared to its 6th generation V110 predecessor, to Getac's own F110 pure tablet, as well as some competing rugged 11.6-inch class tablets, we ran our standard benchmark suites (PassMark 6.1 and 9, CrystalMark, PCMark10, 3DMark, and GeekBench 5).

The results are as follows:

Getac addressed the issue by replacing the V100 and V200 with the thinner and lighter V110 platform in 2013. That was, in part, made possible by replacing the big 85 and 96 watt-hour batteries with two slender and much smaller batteries totalling just 46 watt-hours. That isn't much for a high-performance laptop or tablet. But that's where the V110 has remained to this day.

In our battery testing we determine battery draw for the Windows economy and power settings. For each of the settings we measure power draw with the screen backlight at its lowest setting (0%), at a 50% setting suitable for indoor viewing, and at maximum brightness (100%). The table below shows the new V110's power draw numbers, and we also added the power draws of the current V110's predecessor as well as those of the first two generations of the V110.

Getac V110 PassMark BatteryMon Power Draw (at idle)
Backlight	Lowest (0%)				Medium (50%)				Maximum (100%)
Generation	Gen 1	Gen 2	Gen 6	Gen 7	Gen 1	Gen 2	Gen 6	Gen 7	Gen 1	Gen 2	Gen 6	Gen 7
Power Saver	3.1 watt	4.1 watt	2.5 watt	4.4 watt	3.9 watt	4.8 watt	3.7 watt	4.5 watt	8.9 watt	8.1 watt	6.8 watt	10.9 watt
Max Power	3.1 watt	4.2 watt	3.9 watt	4.5 watt	4.0 watt	4.9 watt	5.2 watt	5.8 watt	9.0 watt	8.1 watt	10.2 watt	11.1 watt

One would expect that the electronics in each generation became more and more power-efficient, and especially so with the latest Intel hybrid chips and Windows 11. But, for now, that's not always what our power draw data showed. Why would that be?

One explanation is that there are a lot of variables involved. The different V110 generations didn't just use different generations of processors, they also ran on different versions of Windows, and Windows power settings and configurations change all the time. The different generations of the V110 also had different backlights, with the latest generation going up all the way to 1000 nits.

And while processors became more efficient, they also became much more powerful, with thermal design powers initially going down, but for the past few years going up.

As a result, power draws are all over the board. Overall, the first and 6th generation did quite well, whereas the newest generation with its very bright backlight and high-TDP hybrid processors drew more than expected.

The PassMark BatMon utility, however, only measures power draw with the system idling along, perhaps doing some background work occasionally, but not running any real work with user software.

UL Solution's PCMark 10 Battery Test, however, gives a system a much more realistic workout. It continuously performs typical user tasks of all kinds, and keeps doing that until the battery is exhausted. In that test, the latest V110 scored 4:09 hours of continuous work. Looking at our data, that suggests a relatively high 11.08 watt-hours per hour — sort of the Miles Per Gallon for battery-powered computers — and a bit higher than that of some of Getac's newer platforms.

What that means is that V110 users might want to take a couple of fully charged spares with on the job. V110 batteries are hot-swappable in seconds.

The quality of the display is among the most important things about any laptop. And especially so if the laptop is going to be used outdoors a lot.

The V110 convertible comes with Getac's LumiBond 2 screen. Most makers of rugged laptops and tablets have their own special ways of making displays as viewable and useful outdoors as possible, and LumiBond is Getac's special recipe. With outdoor displays, it all comes down to a) backlight brightness, b) the types and layering of optical coatings and how they are applied, and c) how the various layers are bonded together — the fewer reflective surfaces, the better.

Getac also used to call their technology "QuadraClear, referring to their screens core features: bright backlight, anti-reflective coatings, linear polarizer, and circular polarizer.

But display technologies keep advancing and requiring updating and new solutions. When capacitive touch replaced older resistive touch, LumiBond had to be updated to make it possible to operate the screen with gloves on, and also when it rained or there was water spray.

And since the ratio between backlight strength and the amount of incoming ambient light determines what's called the "effective" contrast ratio, the one that translates into the degree of real world outdoor readability of a display, Getac increased the backlight from initially 500 to 800 in earlier V110 generations, and now to 1000 nits in the latest V110.

On the right, in the RuggedPCReview.com lab, the new V110's display, nominally rated at 1000 nits, clocked in at a stellar 1246 nits luminance. That's right up there with the brightest rugged systems' displays available today.

The picture below shows another very important quality of a good outdoor-viewable display — how well it controls reflections. Note how the glossy screen of a 6th generation iPad iPad Pro 12.9 on the left compared to the semi-matte display of the new V110 on the right — the iPad shows harsh reflections whereas they don't show up at all on the V110 display. That's because its semi-matte display mutes all such reflections very well.

While the anti-glare treatment of the V110 display works very well, like all such treatments it tends to make the screen appear a bit milky when viewed from certain angles. It is significantly improved compared to earlier matte screens, and we don't know if further fine-tuning is still possible, or if there are hard limits.

In earlier versions of the V110, we stated that while the horizontal viewing angle was perfect, the vertical one wasn't, with noticeable color and contrast shifts — an LCD technology issue. The current V110 has a nice IPS display with perfect viewing angles from all directions.

As far as touch goes, much has changed over the years. In the early days of tablet computers, there were, in essence, two touch technologies — resistive touch and active digitizers. Resistive touch worked well with a stylus and it was immune to wetness, but it wasn't very precise and required firm pressure. The latter made resistive touch frustrating to use on laptop screen.

That was then and this is now. Ever since the first iPhone, the world has gone capacitive multi-touch, and that's what been the V110 platform has had for several generations now. Touch works flawlessly.

One issue with capacitive touch, though, is that in its generic form it only works with human fingers or a capacitive stylus, and the technology doesn't like rain or water spray. Working outdoors, V110 users will encounter rain and splashing, and when it gets cold, they'll be wearing gloves.

The V110 can handle all of that, via different touch modes. These modes can be set in the G-Manager utility. "Touch" tab where users can select "Finger Mode," "Glove Mode," or "Stylus Mode."

Touch and styluses and pens ... it can get a bit confusing here because of terminology. The term "pen" traditionally referred to an active digitizer pen, whereas the term "stylus" referred to passive pens. But with capacitive touch came capacitive pens that can look much like active digitizer pens. The one that comes standard with the V110 has a fine slightly rubbery 3mm tip. That one doesn't work in "finger mode" (though generic capacitive pens/styluses with a broader tip might work). Many systems have specific "rain" modes, but with the V110, "rain" is bundled in with "finger mode."

Below are the optional Getac digitizer pen (top) and the Getac stylus (bottom). Both are 5-1/4 inches long.

In "stylus mode" you can use both fingers OR the Getac stylus and that's somewhat confusingly described as "a smaller contact area from the stylus or fingertip takes priority over a larger contact area as input." We think that means that if you hold the V110 in tablet mode in your hands and your palm touches or presses against the screen, it will ignore that and only interpret small contacts as input.

There is also a "Touch Disabled Mode" that only reacts to the optional electronic digitizer pen, and ignores finger touch or the Getac capacitive stylus. This all could be presented a bit more clearly.

Active digitizers, like the one optionally available for the V110, generally an electronic grid behind the LCD to communicate with the tip of the special stylus (which doesn't need a battery). The technology is precise and works well with legacy Windows applications that tend to have a lot of small check boxes, pulldowns, and similar small items.

Active digitizers also work well for signatures that actually looks like signatures, and also with handwriting recognition, the interface technology that was initially expected to replace keyboards on early PDAs and tablets. The best part of active digitizers is "hovering" — the cursor follows the tip of the pen without the pen actually touching the display surface. With Windows, capacitive touch can often trigger an unintentional finger touch action; with the optional active digitizer's "hovering," you can get the cursor where you want it, and only then tap on the screen to initiate the touch.

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