In October 2023, Winmate introduced the L140AD-4 that looked much like the L140TG but was based on Intel 12th generation processors instead of the original's 11th gen chips. One assumes that the "TG" stood for 11th gen Tiger Lake and the "AD" for 12th gen Alder Lake. Then, just a couple of months later, the company announced an entire Rugged Laptop series with 13.3-inch, 14-inch, and 15.6-inch displays.

	Model	L156AD	L156AD-M1	L156AD-4KM1
	Resolution (inches)	1920 x 1080	1920 x 1080	3840 x 2160
	Display luminance	800 nits	800 nits	400 nits
	Default Processor	Core i5-1235U	Core i7-12700H	Core i7-12700H
	Thermal Design Power	15/55 watts	45/115 watts	45/115 watts
	RAM	up to 32GB	up to 64GB	up to 64GB
	Discrete GPU)	NA	T1000/A2000/A370	T1000/A2000/A370
	Power supply	120 watts	230 watts	230 watts

In this new model lineup, the 13.3-inch L140AD-3 and the 14.0-inch L140AD-4 seemed largely identical with the exception of the size and brightness of the display — 500 nits for the 13.3-inch and 700 nits for the 14-inch. Both had the same dimensions and weight.

The totally new L156AD, however, was an entirely different animal, one that was considerably larger and heavier, didn't have the flip-screen, and comes in three different versions.

Offering the L140 models both with 13.3 and 14 inch displays made sense, because those have traditionally been the two popular screen sizes of rugged laptops. But why adding the substantially bigger 15.6? Likely because of the increasingly complex graphics applications that are run on the field, right at the "edge" (hence "edge-computing"). More complex applications generally require larger displays, and larger displays mean a larger overall laptop with room for extra power and expansion.

Adding to that, the competition does have such big machines. Getac's X500 and now X600 workstations have had a big 15.6-inch display for years, as does the newly added Getac S510. Durabook has also had the 15.6-inch S15 rugged laptop for years, and hard-core military gear providers, such as MilDef, also have had big-screen laptops for a long time.

Winmate L156AD-M1 comparisons to competing 15.6-inch rugged laptops

Manufacturer	Winmate	Durabook	Getac	Getac	Getac
Model	L156AD-M1	S15	S510	X600	X600 Pro
Year tested	2024	2023	2024	2023	2023
Display size	15.6	15.6	15.6	15.6	15.6
Display luminance	766 nits	1033 nits	1062 nits	1223 nits	1186 nits
CPU Type: Intel	Core i7	Core i7	Core Ultra 7	Core i9	Core i9
CPU Model and gen	13700H (13th)	1255U (12th)	165U (14th)	11950H (11th)	11950H (11th)
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	45/115 watts	15/55 watts	15/57 watts	35/45 watts	35/45 watts
Discrete GPU	RTX A1000	None	GTX1650	RTX 3000	None
PassMark 6.1	18,369	8,186	13,600	8,221	9,911
PassMark 9.0	7,613	5,568	5,818	6,562	5,650
CrystalMark	947,568	424,336	469,111	1,016,250	633,860
PCMark 10 Overall	6,546	5,568	5,599	6,258	5,649
PCMark 10 Drive	1,119	1,785	1,094	2,059	3,032
Watt-Hours per Hour	17.50	7.85	10.75	16:49	12:31
3DMark Time Spy	4,478	1,624	2,937	5,989	724
GeekBench 5 Single	1,787	1,163	1,644	1,589	1,592
GeekBench 5 Multi	10,429	6,471	6,280	6,490	6,576
GeekBench 5 Open CL	19,990	17,404	37,375	76,335	7,781

What can we learn from these benchmarks? Overall, that the era of massive performance differences between Intel processor generations are over. There is still often significant progress from one processor generation to the next, but that depends on what Intel tinkered with, improved, or added. Sometimes it's mostly increases in clock speed, other times it is fundamental innovation. But almost always, it depends to a large degree on whether a chosen processor is part of Intel's great gas mileage lines, or more part of the maximum performance line.

Does that mean processor generations are becoming less relevant? To an extent, yes, but there still is innovation. There's support for new technologies and new versions of technology. There's fine-tuning. There's a lot of tinkering with naming and definitions and all the special technologies Intel likes to bake into chips.

In the table above, while all five machines are 15.6-inch rugged laptops, the Durabook and the Getac S510 are what we used to call "semi-rugged," i.e. built light, handy, and to an affordable price. The Getac X600 machines are high-end workstations and mobile servers as much as they are laptops. The Winmate L156AD may look like the relatively slender "semi-ruggeds," but it's a hefty machine that's really more a mobile workstation than a carry-around laptop.

The Getac S510 runs on the newest chip, a 14th generation Core i7 Ultra that includes NPUs, Neural Processing Units geared towards AI performance. Getac calls it "AI-ready." The 12th (and in our sample 13th) gen processors used in the Winmate L156AD do not include NPUs (but do have Intel's Gaussian & Neural Accelerator tech) and Winmate primarily counts on an "embrace of cutting-edge GPU technology that aligns with the trend of Edge AI computing, where powerful GPUs play a pivotal role in processing vast amounts of data locally, enhancing efficiency and responsiveness in critical applications."

Overall, the benchmarks show that the Winmate L156AD with the Core i7-13700H is a very high performance machine indeed. And with that H-Series chip and 45/115 watt TDP rating, it should be. That said, we've noticed again and again that discrete GPUs are somewhat unpredictable in when, and to what extent, they kick in and accelerate processing. Sometimes that even differs depending on whether a machine is plugged in or runs on battery.

About mobile graphics and AI

While the CPU, the Central Processing Unit, is the brain of every computer, it is also sort of a Swiss Army Knife, a tool that can do a bit of everything and can be used for a wide variety of tasks. But all-in-one tools only go that far; for complex work in a special area you need tools made for it. With computers, such areas include complex graphics and now, increasingly, AI tasks. Graphics “cards,” however, are mostly made for desktop computers, because they need a lot of power and generate a lot of heat that must be dissipated with often multiple fans. But what if you need such advanced graphics, or AI, power in a laptop or tablet?

That’s where mobile and embedded solutions come into play. Winmate lists the NVIDIA T1000 and A2000 Mobile, and the Intel Arc A370M as available options for extra graphics power in the L156AD laptop platform. We’re not sure how Winmate integrates those options. In general, the NVIDIA T1000 is either placed onto a motherboard as an MXM (Mobile PCI Express) module, or it’s soldered on directly. The same applies to the NVIDIA A2000, whereas the Intel Arc A370M generally uses BGA (Ball Grid Array) soldering.

Which of these is best? That totally depends on the budget and the intended applications.

• The NVIDIA T1000 uses the Turing GPU architecture, has 768 CUDA cores, comes with 4GB of GDDR6, has a 128-bit memory interface and 160GB/s bandwidth, reaches up to 2.5 TFLOPS, and adds about 50 watts to the system's thermal design power.

• The NVIDIA A2000 uses the Ampere GPU architecture, has 2560 CUDA cores, comes with 8GB of GDDR6, has a 128-bit memory interface and 192GB/s bandwidth, gets up to about 8.5 TFLOPS and 35 TOPS, and adds about 60 watts to the system's thermal design power.

• Intel’s Arc A370M uses Intel’s own Xe-HPG architecture, comes with 4GB of GDDR6, has a 64-bit memory interface and up to 112GB/s bandwidth, can do about 3.5 TFLOPS AND 25 TOPS, and adds 35-50 watts to the system's thermal design power.

What do we make of all this? Primarily that it isn’t always easy, and often impossible, to bring what’s readily available on desktops into the field. There are very real limitations in terms of size, power draw, heat generated, and cost. But it can be done to some extent. It depends on realistic expectations and a very good idea of what, exactly, is required for a given graphics or AI application.

Good display

The Winmate L156AD's large display measures 15.6 inches diagonally and it uses the "full HD" 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, which translates into a wide-format 16:9 aspect ratio. 1920 x 1080 resolution in this size display makes for 141 pixels per inch. Full HD is still pretty much the norm in semi-rugged and fully-rugged laptops. Given the very high pixel density of today's smartphones and consumer tablets, as well as the 4k resolution of many PC monitors and almost all TVs, we hope to soon see higher resolution on professional laptops as well.

That said, 1920 x 1080 is adequate for a 15.6-inch display. Adequate, but not perfect. Especially with complex graphics and AI applications becoming more and more popular and available at the edge. So Quad HD (2560 x 1440) would be nice, and full 4k even better. When we bring this up to manufacturers, the reply usually is that Windows still doesn't play nice with high resolution, and getting icon and text size right can be problematic.

Anyway, Winmate is aware of the resolution issue, and that's why they do offer the L156AD-4KM1 with a full 3820 x 2160 4k screen. So customers with high-res requirements do have that option, albeit with lower luminance (400 nits instead of 800 nits).

Display resolution, of course, isn't everything. Even workstation-class machines like the L156AD may well see outdoor use, and perhaps even a lot. Standard transmissive laptop displays wash out in daylight, and that's why daylight and sunlight-readability have become common, or even mandatory, in laptops that will also be used outdoors. That's done via various optical treatments to control internal reflection, and also with strong backlighting.

Standard laptop backlights are in the 250 nits luminance range (1 nit = 1 candela per square meter) range, with some reaching into the 300-400 nits range. Industrial monitors used outdoors generally have 400 to 500 nits. High-end rugged notebooks offer anywhere from 500 to almost 1,500 nits. Our review L156AD-M1 came with the standard FHD screen with an 800 nits luminance rating. In our lab, we saw maximum luminance of 766 nits, close enough.

A display quality that we consider very important are the horizontal and vertical viewing angles. The Winmate L156AD display has near perfect horizontal and vertical viewing angles and wasn't affected by chromatic aberrations and color shifting as we changed the vertical viewing angle.

While "glossy" displays rule the consumer laptop and tablet markets because glossy "pops" indoors and in environments with few reflections. Rugged and industrial laptops often use matte or semi-matte displays that may work better outdoors. That's because those displays diffuse light instead of directly reflecting it, making it easier to view them under the typically high-contrast outdoor lighting conditions. The drawback is that diffusing reflections can add a degree of milkiness to the display.

The L156AD display surface is somewhere between glossy and semi-matte. It's somewhat less prone to harsh, distracting reflections outdoor. But, like semi-matte and matter displays, it diffuses some of the light and can appear slightly muted/softened when viewed from certain angles. Overall, slightly higher luminance, perhaps 1000 nits, would be on our wishlist.

How rugged is the Winmate L156AD?

Unlike some of its competition that uses descriptive brands and labels such as "Toughbook" or "Durabook," Winmate generally sticks to more cryptic and/or codified naming. That certainly doesn't mean their products lack toughness or durability, at all. In fact, some of the Winmate products we have tested in our lab were among the toughest and most rugged devices we've seen. The ruggedness page on Winmate's website, while dated, clearly describes the company's commitment to uninterrupted productivity in the field.

But on to the L156AD laptop. In terms of construction, this is one of the sturdiest and most rugged laptops we've ever had in our lab. Its magnesium alloy frame/chassis is as invulnerable as it gets. That said, physics are a tricky thing. Small bugs are totally unaffected falling from heights dozens of times their own height. Elephants, different story.

Likewise, while it's easy for a smartphone to easily survive an 8-foot fall in a basic case, it's very different for an 8-pound laptop. So, the L156AD gets just a 3-foot rating in the MIL-STD-810H Method 516.8 shock test. That means it can easily handle dropping off a desk, but anything much above that, less so. Because it is heavy. That said, you could likely drive a car or truck over it, and it'd be okay.

For vibration resistance — which is a very important factor in vehicle-mounted deployments — the L156AD passed the testing per MIL-STD-810H, Method 514.8, Procedure I. That's a vibration test for systems that are likely to be deployed in vehicles at one point or another.

In terms of ingress protection, the L156AD rates an IP65, where the "6" means the laptop is totally protected against solids, even dust. The "5" says it is protected against water jets from all directions, so rain is no problem, and it can probably even handling a good hosing, but we're not talking full immersion.

The ability to operate in very high and very low temperatures matters in rugged laptops. Here, the L156AD claims a very wide range from -4F to 140F. That covers everything from commercial freezers all the way up to several degrees higher than the hottest day ever recorded in Death Valley.

These are just the most relevant tests for real life deployments. Winmate likely has done far more expansive testing in several other areas. The L156AD is a tank.

Summary: The Winmate L156AD

The Winmate L156AD looks like a big laptop, and it is a big laptop. But it really is a high performance workstation that brings as much desktop functionality to the field as is possible short of shipping along a real desktop and setting up shop in the field, which is rarely possible.

Starting at a manageable but still hefty 8.4 pounds, the L156AD is just an inch and a half thick, remarkably slender for such a machine. That slenderness precludes a multi-purpose media bay that could accommodate an internal optical drive or other bulky options, and it also limits the housing to two rather small batteries. It does, however, provide all the wired onboard connectivity one likely needs. There's a nice integrated carry handle for taking it out into the field. And the L156AD is built around an extremely strong magnesium alloy chassis. This rugged laptop will never get crushed.

The Winmate L156AD brings workstation-class performance into the field with "H" series Intel Core i7 and i9 processors. And Winmate offers three different NVIDIA and Intel discrete GPUs to handle demanding graphics and emerging AI applications at the edge. Add to that ultra-fast PCIe NVMe solid state disk (up to 4TB between main and secondary and DDR5 RAM, and we're talking desktop-level performance.

The Winmate L156AD has a large 15.6-inch 16:9 aspect ratio capacitive multi-touch display with 1920 x 1080 pixel Full HD resolution (and a 3840 x 2160 pixel version is also available). that remains usable outdoors without much reflection and glare. The display has excellent horizontal and vertical viewing angles, and with 800 nits luminance, the display is suitable for most outdoor applications.

As a fully-rugged design with exceptionally sturdy and solid construction, the L156AD feels invulnerable, and its IP65 rating means it is immune to solids and dust, and nearly immune to liquids.

This is a machine for those who really need the power of a desktop PC in the field. -- Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, July 2024