Impressive industrial-grade 15-inch All-in-One PC
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

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Teguar is a catchy name, and an increasingly familiar one as the Charlotte, North Carolina, based company is a hard-charging provider of industrial and medical computers that's rapidly moving up on the Inc. 5000 list.

Launched in 2010 by a Swiss native with years of experience in industrial computer systems, Teguar prides itself in combining American adaptability and technological leadership with Swiss precision, quality, and attention to detail. In this article we're taking a detailed look at one of the company's industrial All-in-One PCs, the 15-inch Teguar TP-3485-15.

Right up front, why would a company that specializes in cutting-edge no-nonsense industrial and medical computer solutions offer an All-in-One PC? Isn't that Apple's bailiwick with the iMac, or that of Dell, HP, Lenovo et al with their versions? The answer is simple: consumer and enterprise market desktop All-in-Ones remain remarkably popular, but they are simply not tough and durable enough for industrial applications.

Then why not get a standard industrial Panel PC for such applications? Primarily because those are generally too large and heavy for anything but true industrial panel use. Teguar saw a niche there, somewhere between an iMac and a Panel PC, and hence their fortified TP-3485 All-in-One.

The picture above shows the TP-3485 All-in-One mounted on its desktop stand on the left, and a look at its very generous onboard connectivity on the right (there's more I/O on its side).

How is Teguar's industrial All-in-One different?

All-in-Ones are popular because they merge the traditional PC "tower" and desktop monitor into one slender package, saving space and eliminating cabling. But how is an industrial All-in-One different from a consumer or business version?

• Industrial build quality — Consumer tech is design to look cool and be as light as possible. Industrial gear is built to last, no matter what.

• Mounting options — Consumer All-in-Ones have a stand and that's that. Industrial All-in-Ones like the Teguar TP-3485-15 can be mounted in numerous ways. VESA hole patterns in the back allow access to an almost infinite variety of mounting arms, brackets, clamps, etc.

• Plentiful I/Os — While consumer All-in-Ones offer basic I/Os, the Teguar offers much more. Dual LAN jacks, half a dozen USP ports, legacy Serial, and DisplayPort. If something else is needed, Teguar can provide it.

• Easy access to expansion — Consumer All-in-Ones are pretty much closed systems. The Teguar TP-3485-15 offers easy access to the interior with slots, sockets and ports.

• Silent operation — Almost all consumer All-in-Ones need fans. Which can mean distracting noise and a point of failure. The Teguar TP-3485-15 uses passive cooling and doesn't need a fan.

• Small size — Since they are designed for desktops, most consumer All-in-Ones are large, with screens in the 20-30 inch range. Industrial settings often don't need such big displays. The 15-inch Teguar TP-3485-15 fits almost anywhere.

Now let's take a closer look at the 15-inch TP-3485-15 All-in-One sample unit Teguar sent RuggedPCReview.com for evaluation.

Teguar TP-3845-15 — Solid design and construction

While the Teguar TP-3845-15 is thinner and lighter than your typical Panel PC in the 15-inch display class, its design and execution are rock-solid. The front part, which is only 9mm (0.35 inches) thick, is made of black polycarbonate plastic. But not all plastic is equal. What Teguar used is PC+ABS-FR(40). PC+ABS stands for PolyCarbonate + Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, which is an alloy that combines the strength of polycarbonates with the high abuse resistance of ABS. FR means it's a Flame-Retardant material.

The backside is a steel plate with a rectangular cutout onto which the metal chassis for all the electronics is mounted. A steel "roof" encloses that. It, too, has a cutout occupied by a 1/4-inch thick aluminum plate that serves both as the unit's heat sink — syphoning off processor heat and dissipating it to the outside — as well as a solid base for both VESA 75 and VESA 100 screw holes. On top of that sits a black plastic cowl whose primary purpose seems to be to give the package a more rounded, less industrial look.

The compilation of pictures below shows starting from top left:

• A look at the Teguar TP-3485-15 from the front and all four sides

• The backside of the unit, looking at the plastic cowl with the cutout for the aluminum heatsink with its VESA mount holes

• Both plastic cowl and metal back cover removed. This design makes for terrific access.

• A peek inside the two halves of the TP-3485-15.

The unit's motherboard follows the desktop PC tradition of providing plentiful plugs, slots, and connectors for optimal flexibility and ease of replacing/upgrading components such as RAM, wireless connectivity modules, and solid state storage modules.

The TP-3485-15's I/O is all edge-mounted, with the majority of the ports facing down. Additional I/O faces right, to make it easier to connect and disconnect things like headphones, microphones, keyboard and mouse.

For mass storage, the TP-3485-15 can both accommodate a 2.5-inch SATA SSD in its separate and externally accessible garage (underneath the cowl), and/or a much small half-size M.2 2242 (i.e. 42 mm long) SATA storage module. Our review unit came with that.

Also note the unit's (optional) generously sized internal battery. As a standard All-in-One, the TP-3845-15 is not meant to be run unplugged for any extended period of time, but this battery has plenty enough capacity (15 watt-hours) to last for an hour or more if need be, or to relocate the unit to another place without shutting it down. We saw a minimum power draw of 5.3 watts, suggesting that the unit might run almost three hours on battery alone.

Above you can see the TP-3485-15's primary and secondary I/O blocks. Here it becomes clear that this is definitely an industrial-grade device, made for deployments where dual LAN jacks, multiple programmable serial ports, as many onboard USB ports as possible, separate audio ports, DisplayPort for secondary video, and even an ancient legacy RJ11 modem jack are all common and more or less mandatory.

As far as ruggedness goes, this is not an inherently mobile devices, hence no drop specs and such. The TP-3485-15 is designed to be used in a temperature range from 32 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit, and its front panel is IP65 rated. That means it can handle low-pressure jets of water, which here means the front of the unit can easily be washed and disinfected if need be.

Simple, effective mounting system

As already mentioned above, Teguar's All-in-One computers offer far more flexible mounting options than consumer models such as the iMac or its Windows-based equivalents.

Whereas those have a built-in stand and nothing else, the Teguar TP-3485-15 can be mounted in numerous ways. VESA hole patterns in the back allow access to an almost infinite variety of mounting systems, articulating arms, brackets, clamps, etc.

The pictures to the right show the TP-3485-15 mounted on a regular desktop stand that allows for angle adjustment.

Alternate solutions may make use of RAM-Mounts' universal ball and socket mounting system that allows you to mount practically anything anywhere; walls, columns, pipes, vehicles, etc.

Intel "Apollo Lake" processor

Teguar's various types of industrial All-in-One PCs offer various levels of performance. For the TP-3485 line, which includes a 12-inch and the 15-inch version examined in this report, Teguar chose the Intel Pentium N4200 processor.

While Intel, initially just another processor manufacturer out of many, has been amazingly successful with its ubiquitous "Intel Inside" sticker on virtually every PC, the fact is that the type and kind of Intel chip inside is key to meeting customer expectations.

Intel's Core processors are inherently designed to competently handle a broad variety of potential tasks. That's because users may use their computers for all sorts of work, including complex, demanding applications. Core processors are designed for that, and they are powerful enough to handle pretty much anything they may encounter. And Teguar makes them available in their TP-5040 Series of All-in-One panel PCs.

Lower level processors — such as Intel's Atom-based processors — are far more targeted. Some are aimed at price-sensitive markets and cost only a small fraction of a Core processor. Others fill the need of systems where the workload is known and it makes economic sense to provide exactly as much computing power as is needed and no more. And there are many industrial applications where economical, reliable, fanless operation is more important than rarely used peak performance.

At some point Intel realized there was too much of a performance gap between Atom and Core processors. To address that, Intel resurrected the old Celeron and Pentium brands to bridge the gap, with the branding ladder being Atom, Celeron, Pentium, Core. Interestingly, while most Pentiums and Celerons use Intel's Atom architecture, some Pentiums are actually based on Intel's Kaby Lake Core architecture.

But on to the Pentium N4200 inside the TP-3485-15. It is a quad-core processor of Intel's "Apollo Lake" lineup of Atom-based chips. "Apollo Lake" succeeded "Braswell" which succeeded "Bay Trail," the latter the first "premium" line of Atom-based processors. Like late-model Core processors, the N4200 can idle along at a low base clock speed, using very little power and generating very little heat. And like Core processors, the N4200 can spool up to much higher clock speeds if more performance is needed, in this case from 1.10GHz all the way to 2.5GHz. The chip's TDP — Thermal Design Power — is just 6 watts, compared to the 15 watts of commonly used mobile Core processors. TDP is a measure of the highest amount of heat a processor generates, so lower TDP means less cooling is required. That's why the TP-3485-15 doesn't need a fan nor a big heavy heat sink and as a result, is silent and weighs less.

To provide an idea of the relative performance of the TP-3485-15, we used our two standard benchmark suites, Passmark Software's Performance Test and CrystalMark. For comparison we added the results of the 15-inch Teguar TS-5010 we tested a while ago, and also two other 15-inch touch panel computers. Here are the results:

Teguar TP-3485-15 performance

PERFORMANCE COMPARISON	Teguar	Teguar	faytech	Logic Supply
Model	TP-3485-15	TS-5010-15	15" Touch PC	Cincoze Crystal 15
Model	All-in-One	Panel PC	Panel PC	Panel PC
Year tested	2019	2018	2016	2015
Processor Type: Intel	Pentium	Core i5	Celeron	Atom
Processor Model	N4200	6200U	J1900	E3845
Processor Code	Apollo Lake	Skylake	Bay Trail	Bay Trail
CPU Speed	1.10GHz	2.30GHz	2.00GHz	1.91GHz
Turbo Speed	2.50GHz	2.80GHz	2.40GHz	no turbo
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	6 watts	15 watts	10 watts	10 watts
CPU Mark	1,905.2	4,101.8	2,430.0	1,951.3
2D Graphics Mark	286.9	330.7	209.9	149.0
Memory Mark	971.5	1,201.7	538.0	410.3
Disk Mark	1,545.5	2,951.3	2,261.9	1,417.4
3D Graphics Mark	319.1	397.9	139.2	134.4
Overall PassMark	1,078.8	2,008.1	1,251.4	921.3
ALU	29,432	43,306	32,093	25,575
FPU	23,912	43,896	27,711	21,647
MEM	22,640	37,340	21,125	20,400
HDD	41,572	32,081	35,405	31,856
GDI	5,347	13,125	6,612	4,856
D2D	2,099	5,678	4,580	3,654
OGL	3,714	11,811	4,117	3,311
Overall CrystalMark	128,716	187,237	131,645	111,299

The results of the benchmark testing are interesting and much in line with what we've learned from benchmarking many hundreds of rugged mobile and panel computers.

First, while the number of different Intel chips is absolutely bewildering and can lead to great confusion, after all is said and done it all boils down to a fairly simple rule: A typical mobile Intel Core processor will be roughly half again as fast overall as a higher-level Atom-based processor. That's not precise science, but as a rule of thumb it's what you'll find. While the three Atom architecture systems listed above use three different Intel processors, those processors all work about the same.

Second, what does make as much or more of an overall performance difference than the processor is storage. Hard disks have long since been replaced by much faster solid state disks, but not all solid state disks are the same. There's a big performance difference between different types, technologies, and brands. Keep that in mind.

Teguar TP-3485-15 — Summary

With their TP-3485 Series (currently available with 12 and 15 inch screens), Teguar Computers created a type of All-in-One computers that is small, thin and light enough to be placed almost anywhere, but still sturdy and customizable enough to fill the needs of industrial deployments.

Powered by a competent quad-core Intel "Apollo Lake" processor found in many industrial workhorse systems, the TP-3485 All-in-One has enough punch to handle all but very few of its intended applications in Human Machine Interface (HMI) applications, control consoles, and similar.

Available with either projected capacitive or resistive touch, the TP-3485 offers a wealth of onboard connectivity, both state-of-the-art and legacy. For mass storage, the TP-3485 supports both standard 2.5-inch SATA SSD or M.2 modules. An optional battery backup offers up to an hour and a half (or more) of operation away from the grid.

Note that Teguar's substantial lineup of All-in-One panel computers comes in a large variety of sizes and display resolutions. The TP-3485's 15-inch display with 1024 x 768 pixel resolution with 4:3 aspect ratio has long been a vertical market industry standard, and it remains sharp enough for most Windows 10 applications. And with a luminance of 350 nits it is also bright enough for all indoor use.

With its combination of light weight, handy size, connectivity, configurability and endless mounting options, the Teguar TP-3485-15 crosses off a large number of "must-have" check list boxes for an industrial All-in-one computer. — Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, February 2019

Teguar TP-3485-15 Industrial All-in-One Specs

Added/changed	Added 02/2019, full review 02/2019
Type	Industrial All-In-One PC
Processor	Quad-core Intel Pentium N4200, 2MB Cache
Processor speed	1.1 GHz (Max 2.5 GHz Burst Speed)
TDP	6 watts
Thermal	Fanless passive cooling
OS	Windows 10 Professional, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise
Graphics	Intel HD Graphics 505
Memory	4G or 8GB DDR3L SO-DIMM in one user-accessible socket
Display type	LED-backlit TFT LCD with 350 nits luminance
Display size/res	15.0" 1024 x 768 pixel (85 ppi)
Digitizer/Pens	Resistive or projected capacitive touch
Keyboard	Optional
Storage	2.5-inch SATA hard drive or SSD, M.2 2242 SATA SSD
Multimedia Pocket	None
Expansion slots	1 x micro SD card
Housing	Glass, plastic and steel; VESA 75 and VESA 100 mountable.
Temperature	32° to 113°F (0° to 40°C)
Humidity	20 to 90% non-condensing
Vibration	NA
Spill Resistance Class	IP65 (front panel)
Drop spec	NA
Certifications	FCC, CE, IEC 60950-1, VCCI Class B
Size	14.2 x 11.5 x 1.5 inches (360 x 292 x 38 mm)
Weight	6.95 pounds as tested (3.15 kg)
Power	Standard 100 to 240 Volt power adapter; optional internal 15 watt-hour UPS ("90 minutes")
Communication	Intel Dual-Band Wireless AC 7265 802.11ac WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 module
Interface	2 x USB 2.0, 4 x USB 3.0, 2 x RS232/422/485, 2 x RJ45 gigabit LAN, 1 x DisplayPort, 1 x audio in and out, 2 x speakers; optional 1 x VGA
Price	Inquire
Web page	Teguar TP-3485-15
Product brochure	Teguar TP-3485-15 spec sheet (PDF)

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Teguar Computers
1-800-870-7715
www.teguar.com