Note: Specs updated 04/2020 to Getac A140 G2 status
On June 27, 2017, Getac introduced the A140, a fully rugged 14-inch tablet purpose-built for public safety, automotive and military personnel. Developed in cooperation with a leading automotive manufacturer, the highly configurable A140 offers Intel Skylake level performance, formidable security, hot-swappable batteries, and the largest display in Getac's tablet lineup.
Let's quickly zero in on the major feature of the Getac A140. And that would be its 14-inch screen. That's large for a tablet. iPad-class tablets have 10-inch screens, there are several 11.6-inch rugged tablets, and there are "pro" tablets in the 12.5 inch range. To the best of our knowledge, there aren't any other general purpose 14-inch rugged tablets around, which is amazing as extra screen real estate is a good thing to have, and sometimes it's just needed for a job. And that is exactly what the A140 offers: a big screen in a powerful, versatile package.
Those familiar with Getac's lineup of rugged mobile computing gear know the company's big semi-rugged S410 laptop. In essence, the new Getac A140 takes the S410's big screen, powerful electronics, and extensive I/O and puts it all in a fully rugged tablet package.
But do not get the idea that the A140 is simply a tablet version of the S410 laptop. Getac just took all the good parts from that machine and used them in a brand-new industrial-grade tablet computer.
So let's look at the tech specs? The A140 display is of the IPS variety, which means it has virtually perfect viewing angles from all directions. There are two screen options. One is a super-bright (1,000 nits) 1366 x 768 resolution LCD. For those who need a sharper display for more detail-oriented work, there's a full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel option that's still plenty bright (800 nits; your average consumer laptop has 200-250). There's smooth and responsive capacitive multi-touch, and a very good capacitive 4.75-inch stylus with a narrow hard tip. Touch is augmented by eight physical buttons.
The A140 comes with up to 32GB of fast, efficient DDR4 RAM and solid state disks up to 512GB, compliant with OPAL 2.0 security enhancements. The processor lineup is the same as that of the S410. Customers have their choice of four Intel 6th generation "Skylake" processors, two each from the Core i5 and Core i7 lineup. These are all high-performance, but also power-efficient, 15 watt designs with integrated Intel Graphics 520.
Everything is powered by two swappable 10.8V/3,220mAH Li-Ion batteries that provide a combined 69.6 watt-hour. The A140 specs don't contain a battery life estimate. When we tested the S410, we recorded a minimum power draw of just 4.3 watts. With almost identical electronics, the A140 should be in the same range, which would mean a theoretical battery life of up to 16 hours between charges.
For a tablet, the Getac A140 offers exceptionally rich I/O. We're talking three USB ports, dual RJ45 LAN jacks, HDMI, and optional serial or VGA. There's also optional RF antenna pass-through for GPS, WLAN, and WWAN. You'd expect all that on a big laptop, but not on a tablet. Now add dual cameras, optional industrial-grade 1D/2D barcode reader, optional RFID, and optional 4G LTE mobile broadband.
With security becoming an ever-growing concern, Getac equipped the A140 with TPM 2.0, a Smartcard reader, a physical cable lock slot, and optional fingerprint reader, contactless smart card reader, and Absolute DDS software.
The Getac A140's makers succeeded in coming up with a very attractive design that also broadcasts toughness and ruggedness. Unfortunately, the spec sheet only contains only a minimum of hard ruggedness data. The A140 is IP65 sealed (dustproof, low pressure water jets from al directions), the operating temperature range is -6 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and the media release claims a 4-foot drop spec. We'd like to see more specifics.
For a tablet, the Getac A140 is quite large and fairly heavy (starting at about 5 pounds). While it's a fully mobile device, most customers will likely use the tablet in conjunction with some sort of dock. Available are a trolley dock, an office dock, and a Havis vehicle dock with antenna pass-throughs and port replication.
With the new A140, Getac now has a full complement of rugged tablets, ranging from 5.1-inch (MX50), to 7-inch (ZX70), 8.1-inch (T800), 11.6-inch (F110), and now 14-inch.
