In 2010, the original iPad pretty much redefined expectations of how long a mobile device had to last on a charge in order to be truly useful: 10 hours. That's a full shift of use, plus another 25% to cover eventualities. RuggON's PX501 spec sheet exceeds that number, with a listed 12 hours from the standard 48 watt-hour battery.

RuggON's listed 12 hours seems long for two reasons. First, 48 watt-hours isn't a lot. Rugged laptops with the performance firepower of the PC-501C usually pack a whole lot more. Second, RuggON's own estimate for the second generation PX501 with its "Broadwell" Core processor was just 6.5 hours. The third gen tablet is considerably faster, but has the same battery capacity. Does the new version of the tablet have higher performance AND much better battery life?

RuggON PX501 Power Draws (at idle)
Backlight level	Darkest	Recommended	Brightest
Max Battery	4.3 watts (11.3 hrs)	4.5 watts (10.8 hrs)	4.6 watts (10.6 hrs)
Max Performance	4.4 watts (11.0 hrs)	4.6 watts (10.6 hrs)	4.9 watts (9.9 hrs)

We used PassMark's BatteryMon to find out. With the new Windows 10 slider moved all the way to "Best battery life" mode, and the new 5-way screen brightness toggle set to "darkest," we saw a minimum of 4.3 watts. With the backlight set to "suggested," it was 4.5 watts, and with the backlight at "brightest" about 4.6 watts. Dividing the full available 48.6 watt-hours of a fully charged battery by the lowest observed battery draw of 4.3 watts would indicate a theoretical battery life of 11.3 hours.

Putting the Windows 10 slider to "Best performance" and toggling the backlight to "darkest," power draw was 4.4 watts, just a tad higher than in battery conservation mode. With the backlight set to the "suggested" level, it was 4.6 watts, and with the backlight at "brightest" a still amazingly modest 4.9 watts. This means even in "Best performance" mode and backlight as bright as Windows sets it, it's possible to see just under ten hours. Which means that television's "MythBusters" would describe RuggON's claim as "plausible."

How can the new PX501 be faster and have better battery life? Most likely due to a combination of its Kaby Lake processor's advanced power conservation technology, Windows 10's improved power conservation, and RuggON's work on optimizing every aspect of the tablet's operation. Even so, however, we're surprised at the very small difference in power draw between dark and bright backlight settings. Usually, power draw goes up substantially once display brightness is cranked up.

RuggON has done an excellent job with that, as from the front the PX501 looks just like a more muscular consumer tablet. But turn it around and it's instantly clear that this machine is all business.

The pictures below show the backside of the PX501, reminiscent more of a business laptop than a fragile consumer tablet. On the left is the backside as is, on the right with the bumpers, battery, and expansion compartment cover removed.

The PX501's 48.6 watt-hour Li-Ion battery is square, compact, and less than half an inch thick. It fits flush into the backside of the tablet and is securely held in place via a springloaded lever that can be locked in place. The battery compartment itself is not sealed. Sealing to the interior of the device is via lips around the battery that press against a rubber patch around the battery contacts.

To the left of the battery, a small plastic cover, secured by seven Philips head screws and sealed via a lip-and-pressure seal allows access to the tablet's micro PCIe slot designated for a WWAN module.

The tablet's four protective bumpers are intricately formed of elastomer with a tough rubber overmolding. Each is held in place with two Philips head screws. If a bumper gets damaged, it can easily be replaced.

A lot of parts that are usually molded into the bottom part of the housing are removable and replaceable on the PX501. That includes the protective port covers, the grill of the fan, as well as the rubber plug of the power jack. If any of these gets damaged, it can easily be replaced.

The PX501's backside may cause alarm for some as both the speaker and the tablet's small fan appear to have slotted grilles that seem to open directly into the inside of the device. That's, however, not so. The speaker is a self-contained sealed unit. And the (quiet) fan sits in its own compartment in the chassis. An elaborate rubber boot completely seals the fan compartment off to the inside. Yes, the fan can get wet, but that won't hurt it at all.

In terms of overall construction, the PX501 consists of three layers. There's the ABS plastic front plate/bezel. Fastened to that is the tablet's very tough magnesium chassis that has the display mounted on one side of it and the motherboard and ancillary electronics on the other. And then there's the back cover, a rather elaborate ABS plastic affair that's secured to the front side with a good two dozen Philips head screws of different sizes. Sealing around the perimeter is via a tongue-and-groove design that does not seem to rely on an o-ring in the groove.

Once all of the screws are loosened, gently prying the two sides apart allows separating them without having to undo any additional snaps or latches. There are two wires assemblies between the two sides, one for the speaker and one for the documentation camera. Be careful with those.

Compared to a consumer mass-market product like the iPad with all of its super-miniaturized electronics concentrated into a couple of tiny circuit strips, the PX501 is complex inside, and full of modules, connectors, components, conduits and other assorted parts. It's, however, all neatly organized. Wires aren't just hanging around; there are little metal guides individual wires fit into. We haven't seen that solution before. In addition, black tape covers a lot of the connections, probably both to insulate the connections and also to keep them from rattling loose. That's in lieu of the little dollops of silicone glue used in lots of devices to secure connections. The advantage of tape and guides is that connections can be undone without having to break and scrape away glue.

The pictures below shows what it looks like inside the RuggON PX501:

Note the thermal engineering of the device. As is the case in many small volume designs (as compared to desktops or large laptops), processor heat is removed via copper tubing conduits that connect to a heat exchanger and fan.

The image to the left shows the thermal footprint of the PX501. The infrared picture on top, taken with our lab's FLIR ONE Pro thermal imaging camera, shows the heat generating components of the design, and how effectively the copper conduit conducts heat away from the processor and to the heat exchanger with its large surface area. The fan then draws in cool surrounding air to remove the heat. And once again kudos for the virtually silent fan!

In terms of modules, there's an Intel Wireless-AC 8265NGW 802.11ac WiFi half-size mini PCIe module, a full-size mini PCIe slot designated for a WWAN module, as well as a number of antennae strategically placed around the perimeter of the device. Much of the circuitboard surface is covered with metal shields for radio emission purposes.

Also interesting is the presence of both edge-mount connectors as well as a separate remote I/O daughterboard that in our unit housed the power jack and a DB9 RS232 serial port.

So far I have referred to the housing of the PX501 as "plastic." But not all plastics are equal. What RuggON is using is PC+ABS-FR(40)<94V0. 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, and <94V0 refers to the UL 94 standard for flammability safety for plastic materials, with V0 meaning that in a test, a vertically held sliver of that material stops burning after 10 seconds, with no burning drips. This is good stuff RuggON is using to build its tablets.

Also of note is the fairly substantial 7 watt-hour bridge battery that makes the main battery hot-swappable. Almost ten watt-hours is enough for even a lengthy main battery interruption.

The PX501's standard battery packs 48.6 watt-hour, which RuggON says is good for about 10 hours (we measured a minimum constant draw of 4.3 watts, so that sounds about right). For those who need more, we recommend the optional 97.2 watt-hour battery (the larger battery in the picture to the right) that adds a bulge and some weight, but is really a better match for the high-powered chip. Also of note: the battery supports fast charging.

Our eval unit came with the optional integrated 1D/2D barcode reader. The scanner window is molded into the housing and the scanner mount bracket is part of every PX501 as well.

The image compilation below show some of the interesting details of the RuggON PX501. On the left is a closer look at the copper tubing that channels heat away from the processor and ancillary circuitry, and to the virtually silent fan-powered heat exchanger. On the right is the unusually powerful 7 watt-hour backup battery.

Below on the left is a closer look at the tablet's optional 1D/2D barcode reader. And on the right a closeup of the PCIe socket for an optional mobile broadband module and the SIM card caddy next to it.

Rugged tablet computers will be used outdoors and that includes bright, direct sunlight. Standard transmissive LCD displays, however, wash out in daylight, and that's why over the past few years, sunlight-readability has become a major selling point in the rugged notebook sector. The current standard as far as outdoor-viewable display technology goes is a combination of a bright backlight, anti-reflective coatings, linear and circular polarizers, and — to reduce the number of reflecting surfaces — direct bonding of as many of the LCD assembly's layers as possible. All the major players in the rugged/outdoor arena use those technologies, and the difference between approaches boils down to the presence and extent of those expensive optical coatings, how they are applied, how the various layers are bonded, and backlight brightness. All of the major rugged tablet and notebook makers uses variations of these sunlight-viewable technologies.

All that said, RuggON really nailed it with the display they chose. Measuring 10.1 inches diagonally, it sports crisp 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution. This means the 16 : 10 aspect ratio that to many eyes is just about perfect, not too boxy and not too wide. 1920 x 1200 means 2.3 million pixels, well over twice as many pixels as in 11.6-inch/1366 x 768 tablets that have become sort of a standard. Expressed in pixels per inch, the PX501 stands at 224 ppi — that's "retina" level resolution in Apple parlance — compared to just 135 ppi for 11.6-inch/1366 x 768 standard devices.

Resolution isn't everything, of course; there's also backlight brightness. Here, again, RuggON pulled out all the stops with a very strong backlight that makes for brilliant 1,000 nits luminance. To provide an idea how well all this works, below are a few comparison pictures between the RuggON PX501 and an Apple iPad Air 2. The iPad has an excellent screen, but as can be seen below, it's neither as bright nor can it control reflections as effectively as the RuggON tablet. The iPad also sports a bit of a pinkish hue, whereas the PX501 display looks more natural.

Another syndrome we often observe is that displays look dimmer when viewed from an angle. As the picture below shows, the iPad is somewhat affected by this syndrome, not much but noticeable, whereas the PC-501 isn't.

The picture below, finally, shows the RuggON tablet sitting in an icy-cold stream in broad daylight. Even under those conditions, the display remains bright. Not just viewable, but downright brilliant.

Capacitive multi-touch works as quickly and effortlessly as users have come to expect from a tablet these days. Capacitive touch controllers have become more sensitive over the past few years, and the one used in the RuggON PX501 can be used while wearing some types of thin gloves.

As great and successful as capacitive multi-touch is, Windows with all of its tiny scrollers, check boxes and pull-downs isn't a natural for it. That's even the case once Windows has been optimized for touch. And since Windows doesn't automatically adjust for screen resolution, some user interface elements can be tiny on very high-res displays such as the PX501's. Likely as a result of that, in addition to the standard 2mm hard-tip stylus, RuggON offers the tablet with an optional Wacom style active pen.

Wacom's digitizer technology remains an excellent match for Windows tablets. Microsoft has supported the Wacom pen for many years (the 2001 Tablet PC initiative was built around active pens), most of the Windows pen functionality was designed for this type of pen, and the technology provides "cursor tracking," i.e. the cursor follows the tip of the pen even if it's almost an inch away from the display surface.

How do touch and active pen co-exist? Like this: when the tablet detects finger touch, it turns off pen recognition. If it detects the pen on the surface, it turns off touch recognition. Works beautifully.

As we've repeatedly mentioned over the years, our experience with cameras integrated into rugged vertical market handhelds and tablets has generally been underwhelming, with most lagging well behind what's available in dedicated point & shoots and consumer smartphones. The situation is getting better, probably in part due to pressure from customers who by now are used to consumer smartphones and tablets equipped with very good cameras. We were pleased to find that the rear-facing documentation camera of the PX501 is up to the task. After a bit of practice, the test pictures we took with the device were good enough for most field documentation tasks.

The screen snap to the right shows what the camera app looks like in picture-taking mode.

The user interface is attractive and logical. In picture taking mode, you can toggle between still and video mode, turn geo-tagging on and off, set the flash mode, and select either the front or the rear camera. The settings mode is limited to image resolution and storage location. That will likely not be enough for most customers, so we assume that production models will include additional camera app options, or we overlooked something.

The pictures below were shot with the RuggON PX501 in 8mp mode. Click on the image to bring up a full-size version.

The PX501 documentation camera is capable of taking decent pictures than are generally good enough for job documentation purpose. There is good sharpness and image detail, and little of the massive compression that often renders pictures from such integrated cameras useless due to artifacting. Patience is needed at times, as the camera takes a bit of time focus, so there's some shutter lag.

Video is better than what we've seen from cameras integrated into rugged devices even two or three years ago. The camera generally doesn't fall behind and the maximum 1920 x 1080 recording format is useful. All that said, today's smartphones have completely spoiled consumers with their superb cameras and sophisticated imaging apps.