Trimble	Yuma 7 (2019)	Yuma 2 (2012)	Yuma (2009)
Ruggedness	Fully rugged	Fully rugged	Fully rugged
Processors	Quad-core Intel Pentium N4200	Dual-core Intel N2600	Single-core Intel Z530
Thermal Design Power	6.0 watts	3.5 watts	2.3 watts
RAM/Storage	8GB RAM, 128GB SSD	4GB RAM, 64/128GB SSD	1GB RAM, 32GB SSD
Size	9.65 x 6.5 x 2.0 inches (245 x 165 x 50 mm)	9.6 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches (246 x 160 x 40 mm)	9.0 x 5.5 x 2.0 inches (230 x 140 x 50 mm)
Weight	3.0 lbs w/ 2 batteries	2.7 lbs w/ 2 batteries	2.6 lbs w/ 2 batteries
Fan	No	No	No
Drop spec	4 feet	4 feet	4 feet
Operating temperature	-20° to 60°F (-4° to 140°F)	-20° to 60°F (-4° to 140°F)	-30° to 60°F (-22° to 140°F)
Operating altitude	30,000 feet	15,000 feet	15,000 feet
Ingress protection	IP68	IP65	IP67
Display/Resolution	7.0" (1,280 x 800)	7.0" (1,024 x 600)	7.0" (1,024 x 600)
Display/PPI and Luminance	216ppi, 800 nits	170ppi, Pixel Qi	170ppi, 650 nits
Cameras	2.0mp/8.0mp	NA/5.0mp	1.3mp/2.0mp
Expansion	microSD Card, EMPOWER	PCIe card	Express Card, SDIO

Performance — Platform updates always benefit from general technological progress, and this is very evident in the Yuma 7's much higher performance compared to the predecessor Yuma 2. The Yuma 2, of course, originated a good number of years ago, but even so, Trimble brought the Yuma upscale in terms of performance. The quad-core Intel Pentium N4200 is a big step up from the dual-core N2600 that powered the Yuma 2, both in absolute and relative performance. The new Yuma 7 is almost three times as powerful as the tablet it replaces. That's a big improvement and very noticeable.

New display — While diagonal screen size stays the same, screen technology changed from the Yuma 2's transmissive-reflective hybrid "Pixel Qi" (which displayed only gray-scale in direct sunlight) back to a conventional modified transmissive LCD that also features higher resolution and higher luminance. The Yuma 7's screen is sharp, bright and for this application a better solution.

Expansion potential — While Trimble's older Yuma tablets were expandable via cards, the new Yuma 7 is compatible with Trimble's open platform EMPOWER module ecosystem. EMPOWER bolt-on modules can provide all sorts of additional functionality for custom workflows and requirements (see Trimble EMPOWER platform). This makes for essentially unlimited expansion potential.

But with all consumer tech so slim and light and sleek, why is the Yuma 7 still comparatively big and hefty, and has hardware buttons and a big bezel around the screen? That's mostly because it's very rugged and doesn't need a bulky case just to use on the job. And also because it has standard USB ports for when you need them, offers plenty of expansion, and has easily replaceable batteries that can be changed in seconds. Yes, the bezel area is pretty large, but that makes the Yuma 7 easier to hold and easier to operate than trendy consumer tech that, weirdly and for no apparent purpose, no longer has a bezel.

And there are physical buttons and a physical navigation diamond because in the field, with gloves on and in the rain, it can be much better to have buttons to push than taking a chance with tapping and swiping on a touch screen.

So as a result of all that, the Yuma 7 measures 9.65 x 6.5 inches, it is two inches thick and it weighs about three pounds, considerably more than a non-rugged consumer tablet. The housing has a grippy rubberized surface that, in combination with the two battery "bulges," makes it easy to hold. Users won't have to guess where the tablets ports are and which port may hide under what protective cover; they all face down, and they are open (albeit very well sealed) and not behind covers.

The composite below shows what the Yuma 7 looks like from the front and from all four sides:

It's a very functional and no-nonsense design that conceptually remains the same as that of earlier Yumas. The third-gen Yuma is still dark gray but the previously abundant yellow has been reduced to a thin line around the perimeter of the front fascia. As in earlier versions, there are still programmable function buttons (albeit no longer shiftable as in the Yuma 2) and a navigation diamond.

The Yuma 7 can accommodate two EMPOWER expansion modules, each secured by two small Phillips screws. If one or both expansion ports are unused, dummy covers take their place. Underneath the EMPOWER module area is a service access cover to the tablet's two micro-PCIe expansion slots used by a WLAN/Bluetooth module and a Sierra Wireless AirPrime EM7455 module for mobile broadband. The backside also shows a removable grill sitting on top of the unit's heat sink/diffuser.

Note that all external ports are concentrated in a separate I/O module that bolts onto the Yuma 7 via six Phillips screws. This has several advantages. First, I/O ports are notorious weak spots in any sealed devices. Concentrating all of them into an external I/O block means that only the module plug has to be sealed. Second, a separate I/O module means it's easy to provide customized modules that may have different ports. None seem currently available, but it'd be easy for Trimble to offer them.

Disassembling the Yuma 7 beyond this is more involved. The body of the Yuma 7 consists of a front and a back half. Both halves are made of thick, recyclable dark-gray polycarbonate plastic with an outer layer of rubbery material for additional protection and optimal grip.

Sealing between the two halves is via a double-lip pressure seal sitting in a groove around the perimeter of the front half. The seal is replaceable and its path designed so that the 13 screws that structurally hold the halves together are outside the seal. This eliminates the possibility of liquids entering to the inside through screw holes. A total of about 30 Torx T9 screws of three different sizes must be removed.

Once that is done, there are two antenna cables and two short flatband ribbon cables to be disconnected before the halves come fully apart. Doing this is a bit complex (and more so when putting the device back together). Below is a look at the two halves fully apart:

Overall construction is quite complex. The large, intricate motherboard is secured to the front part of the housing. The layout is a typical PC arrangement, with numerous ports, connectors, layers, and wiring. Of peripheral modules, the unit's ublox NEO-M8T GNSS is soldered. Large parts of the circuit boards are covered with metal shielding. There is no visible RAM or mass storage expansion/replacement.

The heavily contoured backside of the device is coffered to provide extra strength. It houses the rear camera, an antenna conduit for an external connection, as well as the unit's microSD and SIM card compartment. Cutouts for battery connectors, the main I/O port, EMPOWER module connectors, and the unit's hefty aluminum heat sink/exchanger all have rubber pressure seals.

As far as the 3.6 ounce heat exchanger goes, it handles the entire heat load of the device's Intel Pentium N4200 processor with its 6 watt thermal design power. No need for a fan.

The picture on the left was taken with our FLIR One Pro infrared camera while the Yuma 7 was running a CPU benchmark. Note the bright yellow rectangular area. That is where the heat exchanger sits and all the heat generated by the processor is expelled. While running the CPU benchmarked, we saw just over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, so the Yuma 7 easily gets by without a fan. We prefer that in rugged mobile devices because fans are mechanical devices that can get clogged up and fail.

By default, positioning is provided by a uBlox NEO-M8T series GNSS module, which is GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, QZSS, SBAS and Galileo-ready. This module was designed to offer high sensitivity and rapid acquisition even in GNSS-hostile environments.

Highlights of the NEO-M8T include concurrent reception of GPS/QZSS, GLONASS, BeiDou; backward compatibility with LEA-5T, LEA-6T and NEO-6T (which can be important for certain software apps); optimized accuracy and availability with survey-in and single-satellite timing. Autonomous horizontal position accuracy is 2.5 meters, and SBAS accuracy two meters (see uBlox NEO-M8T datasheet). If that's not enough, the Trimble EMPOWER EM100 GNSS module reaches sub-meter accuracy.

Trimble, traditionally modest in its claims, describes the Yuma 7 display as "daylight readable" and the specs state 800 cd/m2 — nits — luminance. The display surface is, as is the case with virtually all contemporary tablets and smartphones, a glossy black.

We used RuggedPCReview's luminance testing equipment and our custom luminance chart to see how bright the Yuma 7 actually is. The test chart shows grayscale bands from 0% to 100% coverage in 25% increments.

As the graph to the right shows, with a maximum recording of 1200 nits the Yuma 7 display significantly outperformed its 800 nits rating.

The average luminance is likely in the 1000 nits range, as the display's backlight placement is such that luminance at the top of the display is 1200 nits whereas towards the bottom it is more like 800 nits. There is, however, no visual unevenness when viewing the display.

Both horizontal and vertical viewing angles are near perfect. There are no color shifts, no contrast shifts, and none of the milkiness that plagues some screens when viewed from the side. There is a slight iridescent shimmering and yellow tint to the screen when viewed from certain angles.

The picture below shows the Yuma 7 outdoors on a very bright January day around noon. The screen is on full bright. Maximum backlight can make some displays look washed out, but not the Yuma 7's. This is close to as good as it gets.

Here perhaps a word about the Yuma 7's display versus the one in the predecessor Yuma 2. While they are the same size, the new one has the above-mentioned higher resolution, and it is also fundamentally different. With the Yuma 2 screen, Trimble experimented with Pixel Qi technology. Pixel Qi in essence combined two display technologies into one, a conventional RGB screen and a grayscale reflective screen. This made the Yuma 2 display brilliantly viewable in the brightest direct sunlight, but only in grayscale. That was apparently too much of a compromise, Pixel Qi is gone, and Trimble returned to conventional sunlight-viewable technology.

The best way to provide an idea of how well the Yuma 7 display works outdoors is to compare it to something almost everyone is familiar with, a modern smartphone. The two pictures below show the Yuma 7 with an Apple iPhone 7 Plus sitting on it. Both displays are cranked up to maximum brightness. Both displays remain vibrant and readable.

In the image on the left, we shaded the devices so as to eliminate all reflection. The iPhone 7 Plus pumps out around 600 nits (though our well-used one seemed a bit down from that), the Yuma 7 nominally 800, though we measured more than that. The Yuma does look brighter (consider that perceived brightness is on a logarithmic scale).

The image to the right is with shading removed. that means that both devices will show the typical gloss screen reflections.

The kind of work that most Trimble customers do in the field relies on ruggedness and reliability more so than blistering performance. We're talking long hours of collecting data, measuring, lookups, and mapping. As a result, Trimble's handhelds and tablets have generally taken a slow and steady approach to getting things done, with emphasis on what mattered, like battery life, great GNSS, and so on. And, also as a result, the original Yuma wasn't exactly a speed demon. Its successor, the Yuma 2 was three times faster, but that really only got it up to the Netbook level.

So when the Trimble folks specced out the new Yuma 7, they figured they better take a peek into the engine compartment and make some adjustments there. And that's what they did.

So instead of the anemic Atom Z530 in the original Yuma, and then the much improved but still a bit pokey dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom N2600 in the Yuma 2, Trimble went upscale in the Intel parts department and selected the Pentium-branded N4200. It is a quad-core design and part of the codename "Apollo Lake" lineup of chips. While some late model Pentium chips are now based on Intel's high-end Core architecture, the N4200 still has Intel Atom DNA, but it's most definitely not your father's Atom (Intel sells the Pentium N4200 for almost ten times as much as its cheapest Atom chips).

To see what kind of performance the Trimble Yuma 7 provides with its quad-core Pentium processor, we ran our standard benchmark suite, Passmark Software's PerformanceTest 6.1, that runs about 30 tests covering CPU, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, memory, and disk and then computes scores for each category and an overall PassMark score. We also ran our second benchmark suite, CrystalMark, for confirmation and additional information. For comparison and to provide an idea where the Yuma 7 stands compared to its own predecessors as well as to some of the competition, we included benchmark results of four other recent 7- and 8-inch class rugged tablets. And here's the data of our testing:

Trimble Yuma 7 Benchmarks and Comparisons

PERFORMANCE COMPARISON	Trimble	Trimble	Trimble	Getac	Handheld	Juniper
Model	Yuma 7	Yuma 2	Yuma	T800 G2	Algiz 8X	Mesa 2
Year tested	2019	2012	2009	2016	2017	2016
Processor Type: Intel	Pentium	Atom	Atom	Atom	Pentium	Atom
Processor Model	N4200	N2600	Z530	x7-Z8700	N3710	Z3745
Cores/threads	4/4	2/4	1/1	4/4	4/4	4/4
CPU base Speed	1.10 GHz	1.60 GHz	1.60 GHz	1.60 GHz	1.60 GHz	1.33 GHz
CPU turbo Speed	2.50 GHz	1.60 GHz	1.60 GHz	2.40 GHz	2.56 GHz	1.86 GHz
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	6.0 watts	3.5 watts	2.3 watts	2.0 watts	6.0 watts	???? watts
CPU Mark	2,370	473	229	1,620	2,620	1,864
2D Graphics Mark	241	64	61	105	173	118
Memory Mark	1,033	215	200	284	530	359
Disk Mark	1,076	1,199	155	601	2,518	917
3D Graphics Mark	513	79	31	163	187	148
Overall PassMark	1,177	425	141	643	1,353	786
ALU	39,220	9,872	5,323	21,118	34,169	24,977
FPU	31,020	8,053	3,993	18,082	29,147	19,656
MEM	33,497	7,423	3,987	17,648	21,815	25,013
HDD	25,470	20,471	5,825	18,620	34,123	25,344
GDI	6,412	1,524	1,392	3,430	5,407	4,130
D2D	2,700	804	985	2,845	3,898	2,800
OGL	4,620	7,395	329	2,984	4,481	2,804
Overall CrystalMark	142,939	55,542	21,834	84,727	133,040	104,724

The results show three things:

First, in overall operation, the Yuma 7 is almost three times as fast as the predecessor Yuma 2. And 7-8 times as fast as the original Yuma. So anyone who liked the concept and execution of the earlier Yumas but wished for a bit more speed will definitely like the new Yuma 7.

Second, in this particular lineup we included competing rugged tablets in the 7-inch and 8-inch class. Unlike in the past where most used same two or three Intel Atom chips, these days we see a much greater processor variation. As a result, the processing performance parity of a few years ago has given way to providing just the right performance for a company's targeted customers and their applications.

And third, there are now two significant performance variables, the processor and the type and design of mass storage. Rotating hard disks have all but vanished in small rugged tablets, having given way to faster and more reliable solid state storage. However, even within solid state storage, the type and brand can make a very large difference. The Yuma 7 uses eMMC storage. eMMC is much faster than hard disk, but not as quick as SATA and, especially, PCIe-based solid state storage.

Overall, the Yuma 7 will not only surprise longtime Trimble customers with its very good performance; the new tablet is now very competitive for all sorts of general purpose field computing applications.

Batteries and battery life

Add to that the fact that the Yuma 7's design with two separate and very easily replaceable batteries makes the batteries hot-swappable, and battery life really isn't an issue anymore.

Dual cameras

That said, for some reason the quality and sophistication of cameras integrated into rugged mobile computing gear has traditionally not come close to the image quality of even a basic smartphone. And the situation is that much worse with imaging software. The cameras built into the Yuma 7 can, after some practice, be used for serviceable documentation pictures and brief video clips, but for anything beyond that most users will likely resort to their smartphone or a separate dedicated camera.

Ruggedness

One change we noticed is that the Yuma 7 is tested to be fully operational at an altitude of 30,000 feet. Most other rugged devices are rated at operational up to 15,000 feet. Given that even commercial airplanes cruise at 30,000+ feet, albeit pressurized to the equivalent of no more than 8,000 feet, it'd make sense to expect a fully rugged device to be able to operate in an unpressurized setting.

Capacitive multi-touch

There will be those who'll miss an active digitizer or a dual input system in a device as competent and attractive as the Yuma 7. There is no compelling reason why a Wacom-style digitizer should not be available in combination with capacitive touch in this market, and perhaps Trimble will make them available at some point. As is, capacitive multi-touch works remarkably well on this tablet. Even in the rain.

Summary: Trimble Yuma 7