Initially, tablet computer pioneers were convinced that pens and handwriting recognition were the answer. The credo of the time — in the early 1990s — was that everyone knows how to write, but not everyone is a typist. Hence, handwriting recognition was the solution. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a tricky technology. It worked for some users but, overall, relying on handwriting recognition kept tablets from becoming a global success for another two decades, until the iPad came along in 2012, bringing capacitive multi-touch and a truly functional on-screen keyboard.

However, not every technology seamlessly translates into a new way of doing things. The 3-dimensional touch and feel and tactile feedback of physical keys cannot be duplicated on a touch screen, and sometimes that is an issue. As a result, there have been tablets with integrated physical keyboards pretty much since the beginnings of slate computers. And, also as a result, Blackberry smartphones with tiny hardware keyboards were immensely popular for years, and many industrial handhelds still come with physical keypads even today.

In fact, Winmate itself has a family connection to such keyboard-equipped hybrids. That came via their agreement with DAP Technology (a longtime rugged computer hardware vendor that exited the business in 2014) to continue and service some of their tablet/keyboard hybrids, such as the DAP M9020. The M9020 was the last in a series of increasingly more powerful such hybrids, a line that had begun back in the days of Microsoft Windows CE and culminated years later with much more powerful full Windows versions. Many of these were available either as pure tablets or as tablet/keyboard hybrids. Shown below are the DAP CE8640 from circa 2008 on the left (see our review), and the DAP M9020 from around 2013 in the middle (see our review). On the right is one of Winmate's own vehicle-mount hybrids, the FM08 (see our assessment of the Winmate FM08).

The intent of any hybrid solution is to take two concepts and combine them into something new that highlights each concept's advantages and minimizes its weaker points. A hybrid vehicle seeks to combine a combustion engine's ease of refueling with the economy and clean operation of an electric motor. The goal of a tablet convertible is to provide the ease of data entry of a laptop with the light weight and ergonomics of a tablet.

But hybrid solutions are always compromises. As shown in the examples above, the designers must decide how much of a tablet's real estate to allocate to the display and how much to the keyboard. A large keyboard works better, as does a large display. But you can't have both. The challenge then is to find an optimal balance. In this instance, a keyboard and a display that are both large enough to work well, without making the resulting device too big and heavy. So how did Winmate address this challenge with the M101BK?

• Keyboard: Back in the day, touch typing without looking at the keyboard was made possible standardizing the size of the QWERTY key layout. The distance between the centers of the letter Q on the upper left and the letter P on the upper right of the QWERTY layout is 6.75 inches, known as 100%-scale. On the M101BK's that distance is 5.75 inches, making the layout 85%-scale. One could argue that a 100%-scale QWERTY would have been possible by making ancillary keys narrower. Overall, though, for a hybrid tablet the keyboard layout is gratifyingly large and useful. The keys themselves are "island style," i.e. low-profile, low-travel while still providing good tactile feedback.

• Touch method: While vehicle-mounts have traditionally used resistive digitizers, capacitive touch with its effortless tapping, swiping, panning and zooming has pretty much taken over. Capacitive touch generally requires a smooth glass surface that extends well beyond the actual LCD so that fingers don't bump into a bezel while operating the tablet. That's a bit of an issue with the M101BK, as the rows and columns of raised keys are fairly close to the display.

• Display: The M101BK display measures 8.0 inches diagonally and offers 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. With the seemingly ever-increasing size of smartphone displays, phones have pretty much replaced small tablets. 8 inches is now the low end of tablet display size, and that works for Windows tablets. The resulting 189 pixel per inch resolution is perhaps a bit on the low side for a modern tablet, but given its intended use in vehicles and in the field, it's sharp enough.

Overall, in our opinion, Winmate aced the design. The keys are large enough to be useful for finger-typing, thumb-typing remains possible, and the vertically placed function keys are perfectly located for quick thumb operation. The screen is big enough for Windows, making for a nice balance.

Below is a look at the Winmate M101BK from the front and from all four sides. The integrated corner bumpers make it instantly obvious that this is a rugged device. And although Winmate considers the M101BK first and foremost a vehicle-mount, it's also slender and handy enough for extended use as a free-standing tablet.

This might be a good time to mention that the M101BK, with the exception of the frontal design, is really a variation of Winmate's tried-and-true and very mature line of M101 tablets that have been around in various versions and performance levels for several years. The side views of the new keyboard version are pretty much identical. And that extends to the M101BK's onboard ports and I/O.

The below picture shows a close-up of the I/O block on the right side of the M101BK. For a better view, we removed the replaceable protective rubber plug. This block contains all of the tablet's I/O, protected with a single hinged pressure-seal cover with dual sealer lips.

From left to right, the M101BK I/O block provides:

• the power jack
• the full 3.5mm audio jack
• a full-size USB 3.0 port (you can always tell 3.0 because it's blue)
• a special adapter port that provides Ethernet and RS232 serial for legacy applications
• below it a micro-SD Card reader
• a micro-HDMI port

The top of the unit shows a plastic cover with a window for the optional integrated Intermec EA30 barcode reader. This is another feature that differentiates the M101 platform, including the M101BK, from consumer tablets; while there are apps that provide rudimentary scanning with integrated cameras, for professional work you need a dedicated industrial-grade scanner.

Subsequently, Winmate went on to launch several mother versions of the M101 platform, both for Windows and for Android. On the Windows side, there was the "hot-rodded" M101H with much higher performance. And Spring 2018 brought updated versions of both the M101B and the M101H, both with higher performance yet.

Interestingly, given that this is a new product in the lineup, the M101BK comes with a relatively old chip, the Intel Celeron N2930. We'd have expected the newer and more powerful Pentium N4200 which Winmate is using in the new M101P. The N2930 certainly has good credentials and it's used in a large number of lower end devices, but we still wonder why Winmate didn't put this new design onto the same new chip.

Well, by positioning the device as a vehicle-mount that is also a tablet, expectations for the M101BK are different.

Since most vehicle-mount computers are not designed for independent mobile use, they usually only have a small "bridge" battery that allows for graceful shutdown in case the vehicle loses power, and also guards against vehicle power fluctuations. Some vehicle-mounts do have larger batteries so they can also be used away from their vehicle dock, such as Winmate's own FM08, but that is not the norm.

The M101BK, however, is based on a pure tablet platform and thus was designed to provide suitable battery life. The standard 7.4 Volt, 5,140 mAH Li-Polymer battery that fits flush into the backside of the M101BK tablet is modest with its 38 watt-hours, because Winmate aimed for low weight. But for a vehicle-mount, it's more than adequate. Also note that Winmate offers an extended 76 watt-hour battery for customers planning on heavy tablet-mode use of the M101BK.

To find out what sort of battery life one might expect from this tablet, we tested the M101BK with PassMark's BatteryMon utility and found the following:

With the Window 10 slider moved all the way to "Best Battery Life" and the screen brightness toggle set to "Darkest," we saw a power draw of 5.9 watts. With the backlight set to "Recommended," we saw 7.6 watts, and with the backlight set to its "Brightest" setting, power draw rose to 9.4 watts.

Winmate M101BK PassMark BatteryMon Power Draws (at idle)
Backlight level	Darkest	Recommended	Brightest
Best Battery	5.9 watts (6.4 hrs)	7.6 watts (5.0 hrs)	9.4 watts (4.0 hrs)
Balanced	6.1 watts (6.2 hrs)	7.7 watts (4.9 hrs)	9.5 watts (4.0 hrs)
Best Performance	6.2 watts (6.1 hrs)	7.9 watts (4.8 hrs)	9.7 watts (3.9 hrs)

Moving the power slider in the middle and the screen brightness toggle set to "Darkest," we saw a power draw of 6.1 watts. With the backlight set to "Recommended," we saw 7.7 watts, and with the backlight set to its "Brightest" setting, power draw rose to 9.5 watts. Clearly, at least while idling, the power setting doesn't have much impact on battery draw, but screen brightness does.

With the Window 10 slider moved all the way to "Best Performance" and the screen brightness toggle set to "Darkest," we saw a power draw of 6.2 watts. With the backlight set to "Recommended," we saw 7.9 watts, and with the backlight set to its "Brightest" setting, power draw rose to 9.7 watts.

Dividing the standard' battery's 38 watt-hours by the lowest draw we saw (5.9 watts) yields a theoretical battery life of 6.4 hours, just over Winmate's own estimate of six hours. Dividing it by the highest draw we saw (9.7 watts) indicates just under four hours.

This allows two conclusions. First, by vehicle-mount standards, the M101BK has very long battery life. The device can easily be taken from its vehicle dock and used for extended mobile deployment. This puts the M101BK in a "best of both worlds" position. With its vehicle dock, it can handle the wide range of power input available from different vehicles. When away from the vehicle, it can be used for extended periods of time as a standard tablet.

Unlike Intel Core processor-based version of the platform, the M101BK doesn't need a fan to handle the tablet's thermal load. That's because its processor only has a TDP (thermal design power) of 7.5 watts instead of the 15 watts generated by the Core processors in the M101H and the new M101S. Thermal design power, by the way, is the maximum amount of processor-generated heat a design must be capable of handling. So no fan and no heat piping inside the M101BK. Instead, there is a thick metal heat spreader plate (which undoubtedly also adds strength and rigidity).

Touch and stylus and keyboard and function keys, oh my...