"Antimicrobial plastic" is a type of synthetic polymer material with an integrated active ingredient that minimizes or eliminates microbial presence and growth. Growth-inhibiting agents are included in the plastic materials during manufacturing and provide protection over the anticipated lifetime of the product.

This is not an easy task. The term "antimicrobial" itself is a summary concept that includes all types of microorganisms: bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa. As a result, "antimicrobial" materials may vary from application to application, often fine-tuned for the situation at hand. The use of such agents is regulated and various from country to country. So how does Winmate address the issue?

Winmate describes it in one of their documents: The whole housing of the M101P-ME with its plastic and elastomeric rubber parts uses an inorganic antimicrobial material that fights infection based on the way silver ions affect microbes. In essence, they way it works is that silver ions, which are positively charged, are attracted by microbial cell walls, which are negatively charged. The positive metal ions break down the cells walls, damaging or destroying the microbe. Once inside the cell walls, the metal ions prevent division and reproduction of microbes. This one-two punch has proven highly effective in squelching microbial presence and growth.

How is it made? By injecting silver ions in glass, grinding the glass into something that looks like white flour, and then mixing it into resins and polycarbonate plastics much like colors are added. The compound Winmate is using has tested to be very effective against staph and e.coli, and is inherently effective against other bacteria, as well as molds and mildew.

The trend in consumer tablets is to make them as slender as possible, which means most customers put their consumer tablets into bulky cases. Rugged tablet design is different. They must be rugged without a case, and that's why they use tougher materials and most have protective corner bumpers, including the M101P-ME. That makes the tablet a bit thicker, as does the presence of industrial grade components (like the M101P-ME's optional dedicated scanner) and the presence of additional ports and connectors. Below is a look at the Winmate M101P-ME from the front and from all four sides. It is a compact design that is easy to use and deploy in various areas of healthcare settings.

While the dark protective plastic makes it clear that this is a tough and durable piece of equipment, the white plastic housing makes it equally clear that it's designed to visually fit into medical and healthcare settings. The M101P-ME has a modest footprint of 10.7 x 7.8 inches, about an inch more in either direction than a standard 10-inch iPad. The tablet is 3/4 of an inch thick and weighs about 2.60 pounds.

While most current consumer smartphones and tablets have the barest minimum of buttons and ports, in professional applications physical controls and wired connectivity still come in handy. On its front, the Winmate M101P-ME has the power button, a Home icon button that brings up the HotTab utility that controls the unique features of the tablet, and a programmable function button. On the right side in the back is another programmable button and the display brightness control, both integrated into the housing.

The below picture shows the right side of the M101P-ME where most of the tablet's I/O is. For a better view, we removed the replaceable protective rubber plug.

From left to right, the M101P-ME I/O block provides:

• the power jack
• the full 3.5mm audio jack
• a full-size USB 3.0 Type A port
• a reversible USB 3.0 Type C port (this replaced the special adapter port that provided Ethernet and RS232 serial for legacy applications in older versions of the M101).
• a micro-SDXC Card reader (that we tested with a 256GB card)
• a micro-HDMI port

The top of the unit shows a plastic cover with a window for the optional integrated Honeywell N660X barcode reader. This is another feature that differentiates the M101P-ME from consumer tablets; while there are apps that provide rudimentary scanning with integrated cameras, for professional work in medical settings you want a dedicated industrial-grade scanner.

That was several years and many processor generations ago, but Intel still offers expensive high-end Core processors and much less expensive low-end Atom processors. The M101 platform is flexible enough to be able to accommodate either type of processor. There is, for example, the Winmate M101S with a powerful Intel "Kaby Lake" Core processor. That one requires a fan, which is not necessarily something that's desirable in healthcare settings.

So, instead, Winmate chose the quad-core Intel Pentium N4200 for the M101P-ME. It's technically still an Atom and not a Core processor, but Intel uses the "Pentium" brand as their highest level non-Core CPUs. With a considerably lower cost and generating much less heat than Core processors, the N4200 has become a popular choice for many mobile devices, especially in vertical and rugged markets.

It's not easy. The standard 7.4 Volt, 5,140 mAH Li-Polymer battery that fits flush into the backside of the M101P-ME packs a modest 38 watt-hours. That's not much for an Intel-powered professional-grade tablet. To find out what sort of battery life one might expect from this tablet, we tested the M101P-ME with PassMark's BatteryMon utility and found the following:

Winmate M101M-PE Power Draws (at idle)
Backlight level	0%	50%	100%
Power Saver	5.1 watts (7.45 hrs)	6.1 watts (6.2 hrs)	7.2 watts (5.3 hrs)
Max Performance	5.2 watts (7.3 hrs)	6.6 watts (5.8 hrs)	8.1 watts (4.7 hrs)

With the tablet set to the Windows "Best battery life" mode and the display backlight set to its lowest, we saw a power draw of 5.1 watts. With the backlight set to medium, we saw 6.1 watts, and with the backlight set to its brightest setting, power draw rose to 7.2 watts.

In the Windows "Best performance" setting, we found a low of 5.2 watts at the lowest backlight setting, 6.6 watt with average backlight, and 8.1 watts with the backlight at its highest.

Dividing the standard' battery's 38 watt-hours by the lowest recorded draw (5.1 watts) yields a theoretical battery life of 7.45 hours, close to the 8 hour estimate in Winmate's spec sheet. Dividing it by the highest recorded draw (8.1 watts) indicates 4.7 hours. Depending on the intended application that may or may not be enough, and so prospective customers should consider getting the optional extended battery with twice the capacity. That battery, however, protrudes about a quarter of an inch and adds some weight (about seven ounces).

The measured power draws of the M101P-ME minimum are the lowest of any of the Winmate M101 series tablets we have tested since the platform's original release. That said, power draw testing has become somewhat relative due to the increasingly sophisticated power savings technologies in Intel's high-end Core processors. This has led to a situation where a device with a 15-watt TDP Intel Core processor may draws less power in battery draw benchmarks than a device with a 6-watt non-Core processor such as the Winmate M101P-ME.

Since the M101P-ME is specifically targeted for use in healthcare settings where power outlets are never far away and tablets are recharged via dock when not in use, battery power is adequate and most won't need the extended battery.

And, as is expected in a modern tablet, there's a full complement of sensors. An ambient light sensor, G-sensor, gyrometer, and e-Compass are all present and ready for duty in healthcare apps and solutions.

Sharp, bright 10.1 inch multi-touch display