Desk of Contents Configurations Constructed to Order Designed for Tough-and-Tumble Use Nicely-Protected Ports, Custom-made for You A Rain-or-Shine Display screen Lengthy-Life Batteries (Sure, Plural) Efficiency Is not Extremely-Essential Verdict: Not the Quickest However the Hardest Pill PC
Rugged laptops and tablets are a should for some jobs. When working within the subject includes grime, mud, pouring rain or water spray, or excessive temperatures, you want a transportable as powerful as you might be. The Dell Latitude 7230 Rugged Excessive Pill (begins at $2,443.50; $3,227.61 as examined) is constructed to shrug off PC-killing hazards whereas dealing with jobs starting from collating knowledge to controlling equipment or coordinating a workforce. Providing pill and 2-in-1 capabilities (with an non-obligatory docking keyboard), customization choices for no matter your use case calls for, and value in probably the most demanding conditions, it is a formidable pill, although its efficiency leaves a bit to be desired.
Configurations Constructed to Order
The Latitude 7230 Rugged Pill affords so many configuration choices and obtainable add-ons that it is virtually unimaginable to pin down value factors for prefab configurations. You may discover simply too many choices to select from, all professional wants for the companies, companies, and first responders that use these rugged units.
Dell’s $2,443.50 base mannequin has an Intel Core i3-1210U processor and 8GB of RAM plus a 256GB solid-state drive. It is a easy machine with twin Thunderbolt 4 ports, a single USB Sort-A port (which you’ll be able to swap for an HDMI port for a similar value), and an almost indestructible design that we’ll discover in a minute.
If you happen to want extra horsepower or storage, you will discover upgrades galore. A middle-tier configuration akin to our evaluate unit has a Core i5-1240U CPU, 16GB of reminiscence, and a 512GB SSD. With no extras, this setup prices $2,958. Step as much as a top-spec unit with a Core i7-1260U chip, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD: You may pay $3,343.79 earlier than including any choices.
And once more, you will discover tons of choices, letting you tailor the pill to your precise wants—whether or not you are utilizing it on a farm or on a battlefield.
If you happen to want laptop computer performance, an extra-cost dockable keyboard turns the Latitude right into a removable 2-in-1. You possibly can add 4G or 5G cellular broadband, GPS, a barcode scanner, a fingerprint or SmartCard reader, and extra. Handles, sling mounts, and automobile docks are additionally obtainable, serving to push a totally loaded system above $5,000.
For the report, our check unit is a midrange mannequin (Intel Core i5-1240U, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD) fitted with back and front cameras, an RJ45 Ethernet port, a SmartCard reader, a inflexible facet deal with, and a swappable drive bay for a complete of $3,227.61.
Designed for Tough-and-Tumble Use
Dell’s Rugged Excessive Latitudes have earned the identify with probably the most strong, weatherproof designs obtainable. The totally rugged pill sails previous the MIL-STD 810H specs for frequent highway hazards like shock, vibration, and climate and temperature extremes. It carries an IP65 ingress safety score, which means it may survive direct spray from any angle—assume hurricanes or the storm-swept decks of Coast Guard ships—in addition to holding out particulates starting from the mud of a development website to the blowing sand of army maneuvers within the desert. It really works in temperatures starting from -20ºF to 145°F, making it as helpful within the frozen tundra as it’s subsequent to smelting tools. And its chunky rubber bumpers and shock-mounted elements shrug off four-foot drops.
Measuring 0.94 by 11.65 by 8 inches, the 7230 is nearly completely sized for one-handed use. You possibly can carry the pill within the criminal of your arm like a clipboard, albeit a reasonably hefty one at 3.5 kilos—a noticeable weight, however comparatively gentle for a rugged PC.
The design is pure performance. The display effortlessly rotates between panorama and portrait mode as you shift it out of your lap into the criminal of your arm. Bumpers throughout be a part of stout port covers that hold mud and moisture out. Every nook has an anchor level for attaching a tether, shoulder strap, or different attachment. The stylus pen can also be tethered so it will not get misplaced and hides in a slot constructed into the chassis.
For the reason that display makes use of bodily resistance as a substitute of capacitive contact sensing, you should use another stylus or an everyday plastic pen (capped or with the purpose retracted), in addition to gloved or naked fingers. You may discover bodily buttons within the bezels to regulate show brightness and audio quantity, in addition to three programmable operate buttons. The buttons are backlit to be used at night time.
Above the show (when held in panorama mode) is a five-megapixel webcam with a bodily shutter that each ensures privateness and helps shield the lens from scratches and injury. Subsequent to it’s an IR digital camera that allows safe Home windows Whats up face recognition. On the again is an non-obligatory 11-megapixel digital camera with each a flash and microphone for recording video at an accident scene or snapping just a few footage for filling out a piece order.
As talked about, our Latitude had an built-in deal with alongside one edge, offering a sturdy handhold for each carrying and use. It is a $45 possibility that makes the grab-and-go design that a lot simpler to know and maintain securely, particularly in environments the place gloves are required.
Nicely-Protected Ports, Custom-made for You
The Latitude 7230 pill options quite a lot of helpful ports and slots, every protected by a plastic cowl that seals out grime and moisture and supplies extra influence safety. Twin Thunderbolt 4 ports present a variety of connectivity together with USB4 knowledge switch, DisplayPort Alt Mode for exterior screens, and energy supply to cost the pill or handheld units.
A USB 3.2 Gen 1 Sort-A port with energy share permits you to connect with older peripherals each for knowledge and charging, and a 3.5mm audio jack permits a headset or headphone/microphone combo. Subsequent to that may be a configurable slot; our 7230 had a second USB port, however HDMI is a same-price possibility.
On prime, our pill had an Ethernet port, however you possibly can go for a mini serial port, barcode scanner, or Fischer port. (The latter is a sturdy I/O possibility for energy and knowledge utilized in every little thing from scuba gear to industrial and army tools.) Wi-fi connectivity can also be respectable, due to Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth, and 4G or 5G cellular broadband might be added for connectivity the place no Wi-Fi’s obtainable.
A Rain-or-Shine Display screen
The pill’s contact display is not all that large at 12 inches measured diagonally, neither is it extra-sharp—it affords 1,920-by-1,200-pixel full HD decision, which is principally the low finish amongst trendy laptops and tablets. However the show is not constructed to be visually spectacular; it is constructed for pure performance, and it delivers.
Dell’s display has an anti-glare coating and boosted brightness—almost 1,000 nits in our testing—for simple studying even in full daylight. A protecting layer of Corning Gorilla Glass makes it a bit simpler to learn whereas heading off scratches and cracks. As talked about, its capacitive contact expertise works even in the event you’re carrying heavy work gloves.
Lengthy-Life Batteries (Sure, Plural)
One of many Rugged Excessive’s most helpful options are its twin, hot-swappable batteries. These cartridge-like cells might be accessed with out having to open up any compartment or get contained in the chassis in any respect, and you’ll insert a contemporary battery whereas the system runs on the opposite, making certain steady operation.
The batteries are simply as rugged because the pill, with sturdy housings and a design that makes it genuinely troublesome to place one within the incorrect manner. (I examined this myself; they’re truly idiot-proof.) Their locking latches stop undesirable ejection however do not sluggish you down when it is time to swap in a charged pack. Dell affords a standalone battery charger for $229.99, which is helpful, however the cost indicators built-in are even handier at no additional price. With the press of a button, you possibly can test a battery’s energy stage even when it is away from the pill.
Efficiency Is not Extremely-Essential
Our Dell Latitude 7230 Rugged Excessive Pill teamed a twelfth Technology Intel Core i5-1240U processor with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Within the rugged world, utilizing final 12 months’s silicon is normal observe, since designing and testing invulnerable programs takes time. A lot of the Dell’s opponents have eleventh Gen CPUs as a substitute of the thirteenth Gen chips now obtainable in shopper notebooks. For our benchmark comparability charts, we selected two 2022 tablets, the Durabook R11 and the Getac F110, and two laptops, the semi-rugged (therefore inexpensive) Acer Enduro City N3 and the present king of the rugged hill, the Editors’ Selection-award-winning Panasonic Toughbook 40.
Productiveness Checks
The principle benchmark of UL’s PCMark 10 simulates quite a lot of real-world productiveness and content-creation workflows to measure total efficiency for office-centric duties comparable to phrase processing, spreadsheeting, net searching, and videoconferencing. We additionally run PCMark 10’s Full System Drive check to evaluate the load time and throughput of a laptop computer’s storage.
Three benchmarks concentrate on the CPU, utilizing all obtainable cores and threads, to price a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 makes use of that firm’s Cinema 4D engine to render a posh scene, whereas Geekbench 5.4 Professional by Primate Labs simulates common apps starting from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine studying. Lastly, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to transform a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p decision (decrease instances are higher).
The Dell pill did effectively sufficient in Geekbench’s utility simulations, however trailed its rivals in uncooked efficiency, lagging in video rendering and posting the bottom rating in PCMark 10. Regardless, it is completely high-quality for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, however nobody’s going to purchase a rugged pill for phrase processing and spreadsheets.
Graphics Checks
We normally check Home windows PC graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark: Night time Raid (extra modest, appropriate for laptops with built-in graphics), and Time Spy (extra demanding, appropriate for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Sadly, the Latitude Rugged Excessive pill would not run the 3DMark benchmark. That left us with two assessments from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses each low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like picture rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Automobile Chase assessments, rendered offscreen to accommodate totally different show resolutions, train graphics and compute shaders utilizing the OpenGL programming interface and {hardware} tessellation respectively.
The Dell lagged behind its rugged friends within the GFXBench subtests. Clearly, gaming-class graphics aren’t what you are after while you purchase a rugged system, however its tepid efficiency may restrict the Latitude’s functionality to run visually intensive apps.
Battery and Show Checks
We check laptop computer battery life by taking part in a regionally saved 720p video file (the open-source Blender film Tears of Metal) with show brightness at 50% and audio quantity at 100%. We make certain the battery is totally charged earlier than the check, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.
Moreover, we use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and software program to measure a laptop computer display’s coloration saturation—what share of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 coloration gamuts or palettes the show can present—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per sq. meter).
With a pair of 35.6-watt-hour batteries on board, we anticipated the Latitude 7230 to indicate appreciable stamina in our video rundown, and it did not disappoint with 15-and-a-half hours of unplugged runtime. With hot-swappable batteries and an obtainable exterior charger, you possibly can no less than theoretically hold the pill going 24/7, however its second-place end is a formidable achievement in itself.
The show can also be genuinely spectacular. As we stated, its decision is nothing particular, however its brightness is nice to be used beneath antagonistic lighting situations, to not point out its almost full protection of the sRGB spectrum. Whereas it is not a match for content material creation laptops, the Dell’s coloration high quality is among the finest we have seen from a rugged system. And even in direct outside daylight, the panel proved clear and simple to learn, with out washing out or distorting colours.
Verdict: Not the Quickest However the Hardest Pill PC
Whether or not it is rain, snow, sleet, or gloom of night time, the Dell Latitude 7230 Rugged Excessive Pill is able to work, even in the event you drag it by way of the worst environments alongside the best way. Its design is top-notch, delivering a mixture of usability and rugged armor that is higher than most, from its ultra-bright show to its sturdy deal with and chunky bumpers. Its efficiency is a little bit of a letdown; it is a succesful PC however not the quickest nor probably the most highly effective amongst its friends.
But when uncooked efficiency is not your precedence, the Dell might be configured with so many alternative ports and choices that it is a cinch to fulfill your on-site calls for, with a hot-swappable dual-battery design that retains it going all day lengthy. It narrowly misses an Editors’ Selection win, however the 7230 is a high-quality selection for work the place laptops concern to tread.
