Getac ZX10 review: This fully rugged yet lightweight Android tablet can go anywhere | Tech Reddy

Strong tablets must withstand shocks, drops, water, dust, heat, cold, and being thrown into the back of cars and other painful treatments. Getac is a specialist in this field, offering a wide range of rugged laptops and tablets. Its Android 11-based ZX10 tablet, which starts at £1,025 (ex. VAT) in the UK, is highly configurable and can be supplemented with many accessories, making it suitable for multiple uses.

The Getac ZX10 is MIL-STD-810H and IP66 certified and can withstand drops from 1.8 meters (6 feet). The 10.1-inch screen sits inside large bezels that provide plenty of protection from physical impact. The chassis is deep and its corners are rounded, which means that when the tablet falls on the ground, it is more likely to simply fall to the ground and roll away without stressing the components inside the shell. Measuring 275mm wide, 192mm deep, 17.9mm thick and weighing 1.04kg, this tablet strikes a good balance between durability and portability.

The screen is a 10.1-inch TFT panel with WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution and 800 nit brightness. Combined with Getac’s sunlight readable technology, this makes it suitable for viewing in a variety of conditions. The main screen features a three-button touchpad that allows for gloved hand, finger touch, or pen-based input, helping to maximize touchscreen responsiveness. The screen’s matte finish helps with outdoor reading and viewing angles are good.

To the right of the screen (in landscape mode) is a strip of five buttons, above which is a light sensor that reads ambient light levels and adjusts the screen’s brightness accordingly. Two of the four buttons are labeled ‘P1’ and ‘P2’ and can be programmed: by default these increase and decrease the brightness. The other two, labeled ‘+’ and ‘-‘, are set to adjust the volume by default, but are also programmable. The green and slightly raised fifth button is the power button.

Above the screen is an 8MP webcam with a sliding privacy cover. Since the Getac ZX10 is suitable for people wearing gloves, the privacy cover has a prominent lip for easy sliding. There’s also a 16MP camera on the back with LED flash, which lacks a safety cover. Getac provides its own camera software that provides up to 7.7x digital zoom on both cameras, allows you to change resolution, use flash, and more. It’s basic but works well enough. Don’t expect fantastic quality photos, but for general documentation and video calling, the Getac ZX10 cameras are fine.

The custom camera app isn’t the only onboard Getac app to get Android 11 updates. Among the pre-installed apps are a device deployment tool and a dedicated app for various hardware and software modules.

At the bottom right corner of the screen bezel is a speaker grill. Audio output is disappointing, with no bass or volume. Unless you’re close to a tablet with low ambient noise, you won’t be able to hear someone during a video call – which is unlikely in many environments where the tablet is designed. Our tip: make sure you have a headset handy.

At the bottom of the screen are LEDs that indicate power on, Wi-Fi enabled, and battery status (yellow for charging, green for full, as well as any status alerts). The lower long edge has teeth for the vehicle mounting system, and the upper long edge can be attached to a sturdy lifting handle.

Customization is a key feature of the Getac ZX10 as it is designed to serve a range of sectors including transport and logistics, defence, first responders, utilities and industrial production. Options include a smart card reader, HF RFID/NFC reader, 4G LTE mobile broadband and GPS. There were a few extra items in my review section.

On the right short edge, under a hinged rubber cover, is the electrical connector. There is a barcode scanner on the top edge. On the short left edge, one hinged flap protects the USB-C port and MicroSD card slot, while the other protects the USB-A port and 3.5mm headphone jack. At the back of my review unit was the RFID sensor area. On the back are two separate removable, hot-swappable batteries. There is support for two 4G LTE SIM cards with a SIM slot under each battery. On the back there is a housing for the bundled capacitive stylus, which is attached to the bundle.

Standard batteries are 4990 mAh each for a total of 9980 mAh. The batteries can be replaced individually, and the battery status indicator at the top right of the screen provides separate readings for each. This means you can carry spare parts to keep your Getac ZX10 running for the long haul, with replacements applied if necessary. Getac also offers high-capacity 9980 mAh batteries for those who want even longer life from each charge.

Battery life was a little disappointing with standard batteries. A three-hour YouTube session drained the two fully charged batteries at 50% and 49%, while PCMark for Android Work 3.0 battery performance showed the tablet lasted 8 hours and 14 minutes. For field workers, in-vehicle charging, spare standard batteries, or high-capacity batteries may be needed.

The chipset is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660, which is long in the tooth but more than adequate for the type of workloads the Getac ZX10 is designed for. It delivered average Geekbench 5 CPU scores of 325 (single-core) and 1476 (multi-core). At the time of writing, leading Android scores are around 1000 (single-core) and 3500 (multi-core).

My Getac ZX10 review unit has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal eMMC storage, with 6GB and 128GB options available. There’s a MicroSD card slot for easy manual data transfer or adding to onboard storage.

Conclusions

Fully rugged tablets designed for harsh environments indoors or outdoors. To meet the demands, the Getac ZX10 is a rugged device designed for use with finger, glove and stylus input. There’s a wide range of features on offer to configure the tablet for multiple uses, and the twin hot-swappable batteries should help keep it going in the field.

Getac’s ZX10 is a good all-rounder that should find a place in a number of industrial sectors. If Android isn’t your preferred platform, check out the very similar but Windows-based UX10.

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Getac ZX10 Specifications

Operating system	Android 11
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 (octa-core, 1.95GHz-2.2GHz)
GPU	Qualcomm Adreno 512 GPU
Display	10.1-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200)
– Screen type	Capacitive multi-touch TFT LCD
– Brightness	The 800 nits LumiBond display is Getac’s sunlight readable technology
RAM	4 GB, 6 GB (LPDDR4)
Storage	64 GB, 128 GB (eMMC)
WiFi	Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
Bluetooth	5.0
Mobile broadband	optional 4G LTE
GPS	yes
Ports	USB-C (3.2 Gen 1), USB 2.0, USB-C connector, 3.5mm audio in/out, power jack, optional RF antenna pass-through for GPS, WLAN and WWAN
Slots	MicroSD
Cameras	8MP webcam, 16MP rear camera
Buttons	power, 4x programmable keys
Security	Kensington lock, optional HF RFID/NFC combination reader, optional smart card reader
Battery capacity	2x 4990mAh • extra high capacity 2x 9980mAh
AC adapter	65 W
Dimensions	275 mm x 192 mm x 17.9 mm (10.8 in x 7.56 in x 0.7 in)
Weight	1.04 kg (2.29 lb)
Certificates	MIL-STD-810H • IP66 • shock and drop resistant (1.8 m/6 ft) • optional: ANSI/UL 121201, CSA C22.2 NO. 213 (Class I, Division 2, Groups A, B, C, D)
Pre-installed software	Getac Camera, Getac Input Method, Getac Driving Safety Utility (trial version), Getac deployXpress (trial version), Getac Settings and Google Apps (Search, Chrome, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Play, Drive, YouTube Music, Google TV, Duo and pictures)
Accessories (optional)	carrying case, standard battery (4990 mAh), high capacity battery (9980 mAh), multi-port chargers (dual-bay, eight-bay), AC adapter (65W), office dock AC adapter (65W), DC-DC car adapter (120W), tethered capacitive stylus, protective film, wrist strap, shoulder strap (Item 2), shoulder strap (Item 4; Gardersk), car dock, office dock, 100W Type-C adapter, hard handle
The price is	From £1,025 (excl. VAT)

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