eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Hardware and business technology company Motion Computing has unveiled two tablet PCs, the F5m and C5m rugged Windows-based tablets, designed for utility, oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, public safety and health care workforces.
Within their chassis designs, Motion has included upgrades to connectivity, processing power, security and image capture technology. Both products have a starting price of $1,999, including a three-year warranty.
The addition of 5th Gen Intel Core processors (Broadwell-U 2+3), including the highest performing i7 vPro chipset, is paired with the ability to hot-swap the battery in the field.
“For Motion, it’s not just about the tablet. We design and manufacture purpose-built mobility solutions for which the tablet is just one component,” Peter Poulin, Motion’s CEO, told eWEEK. “By designing and building the peripherals ourselves, versus relying on third parties, our customers benefit from lower integration, deployment and problem resolution risks.”
Motion offers a broad range of screen sizes, Intel processors and other configurable options that enable a customer to customize the product to their specific needs, Poulin said.
The tablets are built to survive challenging work environments and cater to mobile workers who are in and out of vehicles frequently, operating at worksites exposed to demanding conditions, including direct sunlight, rain and dusty environments.
The tablets’ 10.4-inch, high-resolution Corning Gorilla Glass display incorporates the company’s View Anywhere technology to provide improved visibility in direct sunlight, and they support data capture in the field.
“Motion has typically been the first to bring new technologies to market that enable users to work more efficiently, accurately, and safely,” Poulin said. “Some examples include the first to introduce Gorilla Glass for better reliability, the first to introduce bonded displays that increase outdoor viewability, the first to introduce built-in array microphones for better speech recognition in hands-free environments and the first to introduce UV light-based disinfection stations for clinical environments.”
The new 8MP rear camera, combined with the SnapWorks by Motion camera application, makes it possible to capture, annotate and share the higher resolution images required for inspection and documentation workflows.
In addition, Motion’s EasyConnect RFID Long Range Reader is suited for logistics and inventory management needs.
Plus, Motion enables multifactor authentication capabilities through a combination of password, fingerprint scanner and optional smart card reader, and the F5m and C5m also feature an optional self-encrypting drive.
The security profile is enhanced with the inclusion of WinMagic’s SecureDoc full disk encryption software and the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) as standard features.
Additional theft recovery protection and remote manageability options are also available with the optional Absolute Computrace add-on.
The F5 tablet’s durability is backed by an MIL-STD-810G certification for ruggedness, an IP54 certification against dust and water ingress, and a CID2 certification for use in hazardous environments where explosive gasses may be present.
By also providing backward compatibility with existing peripherals, Motion customers can refresh aging F5 or C5 platforms.