Getac Prepares to Drop the Rugged E100 Tablet and B300 Notebook

Special agents, super spies, and even garden variety field workers will appreciate Getac’s latest PCs: The E100 and B300. These fully-rugged machines can take the lumps of bumps of outdoor use, and can assist Jack Bower types in viewing the notebooks’ displays in bright sunlight or the blackness of night.

The 3-pound Getac E100 (pictured) is designed for field and customer service applications, but despite its slim frame, meets the U.S. Army’s MIL-STD-810F and IP54 durability standards. So what does that mean in English? It can take a licking from dirt, dust, water, vibration, temperature and other forces that would make non-ruggized systems wince.

The E100 also sports an 8.4-inch TFT SVGA transmissive display with an integrated touch screen panel, customizable numeric keypad, an Intel Stealey processor,  512MB of RAM (expandable to 1GB), and a 60GB, 80GB, or 100GB shock-resistant HDD. Users can opt to add an Ultra-Bright 800 Nit sun-readable display, as well as an array of expandable “mission boxes” designed can be customized with RFID, barcode and magnetic strip readers, or digital cameras, depending on need. The E100 includes 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity as standard features, with EV-DO and integrated GPS are available as options. 

One-upping the E100’s sunlight-frinedly display is the 7.7-pound Getac B300, which features the industry’s first 1200 Nit screen and optional night vision capabilities. It also uses Getac’s patent-pending technology to meet the U.S. Army’s MIL-STD-3009 standard for night vision. It eliminates the need for military or law enforces to utilize special night vision screens; the 13.3-inch display can instantly darken. It’s powered by an 1.6-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Merom processor, 512MB of RAM (expandable to 4GB), and 80GB or 120GB shock-resistant hard drives. Like the E100, the B300 is fully rugged, meeting the military’s MIL-STF-810F and IP54 standards-it can also be designed to meet the MIL-STD-461E salt fog resistance compliance. The B300 includes 802.11b/g Wi-Fi;  Bluetooth 2.0, EV-DO, and integrated GPS are available as options.

Both notebooks will be available for purchase in March at an undisclosed price.