Itronix Duo-Touch Tablet PC

Despite its compact dimensions and 8.4in 800 x 600 TFT screen, the Duo-Touch weighs in at 1.7kg - light in absolute terms but hefty for its size - and it's 40mm deep. An extra lump on one side houses a GPS antenna for satellite-positioning applications, and there's also a short but flexible foldout whip antenna, which should prove relatively difficult to break.

The antenna is attached to a standard wireless GSM/GPRS PC Card - underneath a custom-designed housing - which takes a standard SIM. Both these are optional extras, the GPS receiver costing £200.

The Duo-Touch's name is derived from its ingenious dual-pen input system. As well as the standard electromagnetic induction method of pen-position sensing used by most tablets, you can switch to a pressure-sensitive touchscreen. This provides the best of both worlds: the tablet pen input gives you accuracy and sensitivity, while the pressure-touch system is less accurate but allows you to prod at the screen with a finger. The unit also has an integrated light-level sensor, dynamically changing screen brightness in different conditions - a spurious feature on most notebooks but for a no-fuss outdoor unit it's a valuable addition. Light-level thresholds are fully adjustable from maximum brightness to completely off.

Basic specification is perfectly adequate, with an Ultra Low Voltage 1.1GHz Pentium M 733 and, more importantly for general responsiveness, 512MB of system RAM - 16MB of this is given over to the Intel 915GM's integrated graphics chipset by default. The full suite of our benchmarks proved too much for the unit's cooling capabilities, which were unable to complete a meaningful run. While that would be an issue in just about any other system, it's understandable given the form factor and intended purpose of the Itronix.

In use, the Itronix behaves much like any other tablet, although we found the accuracy and responsiveness of the pen input a little erratic. Given that using a Tablet PC still isn't the most effortless experience anyway, it can get pretty frustrating. But for custom field applications designed with touchscreen use in mind, the screen is fine. The Achilles heel is battery life, though, with the unit managing a paltry two hours, 30 minutes under light use with its 3,600mAh battery. Again, it couldn't cope with our intensive-use rundown test.

As far as impacts go, the Itronix really is rugged. It feels so solid we had no worries about dropping it on the floor - which we did several times - even while switched on with the hard drive spinning. Its official Military Standard rating specifies '26 repeated 3ft drops onto pinewood over concrete'. But while it may be rugged, this particular model isn't completely sealed: the external ports - limited to two USB 2, Gigabit Ethernet, modem, audio in/out and docking station connector - are only covered by semi-rubberised flaps, not full plug seals. As such, the Duo-Touch is rated only to withstand blowing rain/water at 4in per hour for ten minutes (according to the US Military Standard) and not total immersion. If you want to use it in very cold environments, though, you can specify a hard disk heater, which takes the cold-start rating down to -20C (without the heater it's rated to 0C).

Although it's expensive considering the specification, we were expecting the Duo-Touch to cost even more. For the peace of mind of a truly tough and capable tablet PC, and one that's been designed not only to be rugged but usable in the field, the Duo-Touch is a very useful device.

Author: David Fearon