If your department is planning on utilizing tablets, you'll have to make the decision between Rugged and Consumer grade tablets. Here are a few things to keep in mind during your decision making process with regards to which tablet to deploy.

Panasonic put together a great infographic about the benefits of using a rugged tablet vs a consumer grade tablet, click here to check it out!

Cost of Ownership

While they may be significantly cheaper to purchase, consumer grade tablets will suffer from a much higher failure rate than their ruggedized counterparts. This will not only cost your department more money in replacements and repairs in the long run, significantly raising cost of ownership, but will also lead to increased downtime while dealing with failures which can seriously hinder productivity. 

Ability to be used under direct sunlight

Consumer grade tablets are great for curling up on the couch and attempting to beat that next level of Candy Crush, however most public sector and enterprise users are not using their tablets in these controlled environments. Police officers, for instance, are using their tablets outside or in their cruiser more often than not, and direct sunlight can make it nearly impossible to see the screen on a consumer grade tablet. Because of the technology used in ruggedized tablet screens, they provide significantly better viewability under direct sunlight, allowing users to be productive in just about any environment.

Security

Toughpads offer a higher level of security than your average commercial grade tablet by including a TPM (trusted platform module) chip which stores encryption keys that allow for hardware authentication. This enables secure, encrypted transmission of data – something that you simply won’t get with your iPad. This can be a major concern, especially when it comes to EMS/healthcare workers bound by HIPAA regulations and police officers transmitting sensitive information to a secured server.

Operating System

The Toughpad FZ-G1 and FZ-M1 both run a full version of Microsoft Windows. If your software will only work on Windows, iPads are out of the question. For Android users, Panasonic offers the Toughpad FZ-B2 with software encryption for enterprise-grade security and management, ensuring that you aren't stuck with a consumer-grade tablet which doesn't provide the durability or security you require.

Performance

Your average commercial grade tablet is not built to be running full applications that are designed for desktop and laptop computers. Trying to load one of these programs on your average tablet will lead to serious performance issues, hindering productivity and making for an extremely frustrating user experience. The processors and memory in a Toughpad are comparable to what you would find in a laptop, allowing you to effortlessly run the resource heavy applications required to get the job done.

Available Features

Consumer grade tablets are extremely limited when it comes to features. Before making the decision to purchase, consider whether or not you will require features such as USB ports, a SmartCard reader, a Magstripe reader, a barcode scanner, dual pass, or any of the options available on Toughpads, as you won’t get them on an iPad or most consumer grade tablets. There are also a lot more vehicle mounting options available which have been customized for Toughpads, allowing you to make sure you get a solution which fits your individual needs.

Durability

Toughpads are built to take a beating. What would render an iPad completely useless such as a 4 foot drop, extreme weather conditions, and vibrations from being mounted in a vehicle just to name a few, a Toughpad would shrug off and keep on trucking. Toughpads boast a MIL-STD-810G rating, meaning they’re designed and tested to take a beating, and the all-weather IP65 rating means that they are water and dust resistant and won’t let you down because of a little rain.

Tablets are great, provided you take everything into consideration

We’ve seen a good number of departments make the move to tablets. With a smaller footprint than a full sized laptop, they’re a great solution to provide extra mobility. Don’t be fooled by the lower price tag on commercial grade tablets though, your department/company needs a product that will continue to fulfill your needs for years to come, and rugged tablets are built to do just that.

Has your department considered making the move to tablets? Has the higher price tag on rugged models pushed you towards consumer-grade tablets or are the rugged features of the Toughpad to good to pass up?