Ever since the company's start (initially as "Mobile Oasis") in 2003, MobileDemand specialized on rugged tablet PCs and nothing but rugged tablet PCs. Well, there were the C1200/C1300 rugged convertibles, but other than that, it was all rugged tablet PCs. Even MobileDemand's website is ruggedtabletpc.com. But now, in March 2019, MobileDemand introduced its first-ever rugged handheld, the xTablet A680 Handheld.
It's a handsome, nicely designed 6-inch device running Android 8.1. Which means that as far as the display goes, the A680 is at the current high end of smartphone screen size and just an inch below MobileDemand's erstwhile best-selling xTablet T7200. Extra-large handhelds are sometimes referred to as "phablets," perhaps not the greatest ever term, and MobileDemand stayed away from it by officially calling the A680 a "rugged handheld tablet."
And a handheld tablet really is what it is, the A680. Its footprint of 7.3 x 3.7 inches is a good bit larger than that of even the largest smartphones, and it's more substantial, too. That's because the A680 is a rugged device with proper protection, and also because it accommodates an industrial-grade 1D/2D Honeywell N3680 barcode reader and has a battery nearly twice as powerful as that in an iPhone XS Max.
As far as tech credentials go, the A680 is powered by a quad-core 64-bit MediaTek MT8735B processor that uses four ARM Cortex-A53 cores plus a Mali T720 graphics processor. This is a tried-and-true workhorse chip that's used in a variety of rugged handhelds and small tablets. There's 2GB of RAM and 16GB of Flash storage. The latter can be augmented with up to 128GB via micro-SD card.
The 6-inch IPS display has 720 x 1280 pixel resolution. That makes for 245 pixels per inch, not in the bleeding-edge smartphone league but plenty sharp enough for the intended use of the A680. 430 nits luminance is about twice that of a standard laptop, and in the general smartphone category.
Until the recent availability of its Android-based xTablet A1150, MobileDemand was strictly a provider of Microsoft Windows tablet. Given the commanding marketshare of Android in smartphones, and being a handheld device, the xTablet A680 comes with Android 8.1, the most recent version with wide release. And it's the GMS (Google Mobile Services) version of Android that includes the popular Google apps (usually Chrome, YouTube, GMail, Maps, Photos, Play Store, etc.).
Android makes sense because almost everyone is familiar with it (which means less training required) and also because a 6-inch display would be too small for Windows 10.
One additional aspect that MobileDemand addressed with the A680: it is one of the first GMS EU and EEA ready devices. This is important as in late 2018 Google changed its licensing agreements in response to new European Commission requirements.
As far as ruggedness goes, the nicely protected xTablet A680 checks all the boxes required for its intended deployments. 4-foot drop, wide temperature range, IP65 sealed, etc.
The price? US$995, including the Honeywell scanner. That's less than a premium consumer smartphone and quite a deal. -- Conrad Blickenstorfer, March 2019
