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Teguar TRT-3493-12
Flexible, modular rugged tablet solution for stationary or mobile POS or numerous other applications (by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)
Teguar is a catchy name but not necessarily a familiar one when contemplating the purchase of a rugged tablet. That may soon change as the Charlotte, North Carolina, based company is a hard-charging provider of industrial and medical computers that's rapidly moving up on the Inc. 5000 list.
Launched in 2010 by a Swiss native with years of experience in industrial computer systems, Teguar prides itself in combining American adaptability and technological leadership with Swiss precision, quality, and attention to detail. What caught our eye was their new and very polished Intel Apollo Lake-powered rugged 11.6-inch Teguar TRT-3493-12 tablet geared towards numerous Point-Of-Sale application but equally suited for many other fixed/mobile deployments. Below you can see the TRT-3493-12 from the front and all four sides.
But doesn't Teguar mostly specialize in rugged Panel PCs, monitors and All-In-Ones? They do, but the equipment needs of most of their customers go beyond just the above, and it's always good to be able to count on a single point-of-purchase, a vendor one is already familiar with.
What is the Teguar TRT-3493-12 for, and what makes it special and worthy of your consideration? Here's what the TRT-3493-12 is and what it is not. It is a remarkably light and slender 12-inch Windows tablet that can be used with a desktop dock, a vehicle dock, a kiosk dock, mounted on poles and probably in other ways using industry standard mounting systems. The roomy 11.6-inch display offers full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution for a good viewing experience, and the 10-point capacitive multi-touchscreen supports glove and rain modes.
The TRT-3493-12 can, of course, be carried around and used as a mobile POS system or for other mobile tasks. It is not designed to replace full-shift, fully rugged tablets. Those are generally heavier, have more onboard I/O, and have larger batteries. The TRT-3493-12 can be used that way — it can handle plenty of abuse and its 19.5 watt-hour battery is hot-swappable.
Measuring 12.1 by 8.2 inches, the TRT-3493-12 has about the same footprint as Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro. It's technically 1.2 inches thick, but that's because there are two handstrap mounts sticking out. The rest of the tablet's body is just a slender 5/8th of an inch thick. And at just two pounds, the tablet is lithe and handy when carried around.
The body of the TRT-3493-12 is made of hard black plastic. It's functionally yet elegantly designed and contoured, and has integrated black bumpers. Small detail: we'd have liked those to be rubber so as to provide more friction when the tablet is propped against something on a desk, or provide more grip when it's carried around.
This being a Teguar product, the TRT-3493-12 is, of course, strong and tough as nails. The plastic casing feels invulnerable, the display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and inside there is a strong magnesium frame (yes, we peeked inside).
The picture above shows the TRT-3493-12's integrated ports with their rubber plugs held out of the way for a better look: the power jack, a USB 3.0 Type-A port, and a standard 3-1/2mm audio jack. If more is needed, that can be done in one of two ways:
- via vehicle dock/extension cover, which has VESA 75 mounting screw holes, that provides a powered USB port, another USB 3.0 Type-A port, a powered legacy serial DB9 port, a gigabit LAN jack, an HDMI port, and, optionally, external antenna ports for dual LTE and GNSS.
- via docking station where you get the same ports as the Extension Cover plus an additional USB 2.0 Type-A port and a battery charging bay.
The Vehicle Dock
Unlike most consumer and enterprise tablets, the TRT-3493-12 offers an entire ecosystem of dedicated accessories. The available docks, especially, add substantial adaptability of the tablet for any number of not only POS applications, but also other stationary and mobile deployments. The tablet itself is fully optimized for light weight and quick mobile use.
The vehicle dock consists of a very solid aluminum base. The tablet fits into it on the one side, the port extension box is on the other. The tablet can very easily be inserted and removed. It's held in place by a strong spring-loaded latch that can also locked with a thumb-screw.
I/O ports are facing right (DC power, USB 3.0 Type-A, and HDMI) and down (RJ45 LAN, DB9 serial, and powered USB).
While Teguar calls it a vehicle dock, the VESA 75 screw hole pattern on the back of the port extension box provides access to unlimited mounting options in vehicles and anywhere else.
The also available desktop dock provides pretty much the same port expansion, but with angled tablet mount, no VESA pattern, a battery charging bay, and an optional expansion box cover for neater cable routing.
Performance
The TRT-3493-12 is powered by an Intel Pentium N4200E processor, a quad-core design of Intel's "Apollo Lake" series of notebook and tablet CPUs. The Pentium N4200 runs at a base frequency of 1.1GHz and can reach burst speeds up to 2.5GHz. Its thermal design power is just six watts, significantly lower than what mobile Intel Core processors use. The low wattage means that no fan is needed and the TRT-3493-12 operates silently and without air movement that may be an issue in some deployment.
The table below shows the TRT-3493-12's benchmark performance compared to two other Teguar products we recently tested, the high-performance Intel core-based TRT-5280 12-inch tablet and the Teguar TB-3445, a small industrial Box PC.
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Performance
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Teguar
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Teguar
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Teguar
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Model (version tested)
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TRT-3493
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TRT-5280
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TB-3445
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Type
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12" Tablet
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12" Tablet
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IPC
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Year tested
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2022
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2021
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2021
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Processor
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Intel Pentium
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Intel Core
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Intel Celeron
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Processor Model
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N4200E
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i7-8550
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N3350
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CPU Speed
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1.10/2.50 GHz
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1.80/4.00 GHz
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1.10/2.40 GHz
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Cores/Threads
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4/4
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2/4
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2/2
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PassMark 6.1
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2,306
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3,042
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1,211
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PassMark 9
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1,026
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3,689
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879
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- PC Mark 10
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1,237
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3,856
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1,206
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- PC Mark Essentials
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3,100
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7,991
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3,478
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- PC Mark Productivity
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1,573
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6,120
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1,892
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- PC Mark Digital Content
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1,055
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3,181
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2,412
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Geekbench 5 Single Core
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314
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1,080
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318
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Geekbench 5 Multi Core
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1,069
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3,429
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1,155
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Geekbench 5 Open CL
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1,537
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5,742
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720
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What the benchmark results show, primarily, is the substantial gap between Intel Core processor based devices, and those using Intel Atom based processors, even in higher-end Celeron and Pentium versions. It's not a question of what's "better" as that depends entirely on target markets and applications. Though both are ruggedized 12-inch tablets, the general-purpose TRT-5280 Series uses a (costlier) high-performance processor that can handle whatever comes its way. The TRT-3493, on the other hand, is designed as a Point-of-Sale device with much more predictable performance requirements, and the N4200E chip can handle those easily.
What about battery life? While TRT-3493-12 POS units will be used in docks as well as mobile, the primary anticipated use is in docks. So no need for a big, heavy battery; keeping the design sleek and light for occasional tablet-only makes sense. Teguar estimates about four to four-and-a-half hours per charge for the standard display, and the roughly five watt-hour draw we saw on the BatMon power draw utility would affirm that.
Ruggedness
Not all POS tablets are rugged. The TRT-3493-12 is. It can easily handle almost any outdoor deployment. Specs claim MIL-STD-810G compliance for shock/drop, freeze/thaw cycling, thermal shock, and sand and dust resistance. The very wide -14 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (-10° to +50°C) operating temperature range means the system can be used almost anywhere. Ingress protection is at the IP65 level. That means the tablet is fully dustproof and can also handle low pressure water jets from all directions. The display uses high-strength Corning Gorilla Glass.
Bottom line: Teguar TRT-3493-12 rugged tablet
With the TRT-3493, Teguar offers a remarkably versatile mobile computing device. As a tablet, it's slender, light and very handy with a roomy display and plenty of ruggedness to go anywhere (as long as you take along a spare battery or two). The TRT-3493, however, is more than a tablet; it's a modular system that provides plenty of connectivity both via the optional desktop dock as well as the vehicle dock that allows VESA-based mounting virtually anywhere. -- Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, August 2022
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