Saturday, 29 April 2017
Dell Latitude 12 7202 Rugged Tablet
The Dell Latitude 12 Rugged Tablet is not your standard slate – the device is targeted at those who usually slave away on an oil exploration project or work in the Amazonian tropical rainforest (as a biologist maybe).
It is designed to be dropped, bashed about, and generally undergo all sorts of treatment that would pretty much be guaranteed to destroy any consumer-grade tablet. As such, this is no ordinary slate and shouldn’t carry the same expectations as your average model.
That’s also probably why Dell has yet to release a new version – this one has been around for nearly two years and is still being sold despite having a Broadwell-based processor.
Longer product cycles ensure that platforms mature slowly, especially as the capital investments involved are often an order of magnitude bigger compared to the consumer market.
To say that this is a solid tablet would be a massive understatement; it has been designed and manufactured to withstand extreme conditions.
It has IP65, MIL-STD-810G and IP-810G certifications (rather than merely meeting the standards in laboratory tests), and these prove that the Latitude 12 7202 has a thick skin and should give other rugged tablets like the Xplore R12 (iX125 R1) or the Getac RX10 a run for their money.
At 312 x 203 x 24mm, it is fairly large for a tablet with an 11.6-inch display, while its weight – 1.79kg with two 2-cell 26Whr hot-swappable batteries – puts it in the ‘mildly-transportable’ category (as opposed to easily portable). You can only operate this device at arm’s length for only a short time before experiencing muscular discomfort (although your mileage may well vary).
The Latitude 12 is built mostly to withstand harsh environments, not win design contests, which explains a lot of pragmatic/functional decisions made by Dell.
There are massive rubber bumpers on the corners and the rubber enclosure itself is a couple of centimetres thick in order to protect the screen, arguably the most fragile component. The latter is also protected by the use of Gorilla Glass 3 technology in its construction.
Look around the tablet and you will find that most ports are covered with rubber flaps to prevent damage. Opening and closing them will be an issue if you wear gloves and it is worth noting that they can’t be locked. Dell also used a patented HZO liquid protection technology to stop water from killing your tech.
Default ports include USB 3.0, micro-serial port, mini-HDMI, microSD card reader, an audio combo connector and the power connector, which can be used with other compatible 45W Dell laptop power adaptors (like the one on the 2015 edition of Dell’s XPS 13).
Given the varied markets the Latitude 12 is expected to operate in, the tablet has an extensive range of connectors as well, including POGO-pin ports for a docking keyboard and a modular expansion pack.
A FIPS 201-certified smart card reader (with a nifty unit conversion cheat card), a fingerprint reader with TPM (v1.2), Bluetooth 4.0, Dual RF pass-through (Wi-Fi and mobile broadband), NFC, a 4G/LTE modem and 802.11ac Wi-Fi complete the list of connectivity options.
Note also the presence of air vents to cool the device. Even if that sounds counterintuitive given the rugged nature of this tablet, these slits doesn’t prevent it from being reasonably water-resistant. Dell uses a proprietary fan-based thermal management system that combines both passive and active cooling to keep the slate cool.
During our hands-on time with the device, the fan did work for reasonably long spells and we noticed that the tablet warmed up significantly, especially under load.
As expected, all the physical buttons (power, Windows, volume up/down, three programmable buttons and auto-rotate) require far more pressure to register than traditional tablets out there. Not only does that prevent accidental inputs, it also makes them easier to work with gloves. We further appreciated the fact that pressing the buttons causes the device to buzz and vibrate, so you know they’ve been pressed.
The tethered stylus slots nicely in the body of the tablet. It’s not as stylish as the active models, but at least you don’t have to charge it regularly and the pen will work regardless of the immediate environment.
At the heart of the Dell Latitude 12 7202 is the Broadwell-based Intel Core M-5Y71 CPU, a dual-core processor with a tiny 4.5W TDP and a base clock speed of 1.2GHz. It can overclock to 2.5GHz and down-clock to 800Mhz. The graphics subsystem is Intel’s HD Graphics 5300.
Our sample came with 8GB of dual-channel LPDDR3 1600MHz memory and a 128GB SSD (an M.2 2280 model from Lite-On) which was half full. There are two cameras with the front one sporting an interesting flap that allows the user to physically obstruct the lens.
The display, a glove-capable 11.6-inch 10-point multi-touch resistive screen, has a 1366 x 768 pixel resolution which is low, but this can be explained by the fact that, in the markets targeted by the Latitude 12, accuracy and battery life are far more important than the need to cram in as many pixels as possible.
The screen is not as bright as one would expect, although it does a decent job outside thanks to its matte finish. The tablet runs Windows 10 Pro and carries Dell’s solid three-year ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service as default.
Oddly, while Dell included a full array of its own applications (Data Protection, Backup and Recovery, Rugged Control Center etc), there were also a couple of surprising additions like Deezer and Candy Crush Soda Saga; hardly enterprise-grade applications.
In use, the older Broadwell processor posted a decent score in our benchmark testing, although one can only wonder what a Kaby Lake upgrade might bring to the tablet (for a hint, check out the Xplore R12 which boasts a far faster Core i7-7500U Kaby Lake CPU).
The storage could also use an upgrade from a 128GB SSD. The limited capacity and lack of free space could explain why the Lite-On drive performs poorly on CrystalDiskMark and Atto in write tests (as opposed to read).
As for the battery life, the Latitude 12 7202 managed 4 hours 26 minutes with 27% battery left on our standard test (streaming a YouTube count-up video with brightness set to 50%). Extrapolating that number, one can expect the tablet to last just over six hours.
Early verdict
Dell sells the Latitude 12 7202 with two batteries for £1,599 (around $2,040, AU$2,700) excluding VAT and delivery. Options worth mentioning include a self-encrypted drive, a desktop dock, kickstand, keyboard cover with a kickstand, an extended IO module and a scanner module.
Compared to the competition, this is almost a bargain although we suspect that Dell is currently doing a bit of a clear-out – the device carries an official SRP of £2,284 (around $2,920, AU$3,860).
There are some issues here, as we’ve discussed – like a small SSD and an older-generation CPU – but these flaws can’t distract from the value proposition represented by this tablet at the current price.
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Friday, 28 April 2017
Inside the extreme science Logitech uses to build gaming mice
Logitech is one of those names you’ll probably find all over your house. Whether it’s a mouse or keyboard, your universal remote, computer speakers or a webcam – Logitech makes a lot of things. However, one of the company’s biggest divisions is gaming, which produces many of the peripherals you’ll find in eSports today.
Beyond making gaming gear for professional players, though, there’s a far richer history and and development process behind every device Logitech G produces.
Logitech first planted its roots in gaming more than 20 years starting with the original Wingman joystick that released in 1995. A few years later, the company debuted their first Wingman gaming mouse in 1998, which sparked their history of excessively engineered experience. This bear-claw shaped peripheral came with a custom driver and USB port giving it a five-times faster reporting rate than any PS2-port connected mouse at the time.
Gamers consider a number of Logitech peripherals to be legendary, including the MX518 gaming mouse and G15 gaming keyboard. Most recently, the G900 Chaos Spectrum has been heralded as the ultimate wireless gaming mouse by ourselves among many others.
To make a peripheral as good as the Logitech G900, the company goes through a painstaking process of engineering and testing that’s on the level of NASA or any other research facility. While on a trip to the West Coast, we were invited to see some of this process at Logitech’s office in Newark, California.
Wireless perfected
At the heart of the G900 is a new Lightspeed Wireless module that not only produces a strong signal but is designed to be faster than a wired connection.
Obviously, such a feat requires a lot of testing.
So to this end, Logitech rolled the mouse around a giant wheel for weeks on end to monitor its performance. All while it the team simulated some of the harshest radio signal saturated situations. This was done to see how it stood up against its own wired performance and against other wireless mice competitors.
In another test, Chris Pate, Portfolio Manager, went on to explain just how their mice are tested for tracking speed with a catapult.
“It goes up to a little over 500 inches per second and it still can’t break the sensor–” Pate says. “It’s far beyond what a human can do, not without breaking ligaments and stuff.”
The human touch
That’s just a few examples of the of extreme testing that happens at Logitech. However, beyond the machine and synthetic testing, Logitech also has a room set aside for eSports players to come in and give feedback on peripherals still in development.
“When you ask them about comfort they’ll palm the whole thing and when they play they’ll keep changing their grip constantly,” Ujesh Desai, vice president and general manager of Logitech G says.
“Sometimes they’ll verbalize this, some are better at communicating than others,” he says. “So you kind of have to just watch them and just by seeing their actions, you can figure out whether they like the product or not.”
The eSports room is a recent development and originally began as a training space to accommodate players traveling to the west for events. Since then, the added human input has been invaluable for Logitech and was crucial for the launch of the G303 Daedalus Apex.
“It was two months before we were going to get ready to launch, we sent it out to and we got feedback that they really didn’t like part of the shape,” Desai recalled. “So we literally delayed the launch to go fix that.”
All of this testing is a big point of pride for Logitech and it shows in the products that have been widely regarded by professionals gamers and regular users.
“Why do we test to this crazy amount?” Desai asked. “We just believe in having the best science period.”
Welcome to TechRadar’s 3rd annual PC Gaming Week, celebrating the almighty gaming PC with in-depth interviews, previews, reviews and features about one of the TechRadar team’s favorite pastimes. Missed a day? Check out our constantly updated hub article to see all of our coverage in one place.
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Acer's Mixed Reality HMD, Hands On
Acer’s new Mixed Reality Developer HMD may be somewhat misleading with its nomenclature, but the new virtual reality headset certainly turned heads at the company’s annual Next@Acer event. We were able to get some sparse details of the HMD at GDC, but Acer filled us in on the full specifications and let us see its capabilities for ourselves.
Specifications
The Acer Mixed Reality Developer HMD features a 2880 x 1440 (1440 x 1440 per eye) display with up to a 90Hz refresh rate. The term “up to” was used to describe the refresh rate, and we can take this to mean that it will also operate at 60Hz depending on the HDMI output of the host PC (HDMI 1.4 laptops, for example). The display is also hinged and can be lifted away from your face in case you want to sip a drink or take a look at the real world without removing the headset.
The inside-out tracking is provided by the two sensors in the front of the HMD, which detect the space around you in order to achieve room-scale 6DoF. However,
they don’t have a passthrough to import the environment into a mixed reality experience.
The headset supports audio output and microphone input via a 3.5mm combo jack and also sports an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and a proximity sensor. The HMD connects to a PC via a single HDMI 2.0/USB 3.0 cable, and it’s compatible with an Xbox controller.
Minimum Requirements
Acer representatives told us that the Acer Mixed Reality Developer HMD requires a PC with the minimum requirements, which were previously disclosed (and pictured below). The PC also needs the Windows 10 Creators update.
Calibrating The Height
Because of my abov
e-average height (6’7”) I had to calibrate the height of the headset before I used it. The Acer rep input my height into the PC. Then I had to hold the HMD at eye level for a ten-second countdown. After it completed, the program asked if we wanted to retrace the room scale environment, but we skipped that part. However, we were told that the HMD is used to trace the play space with a similar software-guided procedure.
Comfortable Fit, No IPD Adjustment
The headset is easy to put on, with a forehead support and adjustable push-button strap that makes the Acer Mixed Reality Development HMD fit comfortably on your head, with the weight distributed evenly (it’s not clumsy). However, the lack of IPD (interpupillary distance) adjustment makes properly lining up the lenses somewhat difficult; you just have to adjust the headset until it appears clearest.
The strap itself was somewhat flimsy and hard to set in place, but Acer assured us the final version would be getting an adjustment knob to make it easier. Once I had the HMD properly fit, we launched into our first Windows 10 Mixed Reality demo.
Swanky Apartmen
t, Windows Universal Apps
We weren’t allowed to take pictures or screen caps of the virtual environment, so you’ll have to use your imagination a bit as I describe my experience. The virtual operating system takes the form of a swanky modern condo, complete with an office and a balcony with a view. We were instructed to teleport to the balcony using the Xbox controller and then “enter” a program (which hung in space along the wall). It loaded a 360-degree video that had been filmed on top of a helmet worn by skier. Suddenly I was racing down the slope of a mountain with another skier, which was somewhat nauseating. However, the video was highly detailed, and swinging my arms made the nausea subside (a matched physical interaction with what your eyes see generally helps this).
I was instructed to return to the previous room and load a program that could take me to different locations. After a long loading time (I lifted the display away from my face to chat with the Acer rep for a good minute), I found myself on a hot air balloon above a beautiful European city. The scene was highly detailed (explaining the long loading time), and I was able to walk to the edge of the balloon and look down at the awe-inspiring city.
Other Thoughts
I found Acer’s Mixed Reality HMD to be strikingly similar to the Oculus Rift at its retail launch in both functionality and performance. It doesn’t currently have tracked controllers and relies on an Xbox controller to let you navigate the OS and programs. This limits the immersion of the experience, but the Acer Mixed Reality HMD could support tracked controllers in the future. When we asked if Acer was working on its own controller, the company declined to comment. However, it’s almost axiomatic that Acer would develop its own controller for its own HMD, and we could see a similar or better implementation down the line.
The resolution and framerate wasn’t as rich as more expensive HMDs, but it wasn’t decidedly bad, either. There were some slight tracking jitters as I purposely attempted to bog down performance by rapidly looking around, but they were seldom and didn’t cause me any discomfort.
Acer’s headset features a similar boundary system as the Rift and Vive, and I occasionally made use of it by stepping out of the playable area. When you get close to the boundary with Acer’s device, the image around you totally disappears and a gridded floor appears, totally breaking the immersion. Stepping back into the playable area brings the virtual environment back.
Lowering The Cost Of Entry
From its name alone, we were expecting the Acer Mixed Reality HMD to offer a mixed reality experience. However, we can now conclude that the device is more similar to an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive than a less-expensive version of the Microsoft HoloLens, with an occluded display that lacks camera passthrough that would deliver a true mixed reality experience (as we would define it). However, it does borrow from the HoloLens with the inside-out 6DoF tracking, which is a big deal, even for a tethered device.
The Xbox controller was familiar enough that figuring out how to navigate wasn’t difficult, but tracked controllers would undoubtedly add to the immersion. Room-scale playability almost seems incomplete without tracked controllers, and we hope there’s a solution for that forthcoming. The chaperone-like system is a means to an end, but the image disappears and completely breaks the immersion when you step out of bounds.
Our brief demo gave us a taste of what’s next from Acer, and we’re excited to see less-expensive options for VR HMDS hitting the market. We’ll have to reserve full judgement of the Acer Mixed Reality HMD until we can give it a proper review, but we’re impressed with the overall comfort, performance, and implementation of the 6DoF tracking.
|
Product |
Acer Mixed Reality Head-Mounted Display |
|---|---|
|
Operating System |
Windows 10 R2 |
|
Display |
2880 x 1440 (1440 x 1440 per eye) LCD |
|
Refresh Rate |
Up to 90Hz |
|
Audio |
3.5mm Combo Jack |
|
Tracking |
Inside Out |
|
Connection |
– HDMI 2.0 – USB 3.0 |
|
Sensors |
Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Proximity Sensor |
|
Dimensions (L x W x H) |
195.8 x 94.8 x 106.59 mm |
|
Weight |
350 grams |
The post Acer's Mixed Reality HMD, Hands On appeared first on Gigarefurb Refurbished Laptops News.
source https://news.gigarefurb.co.uk/acers-mixed-reality-hmd-hands-on/