This rugged Windows tablet handles mud and rain – but it didn’t impress with the basics

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While laptops and PCs dominate the office space, they aren’t always the best way to unleash computing power outside of the comfort and safety of workstations. This is where the pills come in. Not only are they more portable than laptops or desktops, they are also much easier to use.

Of course, the performance is not as good as what we would expect from a regular system, but thanks to modern processors, the power that can be packed into a tablet is still very impressive.

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I Getac G140 a tablet built from the ground up to be powerful enough to run Microsoft’s Copilot+ AI tools, but also tough enough to withstand Mother Nature’s abuse.

Details

The G140 features a 14-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS LCD touchscreen and an AMD processor from the Ryzen AI 5 and Ryzen AI 7 lines, even the Pro variant, between 16GB and 64GB of DDR5 RAM, up to 2TB of PCIe NVMe SSD storage.

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Powering this are dual replaceable batteries, plenty of built-in ports, DisplayPort, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, Gigabit Ethernet, audio in/out, and the option to add HDMI 2.1 and two USB 2.0 Type-A ports. On the top of the tablet is a port that accepts a barcode reader, a serial port, an HF RFID reader, or a USB 2.0 type A port.

The options are many. There are also mandatory front- and rear-facing cameras, with the front-facing camera having a privacy/protective cover that slides over if you want privacy or are worried about something scratching the lens.

My review unit featured an AMD Ryzen AI 7 Pro CPU with a Radeon 860M GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 500GB of storage, which is close to the top of the G140 sheet.

Built to last

All this technology is packed in a shell designed to pass the MIL-STD-810H environmental tests and the MIL-STD-461G electrical compatibility test, and it is rated IP66, so it is fully protected against the ingress of dust and high-pressure water jets in any direction.

The tablet measures 13.3 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches and weighs 3.95 pounds, so it’s a great weight to hold with one hand. It is also approved for safe use in hazardous areas with explosive atmospheres, as well as in marine environments where salt spray and corrosion are a real problem. Overall, it is perfect for harsh outdoor conditions.

A question of price

All of this hardware runs Windows 11 Pro, and it works very well, as I would expect for a tablet that will set you back around $4,000. It also runs Microsoft Copilot+ features smoothly thanks to the Ryzen AI chip with an NPU capable of running at 50 TOPS.

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But things slow down when we look at the benchmarks. In Cinebench 2024, it scored 433 in multi-core performance and 92 in single-core performance. Not all of this is impressive (my iPhone 17 beats it), but remember it’s a full, no-compromise Windows system you can hold in your hand. It’s about — it weighs about the same as a watermelon.

Good and bad

In terms of performance, I like the G140. Of course, it’s the underdog when it comes to standing results and won’t win any bragging rights. But it’s fast enough, and that’s what counts. It’s built for work, not for running AAA games. The screen is also good enough, although at 1,000 nits, it’s a bit dim in sunlight.

This may be down to the protective film that Getac used on the display, but it has very wide horizontal and vertical viewing angles, which is great, and it does a great job of resisting smudges and dirt. I also like the replaceable batteries. This is great for situations where you won’t be tied to a charging cord.

Durability is also top notch. I’m not going to drive a mini digger with this tablet, but I’ve given it a pretty good workout. It was used in the rain, put in mud and mud, crashed, and abused in a way that these types of machines should be abused.

The downside of the ruggedness is the weight. It’s a great kit. Getac has done this before with various G140 palm grips, but nothing beats how hard it is to grip.

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It’s big too. I know that’s a little obvious — I mean, it’s a 14-inch tablet — but this is bigger than you’d expect because of the big bezels and bumpers. It fits perfectly with two 16-inch MacBook Pros stacked on top.

The buttons on the bezel also take some getting used to. I found myself accidentally pressing them, and it wasn’t something that got better with more use. I could push buttons, but that seemed like an admission of defeat.

ZDNET shopping advice

If you need a sturdy Windows 11 Pro tablet that you can leave in the rain, drop it in the mud, and use it in an oil rig without worrying about salt intake or causing an explosion, The Getac G140 is perfect. But this is a niche device. It’s expensive, bulky, and performance is limited.

You can definitely shop pills are cheap, easy, and powerfulbut these stopped at the first drop or shower. You can also find cheap pills are crapbut you lose functionality and all the optional extras you can add.