Cheap Rugged PDA’s – Our Best Picks

24 02 2012
So to round off our series talking about Cheap Rugged PDA’s I thought i’s actually give you some pointers as to what’s out there and what can be viable option for you if you need to save money on your hardware.  Remember all of these rugged handhelds have been thoroughly tested by us, are serviced and repaired by us, in fact they’re cared more by us than our own family (or have I just been spending too much time with these things!!).

Lightweight Rugged PDA

Dotel H300

This is the most popular class for us and contains prestige brand devices such as the Motorola MC65, Intemrec CN50, Psion EP10.  Our best picks here are:

Dotel H300, this is a superb slim Li-Polymer batteried device that just works.  It’s easy and cheap to repair, uses nice rugged plastics has great ergonomics and has a bang up to date spec.  It also has the option of being upgradable after you buy so you don;lt have to make expensive decisions about the bar code scanner just yet.  This is the cheapest device you will find at this price, in fact so cheap people buying Semi Rugged are considering this and the price includes all your leads and a cradle.

Pidion BIP-5000, Slightly aging device but regardless of a replacement in the pipeline now, this device will still be around for a couple of years yet.  It has a great base spec, has a slightly quirky keyboard and just lacks fast 3G but everything else is more than adequate.  Mature and it makes for a great buy, but we’d go for the Dotel right now being frank about it.

Heavy Rugged PDA

The Pidion BIP-6000 is the best value for money in the middle weight Rugged PDA class. Highly specced, very tough with the best battery we have tested. - Main ImageThis category is where the MC75A sits along with the Intermec CN70, Psion Ikon etc.  There is one device here that really beats the opposition up, the Pidion BIP-6000.  This is a mature, well specced device that has been around for years in some guise or another.  A good sign with Rugged PDA’s is if the design has been consistent with multiple upgrades to keep it current and the BIP-6000 is just that.  It was the first RUgged PDA to have built-in RFID and is the best RFID reader/write you will find and it is also the first to have an Android option.  In fact many people considering MC65′s buy these because the BIP-6000 is cheaper and far better than it’s rivals in our opinion.  This device is a real steal.

Established quality manufacturer, the Dolphin 6000 is no exception. Fully featured small rugged PDA with the lowest price point in its category. - Main ImageSmall Rugged PDA

These sport 2.8″ LCD’s, are small but still contain bar code scanners.  Intermec CS40, Opticon H21 are noth here.  This is where we think GaneData have it right.  The GX8010 is a super low-budget device with a very basic spec but the GX8900 GSMART is superb, fully featured and all in a great small package.  Honeywell recently released the Dolphin 6000 so the bigger bands are trying to geta piece of the action now and to be honest we’d choose a Dolphin 6000 over a CS40 any day and they’re half the price!

The Pidion BM170 with FREE Commercial Vehicle Charger. High spec, low price and probably the most attractive semi rugged PDA on the market. - Main ImageSemi-Rugged

Although the Pidion BM170 isn’t any cheaper than the ES400 it still represents a far cheapr option in the medium to long term.  ES400′s are like a rash, everyone sells them, they are being sold at too low margins and as such it’s all falling apart when it comes to help and support.  THe BM170 has a roadmap, guarantees parts regardless of which service plan you have and it will also cost you half for any repair and it’ll be fixed quicker too.  THe BM170 is a proper rugged PDA that’s semi rugged, whereas the ES400 is a durable smart phone.

The Dotel H300 also features here.  You can have an ES400 specced device which gives you a superb fully rugged Device for only little bit more.

Mobile Printers

The classic 3″ Fully rugged mobile printer will set you back over £600 if you buy Zebra, a little less for a Datamax but at least you get a better printer.  However if money is tight then Woosim’s WSP range offer 2,3,4″ fully rugged printers with IP54 at a fraction of the price, in fact half the price.  Parts are string, repairs are far cheaper and quicker and if you want something even cheaper, then go for their semi rugged range instead.

All of the above products are ones that won’t let you down and that are designed to be quickly supported and repaired when needed.  The products themselves are also more than comparable with good quality parts and great functionality.  If we were talking cars then these devices would the Fords of the market not the cheap Chinese copies so next time you;rei n the market for something come talk to us and take a good look at some of the alternative kit you can buy.

Woosim Mobile Printers Come in All Shapes and Sizes

Woosim Mobile Printers Come in All Shapes and Sizes

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Cheap Rugged PDA’s with Great Repair Services

23 02 2012
Rugged PDA Repair

Cheaper Rugged PDA Repair services are a lot better these days than you think.

Continuing this weeks theme of looking into why Cheaper Rugged PDA’s aren’t actually a bad deal or a risk these days, I’ve been tasked with talking about the repair and service element.  This has been a classic area that has let down the non “Prestige Brand” Rugged PDA’s, especially from Korea, USA and China but this is no longer any issue any more.

What I’m going to do is share our experience of selling a prestige brand against 1 or 2 of the cheaper brands and lay out the facts for you to decide and I’ll do this by looking at a few typical scenarios that you will experience after buying a Rugged Handheld.  We’ll take the leading brand (leading brands are always there to be shot down in my view!) and 2 of the cheaper brands we sell very successfully here, Pidion and Dotel.

Comparing Warranty Services

Warranty level services cover a few eventualities.  All Rugged PDA’s come with at least 12 months warranty but it doesn;t cover you for much other than defects of the device.  If the device stops working and its a defect of say the touch screen then it will be covered under warranty.  Warranty repairs also covers devices that are out of warranty and require an ad hoc repair and a device that is in warranty but requires a repair that is not covered by the warranty itself, IE a cracked screen.  In every case you get treated the same.

Here’s a table showing ACTUAL average days turn around, average price for a cracked screen and reporting and communication level you get with some devices.

  Turn Around LCD Cost Report Communication Parts G’tee
Motorola ES400 13 days £355 No Email, 3-4 day turnaround 0
Intermec CK3 10 days             £400+  On request Better, 1-2 day email  0
Motorola, MC55/65 12 days £365 No Email, 3-4 day turnaround 0
           
Pidion BM170 4 days £180 Full Direct, same day, possibly live 3 years
Pidion BIP-5000 4 days £190  Full  Direct, same day, possibly live 5 Years
Dotel H300 4 days £170 Full Direct, same day, possibly live 3 Years
           

The parts G’tee is how many years parts for repairs will be g’teed for once the device goes end of life without a service contract.  Lastly I would mention that Motorola’s ES400 is by far the most troublesome PDA we sell with way more returns than anything else we sell.  Maybe it’s because its being mis-sold generally as a Rugged PDA or maybe it’s just poor but facts are facts.

Comparing Comprehensive Services

Comprehensive Services are the service packs you can buy to add accidental, wear and tear and better SLA’s to your service.  Again a table below with the same devices shows our experience of various brands comparable service plans to Service form the start Bronze.

  Turn Around Report Communication Parts G’tee
Motorola ES400 5-7 days No Email, 3-4 day turnaround 5
Intermec CK3 5-7 days  On request Better, 1-2 day email  5
Motorola, MC55/65 5-7 days No Email, 3-4 day turnaround 5
         
Pidion BM170 1-3 days Full Direct, same day, live chat and telephone 5 years
Pidion BIP-5000 1-3 days Full  Direct, same day, live chat and telephone 5 Years
Dotel H300 1-3 days Full Direct, same day, live chat and telephone 5 years

In this case we count the turn around time as the full-time it takes to send and get your device back.  In the case of Premium brands with central repair centres you have to either send to a different country or there is a step point to send to which adds time on to delivery.  PidionCare and Dotel Responce services even have repairs sent out same day in some cases and can offer a range of services for sending back such as pre-noon or pre- 9am.

Not as some would have you believe hey?

Other points

There are a lots of other points too, such as if an SLA is missed by Motorola or Intermec, Psion or anyone elese for that matter it’s tough.  Read the small print, you get nothing.  With our Pidion and Dotel service and others we deliver, you get a penalty refund of some nature appropriate to the issue at hand.

Also some issues can be more complex than others.  With us you talk to your account manager and can talk technical directly with us.  Try that with the larger brands and see where you get!!

Conclusion

I think the days of the big cost cutting central/eastern european service centres are over.  The market we live in now requires more intimacy, more innovation and better access to a passion and expertise about kit that’s sold.  I think resellers should be held responsible for what they sell more and more and more customers are realising this.  Next time you buy a Rugged PDA, think about the service you will actually get opposed to what’s written on a spec sheet.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Why Cheap Rugged PDA’s are Better Than Ever!

21 02 2012
Only got £600 to spend on your Rugged PDA?

Only got £600 to spend on your Rugged PDA?

So today we’re talking about “Cheap Rugged PDA’s“.  Before I go on I have been purposely using the word “cheap” because these PDA’s represent phenomenal value for money and the phrase “Cheap Rugged PDA” is what people look for in Google!  We don’t sell Tat here, everything still has to qualify for the main rugged criteria which haven’t changed:

  • Physically Rugged on paper and by design
  • Good roadmaps and available parts
  • Good support, decent warranty repair service and service products
  • Decent range of accessories

What does cheap mean?

Well for a start cheap means substantially less money than the main brands we here about.  At the end of the day most of the branded Rugged PDA’s use the same chips, the same or very similar components and very few seem to have any USP’s these days.  In fact many of the best known Semi-rugged PDA’s are pretty cheap when you open them up and take a look anyway.

To be a cheap rugged PDA here we look for a price of between £500-600 and this has to include all the leads and cradle in the box so it’s usable straight the way.  To put this into comparison with Motorola you would generally pay over £900 for an MC65 but you also have to buy a charge solution for about £60 on top of that to even charge it up!  Intermec it’s worse, you don’t even get the battery included in the price.  You have to watch put for these caveats and your reseller should always be pointing this out early on.

With a Dotel H300 for instance you get a rugged PDA with many great USP’s and for about £600 including cradle, all leads and 2 LI-POLYMER batteries!

Semi Rugged is also cheap

Yes, well you can buy a Pidion BM170 or Motorola ES400 for around £400 these days but these devices aren’t going to give you a solid platform in a lot of cases.  You have to understand that you are making compromises with a semi-rugged device and with the ES400 resellers are making no margin on a product that is as complex as a rugged PDA.  You don’t need me to tell you where you end up with that recipe!

Buying branded semi rugged is more of a risk than buying a cheaper brand Rugged PDA because with an ES400 you won’t have the reseller dedication and services available which you will with say a Pidion or Dotel.

Cheap Rugged PDA’s all have poor service

If we went back 1 or 2 years I’d agree.  But here I think our Pidion and Dotel service is a best kept secret where our customers get 24 hour repairs, under 5 day warranty repairs, access to account managers with great communication and all at great pricing, now better than branded service plans and repair costs.

It’s not about the hardware you buy any more, it’s about the service that keeps you running.

Cheaper Rugged PDA’s use cheaper components

OK, lest talk about the Dotel H300 which is a lightweight Rugged PDA which we’ll talk about in the next post in more depth.  This has an XScale PXA320 CPU, Qualcomm HSUPA or Edge chip, Summit WiFi chip, Opticon and Adaptus scanners, Sirf3 GPS and 2.1 BT.  Add to that lithium Polymer batteries, a casing that is reminiscent of an Intermec CN50 and service that Motorola and Intermec can’t touch and we think we’ve got this question covered!

They never have good accessories

Well actually they do.  The Pidion range of PDA’s for example have as much, if not more accessories than their Motorola or Intermec counterparts and guess what, we fabricate and make our own accessories and probably add at least 1 every couple of months.  We also have a network of partners who make cases for us, LCD protectors and all kinds of accessories that are off the price list!.  We even have people who re-design the straps on some products.

In conclusion it is now very clear that branded Rugged PDA’s have slowly but surely been pandering to the big resellers and forgetting about the little one.  This has definitely had the effect of polarizing the market so you get a lot of people who champion products they know nothing about and palm off all the post sales services back in to the Manufacturer.  Big companies treat people like numbers and it;s the smaller resellers who have worked hard to adopt products that are forging the way ahead now, innovating, customizing and providing superb service all round.

Tomorrow we’ll do PDA showdown to see just how well “cheap” stands up against 2 well-known PDA’s!

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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5 Great Reasons to buy a Rugged PDA Case

14 02 2012
Rugged PDA Case Styles

Rugged PDA Cases can provide lots of benefits

We’re all suffering a bit from writers block this morning so one thing I’ve been thinking of writing about for a while is the purpose behind a Rugged PDA case.

Why do you need a case if the PDA is rugged from the start?  Well there are a number of different reasons and i’ll list them here.

1. Extra Ruggedness

Believe it or not a rugged PDA still has weaknesses, what about the screen when not in use?  A case will sort that!  Also being in case will stop you dropping your device too.

2. Ergonomics

Cases can offer extra straps, handles, stylus or pen holders, belt clips and tethers offering many different ways to use the device.  Different types of case can offer ergonmics of use for your particular scenario.

3. Carrying and transport

Cases can be clipped to belts, hung from shoulder straps, carried with a handle or offer protection whilst in the toolbox.

4. Extended device protection

A good case will stop your rugged pda from aging, protecting against general wear and tear and scratches which means your devices could be worth more at the end of their life with you or even last longer.

5. Less opportunity to lose

Because the case is usually clipped to you or carried with a strap, it’s far less likely you’ll put the rugged DPA down and lose the device.

 

We sell a range of manufactruer and bespoke unique cases here at Rugged and Mobile, we can even design them for you with logo’s and bespoke design.  Come talk to us anytime about cases as they can really make a difference.

www.ruggedandmobile.com

 


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Disabling Predictive Text on the Motorola ES400

13 02 2012
ES400 Using Predictive Text

ES400 Using Predictive Text

We have had an awful lot of people ask us this and in a nutshell there is no way you can switch of Predictive text on the Motorola ES400.  However there are a couple of solutions to this we discuss right here.

Solution 1

It’s all down to a registry key and despite not being implemented in the OS, the ES400 does have the regostry key that you can use to turn predictive text functionality on or off.

Use a Windows Mobile remote registry application to open up the registry on the Motorola ES400.  Then browse to:

HKLU -Control Panel – SIP

Change the SuggWords Key word to 0 to switch off, or 4 to switch back on.  The original value seems to be 4 but we found that 1 also worked to switch it on.

Works for us a dream!

Solution 2

For those of you that find registries and tweaking semi rugged PDA’s a little bit confusing then we can supply 2 CAB files that you simply copy to your ES400, run the one called ON to swicth T9 on, Run the 1 called OFF to swicth it off!  Simple!

Give us a shout in the comments below or email us and we’ll send you the CABs.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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