Not all jobs happen in the safe and cushy confines of an office. The DT Research DT302RP (starts at $1,549; $3,248 as tested) is a rugged tablet PC that’s built for all those other environments where basic laptops can’t go: a messy outdoor worksite, a factory floor, a warzone, or an emergency response vehicle. The 10.1-inch tablet takes durability to the extreme, with an armored chassis and a hyper-functional design that lets you work wherever you need to work, rain or shine, hot or cold, even in brutal conditions.Configurations and Pricing: A Deluge of OptionsDT Research offers the DT302RP with several different load-outs. The base model, which comes with an Intel Core i5-1335U, 16GB of memory, 512GB of solid-state storage, and Windows 11, sells for $1,847.99 through CDW. However, you can find custom models with more entry-level parts inside at AVADirect starting at $1,549, which contains a seldom-seen Intel Core U300, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD.
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(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Our review unit steps up way past both options mentioned above to an Intel Core i7-1355U processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, selling for $3,248.But the hardware inside isn’t the whole story. This is a tablet made for functionality, and you can add plenty through an array of accessories and add-ons. Available handles and carry straps let you grab and go, 4G modules let you stay connected without Wi-Fi, cradles let you seamlessly switch to a desk or vehicle dock, and GPS enables you to get location data anywhere you need to go. You can even bump up the battery from 45 watts (45W) to 60W or 90W battery packs, complete with chargers that can handle several batteries at a time.
Design: Purpose-Built for DurabilityThe DT302RP is a 10-inch tablet that is easily held, whether in your bare hands, by using the secure carry strap on the back of the system, or by grabbing it with the sturdy mounted handle that runs along the edge of the tablet.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Made for applications way outside of the office, whether that is emergency medical response work at a construction site or on a factory floor, or coordinating movements on the battlefield, this is one of a long line of rugged systems made to survive the kind of environmental hazards that make the average machine quake in its boots.Whether it’s moisture, dust, extreme temperatures, vibration, shock, humidity, or water from rain or spills—it even has a microbial coating to stop germ spread—it’s safe to say that the tablet earns its rugged designation. Specifically, the DT302RP passes MIL-STD-810G requirements for shock and vibration protection, and it’s IP65-rated for water and dust resistance.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The chassis is made from a lightweight magnesium-aluminum alloy, which is both light for easy carrying and tough enough to stand up to all sorts of abuse. The tablet measures 7.7 by 10.7 by 0.79 inches, which is notably slimmer than most rugged tablets. Its 3-pound weight is heavy for a 10-inch tablet but not for one that is so heavily armored. Safeguards against all sorts of environmental hazards are built into the tablet along with specialized controls that work well with gloved hands and the other vagaries of a rough-and-tumble profession.One other cool design feature is an integrated kickstand that lets you prop up the tablet for use on any table or other flat surface. The kickstand flips out easily and has a rubberized foot for stability, and it’s held against the tablet by an internal magnet so that it stays out of the way when you don’t need it.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Back to that handle I mentioned, the handle on our review unit is machined metal with extender hinges that make the handle grabbable, but also lets you tuck it away for a smaller profile when you don’t need it. Other options you can configure the tablet with include a solid fixed handle, or you can skip the handle entirely for a sleeker tablet.Ports and Features: All the Field-Tablet TrappingsOn one side of the tablet is a collection of ports, which includes the power connector, a USB 3.0 connection, a USB-C port, an Ethernet jack, and a 3.5mm headset connector.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
All of these connectors are safely sequestered behind rubber port covers that are held tightly in place with magnets to seal them when not in use. This actually makes them far more accessible than the usual hard locking covers used in many rugged devices, and looks like it should protect those ports just as well.Wireless features are just as capable, with Wi-Fi 6 networking and Bluetooth 5.2, with an option to add modules for 4G mobile broadband or GPS.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The DT302RP has a scratch-resistant screen, a stout handle, rubberized bumpers all around with extra cushioning at the corners, port covers to keep out dust and moisture, and buttons for basic functions like power or screen brightness. Its dock connector works in conjunction with in-car systems like in a police car or ambulance. Since photography and video are also must-haves in the field, the tablet has a pair of cameras in front (5MP) and back (8MP), though they can be customized in configuring the system if you need something else, like a barcode scanner or 4G connectivity.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The battery is hot-swappable, meaning that you can pull out one battery as it’s dying and put in a freshly charged replacement while the tablet continues to run. With just one or two spare batteries, you could easily keep the tablet running day and night for as long as you need to, an essential feature for tools used in crisis situations.Using the DT Research DT302RP: Work on the Run, Read in the SunFinally, we come to the 10.1-inch, 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution screen, which isn’t just tough: Text on the display is legible in sunlight. That means that the brightness of the display can be boosted high enough to maintain visibility even when sunlight is shining directly on the IPS panel. In my testing, the panel maintained legibility in bright sunshine, even avoiding the washed-out colors that you’ll often see on a screen with maxed-out brightness.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The capacitive touch screen lets you easily tap and swipe on the screen, or you can use the included digital pen to tap and click like using a mouse or to write and draw naturally. (Our only beef with the pen is that it uses AAAA—not AAA—batteries, which you won’t always be able to find at your local store when replacements are needed.) The tablet’s auto-rotation is also on by default, and quite handy in shifting between landscape and portrait modes naturally.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Our tablet also came with a handy rubber hand strap that secures to the back of the tablet on each of the four corners and gives you a secure handle to slide your hand under or to outright grab as needed. That’s especially helpful when you need to use the tablet as you move, and don’t want to worry about gingerly holding a device. (And if you do drop it, it’s rated to withstand several varieties of drop and shock onto assorted hard surfaces.)The tablet also has a storage clip for the pen that came with our test sample. This lets you stow the pen when not in use and have it handy the moment you need it. It is also tethered with a coiled lanyard, giving you plenty of flexibility with the pen and some retraction when it’s not in use, important when you’re trying to keep any stray bits clear of machinery and anything else that can snag.Testing the DT Research DT302RP: Rugged ReliabilityThe DT302RP is a rugged tablet through and through, which puts it in a very specific category of armored-up Windows machines. To evaluate its performance, we’ll compare it with systems like the Getac F110 (2022), two Dell Latitude Rugged Extreme tablets, and the Durabook R11. All are capable Windows tablets wrapped in metal shells and rubber bumpers that protect them from bashes and bangs. However, the capabilities of these tablets vary pretty widely. Different processors, different storage sizes, and even different battery setups mean that performance among these similar-looking tablets vary sometimes.
Productivity and Content Creation Tests We run the same general productivity benchmarks across both mobile and desktop systems. Our first test is UL’s PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive.Our other three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Geekbench 5.4 Pro from Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).Finally, we run PugetBench for Photoshop by workstation maker Puget Systems, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s famous image editor to rate a PC’s performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It’s an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.
Given the mix of different CPUs in our comparison lineup, I expected more variation in PCMark scores, but was still glad to see that the DT302RP still easily surpassed the 4,000-point cutoff we use to determine whether a system can handle everyday productivity tasks. In HandBrake, the tablet’s 11-minute time (though not impressive in isolation) was still the fastest of the bunch, and it had the leading Cinebench score, narrowly edging out the Dell Latitude 7030. However, in Geekbench and Photoshop, DT’s tablet scores landed right in the middle. I point this out not so much to harp on the DT302RP, but to provide context: None of these devices is a high-performance machine. They’re built to take basic office functions and communication out into the field, to take necessary-but-mundane computing into areas where normal computers just can’t go.Graphics and Gaming TestsWe test the graphics inside all laptops and desktops with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). The cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5 is also part of the test suite; we use it to gauge OpenGL performance. These GFXBench tests are rendered offscreen to accommodate different native display resolutions; more frames per second (fps) means higher performance.
Obviously, these rugged productivity machines with integrated graphics aren’t built for gaming or media work but, compared with other similarly-equipped tablets, the DT302RP is just so-so. It will definitely handle streaming video feeds, virtual meetings, and basic operating system graphics just fine. If you need graphics rendering or gaming capability, you’re looking in the wrong category.Battery and Display Tests We test each laptop and tablet’s battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off. We also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and software to measure a laptop screen’s color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).
One area where performance matters more than most is battery life. Rugged tablets aren’t made for stationary work, tethered to a charger, but to go where they’re needed, whether that’s a crash site, a construction project, or a mud pit. And here the DT302RP performed fairly well, lasting more than eight hours in our video playback test. (Note: The Dell Latitude 7230 had two batteries by default, helping it lead this pack.)But the real bonus here is the hot-swappable battery. Not only can you get eight hours from a single charge, you can slap a freshly charged battery in and keep going, with the potential to cycle through swapped batteries as long as needed for extended use in situations where you have no opportunity to take a break and plug it in.The display is another point of focus for this type of tablet. Where normal displays would washout in direct sunlight, the DT302RP’s panel is layered with protective glass, filters, and then boosted in brightness to maintain legibility even under noonday rays. The actual performance ratings, with low-end color gamut reproduction and bright-but-not-brightest 800-plus nits of max brightness are secondary to actually being able to use it in the field.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
My hands-on testing proved that this outdoor use works extremely well. Using the tablet out in my yard, I found the display to be clear and legible in all sorts of circumstances, and while the colors aren’t going to wow anyone, they were more than adequate for whatever uses the tablet will be put to, whether it’s running WinTAK software or monitoring industrial processes.Verdict: Fit for the Field or the FrontlinesThe DT Research DT302RP Rugged Tablet may not burn up the performance charts, but it does meld decent overall performance with a design that’s not merely robust and durable, but also elevates that functionality with grab-and-go handles and straps, a helpful kickstand, and a hot-swappable battery that can extend usability for as long as you need. Sure, it can be bulky and we wish the pen didn’t use a rare battery type, but in the end, the DT Research DT302RP rugged tablet is a smart choice for getting things done in extreme conditions.
DT Research DT302RP Rugged Tablet
Pros
Rugged design for extreme conditions
Lightweight, magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis
Long-lasting, hot-swappable battery
Sunlight-legible display
Pen included, with storage clip and tether
Magnetic port covers
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Cons
Beefy design made bulkier with handle
AAAA battery for stylus tough to replace
Adequate performance but not top-tier
The Bottom Line
Built for extreme conditions (if not extreme performance), the DT Research DT302RP Rugged Tablet is durable and functional, with a lightweight design and a sunlight-legible display.
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