There are those who look for the best possible performance from their smartphone or tablet. There are those who want the most elegant, the thinnest and lightest gadgets. Devices with high-res screens have themselves their share of fans, no matter if they come with the best hardware or not. Finally, there are (a couple of) people who couldn’t care less about performance, portability or display clarity, but put a very big price on sturdiness and ruggedness.
If you’re one of those few people, you should be overjoyed to hear that SDG Systems has unveiled the Rampage 6 “Notepad”, a gadget that truly looks unbreakable. While it isn’t exactly bulletproof, the Rampage 6 is certified by the IP67 ingress protection rating for water and dust and it also looks like it could take a hit or two, even from sharp or hard objects.
Set to be made available in the “third quarter of 2012”, the handheld computer will be showcased for the first time at the Esri International User Conference in San Diego, scheduled to take place between July 23 and 27.
We don’t have any details about the gadget’s weight and dimensions, but ironically this does not appear to be a device meant to be portable. As far as performance goes, you shouldn’t judge the device by high-tech standards and expect it to run decently, at best, in terms of browsing or multimedia playback.
There’s a single-core 806 MHz processor under the hood of this “monster”, while the 256 MB of RAM and the 4 GB of Flash memory would have made for a decently equipped Android device from a couple of years back. Speaking of Android, you should know that the Rampage 6 will run a “forked” version of 2.3 Gingerbread, but we don’t know exactly what kind of customizations we will be looking at.
Other features include a full SD card slot, USB host and client ports, a headphone jack, as well as Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. The Rampage 6 (which, for some reason, is also known as the Mesa Rugged Notepad) will be made available in three different configurations, with a “Geo” version coming with GPS and a 3.2 MP camera on top of the features mentioned above. A “Geo 3G” model has also been made to put 3G connectivity to the mix.
As far as pricing goes, we have nothing official to report for the time being, but if you’re interested in this ruggedized gadget, you should be prepared to spend your “allowance” for a long period of time. I don’t know if anyone remembers, but SDG Systems launched a similar product about three years ago, called the Trimble Nomad and it MSRP hovered around $1250. Well, if you want to get to the Rampage 6’s probable price, you should take that number and safely add several hundred bucks, as the Nomad was a clearly more modest gadget, with Android 1.5 Cupcake and a 3.5-inch VGA display.
Is there anyone out there willing to pay that kind of money to get their hands on this supposed indestructible gadget? Is the Rampage 6 taking ruggedness and sturdiness to a whole new level? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
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