Getac B300 Core i7 Review

Getac B300 Core i7

Review Summary:

The Getac B300 combines the strength of an ultra-rugged notebook with high-end features.

Pros

• Super durable
• Industrial looks
• Integrated pop-out carrying handle

Cons

• Still very expensive
• Drop in battery life from older model

Getac B300 Core i7 Full Review

 

The Getac B300 ultra-rugged notebook is aimed at industrial and commercial buyers. This system offers near bomb-proof construction with an optional touch-sensitive screen and the latest Intel Core-series processors. In this review we take a look at the updated B300 and see how it stacks up against the original version we reviewed almost two years ago.

Getac B300 Specifications:

• Windows 7 Professional 32-Bit
• Intel Core i7 620LM (4 MB cache, 2.00 GHz)
• 13.3" XGA Touchscreen (1024 x 768, Matte finish)
• 4 GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• Intel GMA HD Graphics
• Intel 6300AGN
• Optional GPS (with internal antenna)
• Optional Gobi 2000/EV-DO/GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/WCDMA/HSDPA
• 250 GB 5400 RPM SATA shock Mounted Hard Drive
• 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
• 11.1v 7800 mAh Battery (11 hours estimated)
• Dimensions: 11.9" x 10.35" x 2.36"
• Weight: 8.59 lbs
• 90W AC adapter
• Price starting at: $3,799
• Price as configured: $5,029

Build and Design
The design of the Getac B300 is industrial, with massive rubber bumpers, deep grooved alloy lid, rugged port covers, and its own carrying handle. I love this type of design that looks as if nothing could harm the notebook short of a semi-trailer truck running over it. The panels are lined with stainless steel screws holding every edge of the body together. I can count 23 screws on the display cover alone. The only splash of color to break up the grey and black panels is the Intel sticker and indicator lights.

Build quality is fantastic, exactly what you would expect from a notebook designed for military and law enforcement environments. Every single feature down to the touchpad buttons has been designed to withstand impacts or water infiltration without skipping a beat. All ports are covered and sealed through the use of rubber caps or hinged panels to keep out dust and water. The battery and hard drive are accessible without the use of a screwdriver, having only a locking quick release panel covering them for swapping in the field. Even the fingerprint scanner has its own cover to keep it clean and waterproof when not in use.

The onboard carrying handle attached to the palmrest section of the B300 is one of my favorite parts. It pops out when you need to transport the notebook, and is every bit as rugged as the notebook itself. When you are finished, you pop it back into place and it becomes an extension to the palmrest. Using the B300 as my primary computer I became more worried about damaging other stuff carrying this around than the notebook itself. Accidentally swing a backpack into a wall and it might just bounce off without causing harm. Accidentally swing this into a wall and you are likely to leave a huge dent in your wall.

Of course, it's the rugged design of the Getac B300 that makes it so appealing. You can find the same internal hardware in cheaper laptops, but those less expensive PCs haven't been rigorously tested to survive some of the worst work environments on Earth. The B300 should keep running perfectly whether you're updating Facebook from the top of Mount Everest or adding database entries from a camp site in the Amazon jungle.

The Getac B300 is rated for the following test specifications:

810G

• Temperature - According to IEC 68-2-1,2,14 / MIL-STD-810F, Method 501.4, 502.4
• Humidity - According to IEC 68-2-30 / MIL-STD-810F, Method 507 45% to 95% RH, non-condensing
• Altitude - According to IEC 68-2-13/ MIL-STD-810F, Method 500.4Operating: 15,000 ft, Non-operating: 40,000 ft Altitude change rate: 2,000 ft/min
• Shock - According to IEC 68-2-27/ MIL-STD-810F, Method 516.5 Drop According to IEC, 68-2-32 / MIL-STD-810F, Method 516.5
• Vibration - According to IEC 68-2-6 / MIL-STD-810F, Method 514.5

810G / IP65

• Enclosure - According to IEC 529, NEMA, MIL-STD-810F, Method 506.4, 510.4 IP 54 compliance

461F

• MIL-STD 461E (option), MIL-STD-3009 "Night Vi- sion" (option)

What most of these ratings mean for the average user is the notebook won't break when you drop it, won't care if you spill something on it, doesn't care if it shakes around in a car under daily use, and really doesn't mind if you, say, do mean spirited things to it.

Screen and Speakers
The 13.3-inch XGA panel is quite bright, tipping the scale against most of the other notebooks we have reviewed. It is rated at 1400 nit, which works in a sunlight mode from the push of a button. No matter what your previous setting was it goes into its super bright mode that feels like a laser pointer shining in your eyes if the room is dark enough. The display rates average in terms of color saturation and contrast. We used our Gossen light meter to measure the brightness of the screen in both viewing modes. At the standard 100% level, the screen had a max brightness of 291 nit and an average contrast ratio of 96:1. In sunlight mode, the max brightness skyrocketed up to 1320 nit and had an average contrast ratio of 97:1. I feel the screen would have looked better if the panel was completely exposed like on a normal notebook, but since it is recessed with a digitizer and protective panel some quality was lost. Horizontal viewing angles were good with little or no distortion at steep angles. Vertical viewing angles were made limited with colors quickly inverting as you move to lower angles and colors washing out as you go to higher angles.

Our B300 review unit was supplied with a touch display, which worked very well for mild input. Getac includes a mini telescoping stylus which is located above the keyboard for precise input, but I usually just used my fingertip. Compared to most panels you had to push harder to get the surface to detect your input, but this was only a problem with my fingertip, not the stylus.

Screen protection was excellent with a protective layer that can handle flying fists without showing more than a smudge on the surface. The Getac ruggedized notebooks are the only notebooks we have seen in house that have this level of protection to the display panel.

Speaker sound quality wasn't the best, but Getac was interested in making them durable and waterproof instead of packing the B300 with the latest surround sound system. They were located on the front edge of the notebook, protected by the carrying handle as well as durable speaker grills. For headphone or headset use, there are jacks on the side for both headphones and a mic.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard was easy to type on, much nicer than the rubber membrane keyboard on the Getac M230 we reviewed last year. The keyboard feels similar to the one on my ThinkPad, with the only difference being the perfectly smooth surface instead of the light matte finish Lenovo uses. Most of the keys were full-size except those found on the right side, which were narrowed slightly to make room for dedicated page navigation keys. The keyboard also features a red backlight in 3 levels of brightness for easy nighttime viewing.

The Synaptics keyboard required a heavier touch than I was used to, which was probably related to some coating on top of it to make it more durable than the common touchpad. Increasing the sensitivity helped a bit, but I think it still felt weird. In a day and age when most touchpads are flush-mount or integrated into the palmrest surface, the B300's version feels a bit strange at first. It is deeply recessed, which might take some transition time to get used to it. The touchpad buttons are rubber coated and require more pressure to activate than most buttons. The rubber cover made them soft to touch, but they still only gave shallow feedback when pressed.

Ports and Features
Port selection for modern and not-so-modern devices is excellent, with two USB, one eSATA/USB combo port, FireWire, two serial connections, one PCMCIA slot, one ExpressCard/54 slot, LAN/Modem, VGA and HDMI-out, and a docking connector. All ports are fully sealed with rubber or metal covers to keep dust, water, and sand out.

Front: Carrying handle

Rear: DC-power input, one USB 2.0, antenna, docking connector, VGA-out, two serial ports

Left: Battery, optical drive

Right: Hard drive, PCMCIA/ExpressCard/54 slots, one USB 2.0, eSATA/USB combo port, HDMI-out, FireWire-400, SDHC-card reader, audio jacks, LAN, mode

Performance and Benchmarks
The Getac B300 is newly reconfigured, sporting the latest Intel Core i7-620LM processor over the older Core 2 Duo. These changes include a newer chipset, faster integrated graphics, and an overall better user experience. Looking back at the B300 configuration we reviewed almost two years ago, performance has almost doubled.

For normal daily use, the B300 holds up very well, browsing flash-heavy websites with ease and quickly loading office productivity applications. We did notice the shock mounted 5400 RPM drive causing some drop in system responsiveness though. We highly recommend users configuring this system go for one of the two SSD options, which would substantially boost overall speeds. Another item which we will discuss in the battery section, is the increase in system performance from the newer processor that has dinged the long battery life we found in the prior review.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

PCMark Vantage measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
System noise was non-existent since Getac uses a passive cooling system on the B300; meaning no fans. The thick metal chassis becomes the heatsink for the processor, which in the case of the B300 means one massive heatsink. Under normal usage the chassis warmed up slightly above room temperature and stayed at that level. If you stressed the system though, it would get warm, as the body couldn't dissipate heat as quickly as a fan blowing over a heatsink could.

Battery Life
Getac offers two battery options for the B300, including one high-capacity internal battery and a secondary battery which is housed in the media bay. As you might remember from our past review, the old configuration managed to stay running for 8 hours and 55 minutes. With the newer configuration, we tested the battery life with the screen brightness reduced to 70%, wireless turned on and refreshing a webpage every 60 seconds, and Windows 7 set to the Balanced profile. In our test, the system stayed active for only 5 hours and 8 minutes; a large drop compared to the old configuration. We figure most of this difference comes from the newer, and much faster processor. With the secondary battery, users should expect to double that time, as it is the same capacity as the primary one.

Conclusion
The Getac B300 is one of the best built rugged notebooks we have reviewed over the years. Prior to the latest update, it had the best build quality out of other super-tough notebooks, as well as extremely long battery life. With the recent refresh, it keeps its strong exterior, but now gets completely new internals including the Intel Core i7 620LM 2.0 Ghz processor and faster GMA HD integrated graphics. These changes brought a big uptick in performance at the cost of some battery life. We saw a drop of about four hours between the new and old model.

While battery life is a valid concern, the Getac B300 still offers over 5 hours of runtime, with the capability to double that with a second battery. The boost in system performance though was worth it, scoring nearly double the benchmarks compared to the older model. If you are in the market for a rugged notebook and work in an environment where an HP EliteBook or Lenovo ThinkPad just can't get the job done, the super-tough B300 might be the system for you.

Pros:

• Super durable
• Industrial looks
• Integrated pop-out carrying handle

Cons:

• Still very expensive
• Drop in battery life from older model

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 
Price/Value Rating 

* Ratings averaged to produce final score