11. IP54 water resistance/sanitization capable
Tablets that can be subjected to unusual environmental conditions may be required to meet more stringent specifications, such as IP54 for water and dust resistance.
In medical environments, tablets may need to be sanitized by swabbing with various chemicals. Special seals and testing are required to ensure that the tablet won’t be harmed by the chemicals in use.
12. Instant-On
This is an important feature that makes the tablet more attractive than a notebook. By activating instantly, tablets allow the user to get right to what he or she needs, without long and frustrating start up times.
Checklist Summary
Another factor that needs to be considered is the use of active digitizers. They are used in most tablet PC screens to enable pen input.
The digitizer translates the touch input at any point on the screen into X and Y coordinates that software drivers can send to the operating system.
Finally, there is the issue of document fidelity. Delaney warns that documents created in desktop PC-based applications can lose critical details when sent to mobile devices.
This can occur even if the device uses a mobile version of the same application. The fidelity is lost when moving across platforms, which can result from application compatibility issues and/or from moving to different screen sizes.
“Fidelity issues can range from a minor annoyance, for example when a font is changed, to extremely serious, such as the case when multiple formatting elements are lost in a document template for production use,” Delaney said.
“Taking unstructured meeting notes on a mobile device for upload to a PC for later use is unlikely to cause fidelity problems.”