Rugged PC Review.com - Rugged Handhelds: Tablet Technologies Conker NS65 rugged Windows PDA

Conker NS65

Remarkably polished rugged 6.5-inch "phablet" with terrific screen and industrial grade-scanning brings full Windows 11 power and functionality to the job, wherever that may be
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer -- September 2024)

A few months ago I got one of those Mini-PC "sticks" that look like a cross between a USB key and the body of a small smartphone. Despite their tiny size they are actually "real" PCs. Hook one of them up to a screen and a keyboard, and off you go. My little Mini-PC, which ran Windows 11, worked just like a regular desktop PC. It was quick and ran everything I tried on it. I looked at the little thing and thought how cool it would be if someone added a display and a battery and stuck it all in a rugged housing — you'd have a full Windows 11 PC that fit into your pocket.

Well, that's just what UK-based Tablet Technologies, also known as Conker, did. Already known as a purveyor of all sorts of interesting rugged mobile computing gear, they took pretty much exactly the guts of my little Mini-PC, added an industrial-grade scan engine, cameras and a battery, and made it into a rugged Windows handheld that looks just like one of the big iPhones or Android phones. So here it is — the Conker NS65:

The Conker NS65 is a very small Windows 11 PC, but it is a big handheld. With a footprint of 7-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches it makes an iPhone 16 Pro Max look petite, but it's really no bigger than my rugged BlackView BL9000 Android smartphone with its integrated thermal camera. The Conker is thicker, though, almost an inch, and it weighs a bit over a pound. So we're talking hefty and substantial, but really amazingly small and light for a complete Windows PC.

The 6.5-inch display of the Conker NS65 is very much like that of a modern smartphone, and its 1600 x 720 pixel resolution means 270 dots per inch, not quite like the insanely high pixel count of some of the premium smartphones, but plenty sharp. Interface, of course, is via capacitive multi-touch, and it's a variety that can also be used with gloves as long as they aren't too thick. The IPS display is nicely bright — we measured 480 nits —, has perfect viewing angles, and is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass.

Full versions of Windows 10 and 11!

Back in the day, long ago, it would have been unthinkable of shoehorning all of full desktop Windows into just a handheld, and so Microsoft tried with various versions of Windows CE and Windows Mobile, all underpowered subsets of the real thing. What runs on the Conker NS65 is the real thing, full Windows 11 IoT Enterprise. Yes, full Windows 11 on a 6.5-inch smartphone-size screen. It comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and there's a microSD card slot where you can add up to another 512GB.

All that, amazing technological accomplishment though it is, inevitably leads to the big question: can big old Windows run reasonably well on such a small display? Technically, yes, definitely. The processor and tech are plenty quick enough, and there's enough RAM and storage and display pixels.

The issue really is that Windows was designed for much bigger screens, and designed and optimized for landscape use in a few standard aspect ratios and resolutions. Windows used to run fine on 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 resolution, but these days really prefers at least 1280 x 800 and better yet 1920 x 1080. The Conker NS65 with its very wide 1600 x 720 pixel 22.2-to-1 aspect ratio doesn't do any of those; the closest you can get is setting it to a narrower 16:9 aspect ratio with 1280 x 720 pixel.

What does that mean? In essence, that a lot of Windows and Windows software works, but some — especially application software — may be formatted such that not everything can be seen or scrolled to. That can be frustrating. The other problem is that Windows is notoriously difficult to optimize for different resolutions. Text can be just too tiny on a small hi-res screen, and interface elements such as icons and check boxes and scroll bars as well. Windows does allow limited scaling, but it's often trial and error to get a combination that works on such a small display.

There are some other caveats. Even with Custom Scaling, tapping all those tiny Windows controls on the small NS65 display can be hit and miss. Here, again, touch works great with custom software designed for touch, but less so with the standard Windows user interface and software. Icons and such can be scaled, fingers cannot.

None of this is an issue if a Conker NS65 is primarily used with custom software designed for this size display and resolution. And the NS65 can easily be hooked up to a bigger display when used in a field office or similar location. That way you can simply configure the NS65 so that an external display becomes the main display, and run that display at 4K video, i.e. 3840 x 2160 pixel. The NS65 then turns into a true and real 4K desktop PC.

Thanks to the wonders of USB, and especially USB Type-C, the Conker's wired interface is limited to just a standard USB Type-A and a reversible USB Type-C port, with the latter also serving as charging port.

Looks great outside. How about inside?

Now do realize that devices like this Conker NS65 are relatively generic. Companies like Tablet Technologies are sourcing and supporting cohesive product lineups from the vast marketplace of Asian electronics, providing value-added in terms of software, warranties and procuring the requisite government approvals. But these are still essentially white box devices made in China. Is their quality up to par?

With the Conker NS65, yes, definitely. The device is extremely solid and has a high-quality feel to it, the kind that I've always loved in Apple devices.

The NS65 housing consists of black ABS plastic front and back halves, both with rubberized overmoldings for protection. Sealing is via a sensible tongue and groove design with a replaceable o-ring seal. The halves are secured together via a good number of small and deeply recessed Torx T4 and T5 screws. Inside, everything looks and feels clean and well made. Fit and finish are excellent. There's no metal frame inside here, but the device feels strong. This thing seems designed and built rugged from the ground up.

What performance can you expect?

The processing performance and responsiveness of handheld computing devices has historically been mixed. Simple handhelds like the Palm Pilots of the late 1990s could be very quick, but most Windows CE and Pocket PC devices weren't. Modern Apple and Android smartphones have become stunningly powerful and responsive, but we're talking full Microsoft Windows here, and that is a different ballgame altogether. Can the little Conker really run Windows fast enough for real work?

It can. The NS65 is powered by a quad-core Intel Celeron N5100. Code-named "JasperLake," the N5100 uses Intel's Tremont processor architecture that includes an Intel UHD Graphics GPU with 24 execution units. The N5100 is not part of Intel's high-end Core chip family, but it is significantly more powerful than those wimpy old Intel "Atom" processors — in a good number of Chromebooks, laptops and tablets, the N5100 is much faster. While it still only offers roughly a third of the raw processing performance of a (far more expensive) popular Intel Core chip like the Core i5-1135G, the N5100, as implemented in this handheld, is easily quick enough for most common workloads.

So what can one expect in terms of overall performance from the Conker NS65 that's barely larger than a smartphone but runs full Windows 11? We ran our usual benchmark suites on it, and here are the results, shown compared to some contemporary rugged small-screen Windows devices that we've tested:

Conker NS65 Benchmarks/Comparisons

Company Conker DT Research Juniper Trimble

Model NS65 DT362 Mesa 4 T7 (Yuma 7)

Type Handheld Handheld Tablet Tablet

Display size 6.5" 6.0" 7.0" 7.0"

Display orientation portrait portrait portrait landscape

Resolution 720 x 1600 720 x 1440 800 x 1280 1280 x 800

Year 2024 2021 2024 2019

Processor Intel Intel Intel Intel

Processor Line Celeron Pentium N-Series Pentium

Processor Code Jasper Lake Gemini Lake Alder Lake-N Apollo Lake

Processor Model N5100 N5000 N200 N4200

CPU Cores 4 4 4 4

CPU Speed 1.10 GHz 1.10 GHz 1.80 GHz 1.10 GHz

Burst Speed 2.80 GHz 2.70 GHz 3.70 GHz 2.50 GHz

PassMark 6 2,532 2,194 3,122 1,740

PassMark 9 1,763 NA 2,174 1,177

CrystalMark 186,397 141,720 157,347 142,939

PCMark 10 2,284 1,573 1,951 1,421 (est)

PCMark 10 Disk 417 413 833 710 (est)

3DMark Time Spy 350 111 315 142 (est)

GeekBench Single 624 440 664 335

GeekBench Multi 2,060 1,072 1,283 1,171 (est)

The results are clear: the Conker NS65 fits right into this quartet of high-end professional mobile computing tools from the likes of DT Research, Juniper Systems and Trimble, all established leaders in their fields. That is impressive.

As far as what life users can expect from the unit's 29.6 watt-hour battery, the company lists "6 hours while playing video at 50% brightness." In the very strenuous PCMark 10 Battery Test with the display set to 200 nits luminance, we saw 5:52 hours on a full charge, which translates into 5.05 watt-hours per hour. That's not bad at all.

Display

The Conker NS65's display reminds of reminds of a modern smartphone display. 6-1/2 inch diagonal, very tall aspect ratio, bright, sharp, and really terrific. It's listed at 500 nits luminance. We measured 460, close enough. That's bright enough for most daylight use, like a modern phone.

Like almost all mobile displays today, it's a glossy one that "pops." Which means it has great color and all, nice contrast, but outdoors you live with reflections, just like you do with any smartphone. We've all gotten used to that.

So this is a good screen, and quite a responsive one. The elephant in the room, of course, again is that you run full Windows 11 on a tall, narrow 720 x 1600 pixel 6.5-inch display. Windows doesn't adapt nicely. It's Windows and it wants a big landscape display. So you have to adapt. Run custom apps designed for just this kind of device. Play around with the display interface settings until you find a configuration that works for you. It'll always be a compromise. This is Windows, not an iOS or Android phone with apps for that.

One odd thing is that the recommended full 720 x 1600 pixel display setting has its four corners cut off because the large corner radius of the display bezel. That seems weird: why cover up LCD pixels just for styling's sake?

Quite rugged, but more data, please!

The Conker NS65 is in no way fragile and delicate like one of those waver-thin glitzy available-in-six-stunning-new-colors premium smartphones. It looks tough and it is tough. Even without a protective sleeve or case, the Conker NS65 can be dropped from five feet to concrete, which is impressive. Ingress protection is at the IP67 level, which means it can handle immersion down to a meter for 30 minutes (we did not put that to the test). The NS65 has a very wide operating temperature range of -4 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, making it suitable for use just about anywhere.

Since ruggedness, reliability and the ability to stand up to all sorts of abuse are why customers buy products like these, we'd still like to see more environmental testing data in the specs, or at least a link to all certified ruggedness testing results.

Remarkably good cameras

Like virtually all modern handhelds and tablets, the Conker NS65 has front (5-megapixel) and rear (8-megapixel) cameras. The included standard Windows Camera app doesn't provide many options and settings, and our sample pics defaulted to 3,264 x 2,448 pixel (8.0-megapixel). The camera worked quite well, actually better than most cameras integrated into rugged Windows tablets. Click on the sample picture compilation to see it in full size.

Video can be recorded at various resolutions, up to 1080p at 30fps. Almost everyone carries a smartphone with them these days, so everyone already has a camera. But there are still occasions where it comes in handy to have a camera integrated into an actual computer, and the NS65 delivers better than most.

Industrial-grade barcode scanning

While you can get any number of scanning apps for smartphones, they all use the phone's camera, and those cameras, excellent though many of them have become, were not made for scanning.

The Conker NS65, on the other hand, can be ordered with a truly industrial-grade scan engine. The very motion-tolerant 2D Honeywell N4680 (see N4680 spec sheet) is 2.5 times quicker than the N3680 that Conker customers may be familiar with from older Conker devices.

Conker NS65: the bottom line

There aren't too many 6.5-inch phablets that run full Windows 11, and the Conker NS65 can do that. It has a very good, bright 720 x 1600 pixel capacitive multi-touch display with perfect viewing angles, which makes it easily readable even outdoors. An industrial-grade Honeywell scanner makes it suitable for serious data collection work. And its performance, while, of course, not at the Intel Core level, is far ahead of what one could expect from anemic earlier Atom-powered rugged Windows handhelds or tablets. The NS65 also convinces with remarkably good cameras, extremely solid build, a replaceable battery, and good ergonomics. We're impressed. If you need Windows in the field and in your pocket, and you can adapt to the issues of full Windows on such a small display, the Conker NS65 is it, for no more than the cost of a high-end smartphone.
-- Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, September 2024

Tablet Technologies Ltd, resides at the exceedingly picturesque address of 4 Stansted Courtyard, Parsonage Road, Takeley, Bishop's Stortford CM22 6PU, UK. They sell an interesting lineup of rugged and semi-rugged tablets and handhelds to military, industrial and enterprise customers all around the world.