Emdoor started in 2002 as a designer and manufacturer of rugged handhelds, tablets, notebooks, PCs, and vehicle mount computers, as well as a provider of customized hardware and software solutions. As one of the largest and most experienced Chinese providers of rugged computing systems, Emdoor serves as an ODM or OEM partner to many Tier One companies.
Emdoor doesn’t sell products under its own brand name, although that may happen in the future. As is, Emdoor’s OEM customers generally benefit from significant savings compared to equivalent established brand name devices.
The EM-I12U is a Windows-based, Intel Core processor-powered fully rugged compact tablet that distinguishes itself by its all-metal construction.
Measuring 11 by 7.3 inches including its protective corner bumpers, the EM-I12U is compact enough to fit almost anywhere. It’s .83 inches thick and weighs about 2.6 pounds. Its all-magnesium alloy has an attractive black powder-coat finish that makes it grippy to hold and operate. Except for the polymer bumpers, there’s not a single piece of plastic on its housing.
The EM-I12U’s capacitive multi-touch display measures 10.1 inches diagonally and offers 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution, which translates into a crisp and sharp 224 pixels per inch. We like the 16:10 aspect ratio which isn’t too tall or too wide. It’s an IPS LCD with near perfect viewing angles from all directions and none of the contrast and color changes when viewing from different angles.
The screen is reasonably bright (we measured 430 nits luminance) and usable outdoors. The glossy-style LCD has Gorilla Glass protection, is 7H hardness scratch-resistant, but is fairly prone to fingerprints.
The picture above shows the tablet’s I/O (protective port cover removed for better viewing). Users get a USB 3.0 Type-A and a reversible USB Type-C port that can support charging and HDMI, with a mini-HDMI port being optional. There’s a standard power jack, a micro-SD card slot and a SIM slot. On top of the unit is an antenna port with a BNC connector.
Impressive all-metal construction
It’s a challenge to place an entire Windows PC plus battery into a slender tablet body, especially when that body also has to be fully rugged and include both wired interface ports as well as wireless communication. How did Emdoor accomplish that with the EM-I12U tablet?
Opening up the tablet is easy if you have the tools and motor skills to undo about two dozen tiny Torx T5 and T6 screws that secure the housing and protective bumpers. Once those are removed, the magnesium alloy backplate easily separates from the also all magnesium alloy system box. Sealing between the halves is via a very slender tongue-and-groove design with a (hopefully replaceable) white rubber seal.
Since the entire housing is magnesium alloy, there is no need for an additional metal chassis inside. The motherboard is mounted on the inside of the housing, the display on the outside.
The rechargeable, externally accessible Li-Ion battery packs 37 watt-hours — small for an Intel Core-based high-performance tablet. It fits flush into a recessed compartment on the back half of the housing and presses against a very slim removable black rubber sea to keep liquids out. A separate magnesium battery compartment cover locks into place. An internal 6.35 watt-hour battery makes the main battery hot-swappable.
The interior itself is spacious and so there was no need for excessive electronic miniaturization. That means standard PC modules such as an Intel 7265D2W dual-band wireless AC module, a Quectel EC25 LTE WWAN module, the camera module, etc. I/O is edge-mounted on one side of the tablet.
This being a powerful Intel Core-based system, the EM-I12U does have a cooling fan and heat exchanger. Look at the picture above and you’ll see that the fan assembly and also the various antennas are actually located outside of the sealed inner compartment that contains all the electronics. This requires careful sealing of the inside/outside conduits.
Performance
A lot of 10-inch class Windows tablets are Intel Atom-based and offer only modest performance. The EM-I12U isn’t one of them. Customers can expect serious performance from either the default Intel Core i5-8250U or the optional Core i7-8550U. These are Intel “Kaby Lake R” 8th generation quad-core/octa-thread with a maximum turbo speed of 3.4 and 4.0GHz, respectively. These chips have been around for a few years, serving as high-powered mobile workhorses.
The table below shows the EM-I12U’s benchmark performance compared to two other Emdoor OEM products, the entry-level Intel Atom-based EM-I16H 10-inch tablet (see our review), and the fully-rugged Intel 11th gen-based EM-X33 laptop (see our review).
| Performance | Emdoor | Emdoor | Emdoor |
| Model (version tested) | EM-I16H | EM-X33 | EM-I12U |
| Type | Tablet | Laptop | Tablet |
| Year tested | 2021 | 2022 | 2022 |
| Processor | Intel Atom | Intel Core | Intel Core |
| Processor Model | x5-Z8350 | i5-1135G7 | i7-8550U |
| CPU Speed | 1.44/1.92 GHz | 2.40/4.20 GHz | 1.80/4.00 GHz |
| Cores | Quad-core | Quad-core | Dual-core |
| PassMark 6.1 | 587 | 7,819 | 3,106 |
| PassMark 9 | 652 | 5,209 | 2,938 |
| – PC Mark 10 | 850 | 4,907 | 3,297 |
| – PC Mark Essentials | 2,653 | 9,756 | 7,093 |
| – PC Mark Productivity | 1,093 | 6,336 | 5,639 |
| – PC Mark Digital Content | 576 | 5,189 | 2,412 |
| – PC Mark Battery Life | NA | 7:47 hrs | 3:33 hrs |
| Geekbench 5 Single Core | 183 | 1,387 | 968 |
| Geekbench 5 Multi Core | 572 | 5,253 | 2,546 |
| Geekbench 5 Open CL | 183 | 15,013 | 5,087 |
The benchmark results speak for themselves. Though both are 10-inch compact tablets, the EM-I12U offers MUCH higher performance than the entry-level EM-I16H. On the other hand, Emdoor’s EM-X33 13.3-inch laptop, based on the latest 11-gen Intel Core processor technology, is that much more powerful yet. How can such large performance differences exist? Because there are varying budgets and, more importantly, there are applications where modest performance is more than enough and other applications where you need all the performance you can get.
And a footnote here: with its all-metal case and fan-based thermal cooling management, the I12U maintains peak performance no matter what. AC/DC and battery benchmarks are almost identical. That can be very valuable.
But what about battery life? The EM-I12U’s battery packs just 37 watt-hours, no more than what’s in the much lower-performance EM-I16H. To figure that out we ran both the PC Mark 10 “Office” battery test as well as BatMon power draw benchmarks under different conditions.
| Emdoor EM-I12U BatMon Power Draws (at idle) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Backlight level | Darkest | 50% | Brightest |
| Max Battery | 5.2 watts (7.1 hrs.) | 6.0 watts (6.2 hrs.) | 6.9 watts (5.4 hrs.) |
| Max Performance | 5.7 watts (6.5 hrs.) | 6.7 watts (5.5 hrs.) | 8.2 watts (4.5 hrs.) |
As one might expect, the combination of a high-performance processor and a relatively modestly sized battery represents a compromise. The PC Mark 10 battery test showed a low 3:33 hours of battery life. BatMon power draw tests suggested more is possible depending on screen backlight settings and the Windows power mode. Overall, don’t count on full-shift battery life on a single charge. The battery, though, is hot-swappable, so bring along a charged spare.
Built-in camera
The EM-I12U tablet has an 8-megapixel documentation camera with LED illuminator on the back. There is no front camera, so no video conferencing. The rear camera can shoot still images in resolutions up to 3264 x 2448 pixels in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. The included standard Windows Camera app doesn’t provide many options and settings, but does have a “Pro” mode that allows manual focus and manual exposure compensation. There is a panorama mode, a document mode, and a whiteboard mode. The camera can also record video in nine different resolutions ranging from 240p to 1200p. The below images were shot at full 8mp resolution. Click on the sample picture compilation to see it in full size.
As regular readers of RuggedPCReview.com know, we have mixed feelings about cameras integrated in rugged handhelds and tablets, and especially so in Windows-based devices. The one in the EM-I12U can do the job in a pinch, but smartphone and dedicated cameras do it much better.
Ruggedness
The purpose of a rugged tablet is to bring computing power to the field and on the job, even if that job is in an inhospitable environment. That means the device must be able to handle the kind of spills, bumps, grinds and splashes that might happen out there, and this Emdoor tablet certainly looks like it can.
As is, there isn’t a lot in terms of environmental specs. The Emdoor EM-I12U has a very wide operating temperature range of -4 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (-20° to +60°C), and ingress protection is at the IP65 level. That means the tablet is fully dustproof and can also handle low pressure water jets from all directions. The display uses high-strength Corning Gorilla Glass, and the glass surface is very slightly recessed into the housing, which provides a bit of extra protection against breakage.
Emdoor claims a 4-foot drop spec while operating, which is adequate for a tablet. Corner bumpers represent a simple but very effective method of drop and impact protection. The EM-I12U’s bumpers screw on and could very easily be replaced with bigger bumpers if a job requires it. Emdoor might be able to provide those.
End: Emdoor EM-I12U 10.1-inch rugged tablet
The Emdoor EM-I12U is one of the few available lightweight 10-inch class fully rugged tablets that can deliver seriously high performance. Its Intel quad-core Core processors are not of the latest variety but offer MUCH higher performance than any Atom/Celeron/Pentium-based tablet. We also like the straightforward all-metal magnesium alloy construction, the ability to sustain high-performance thanks to fan-based cooling, and the sharp IPS capacitive display. Battery life is only modest and there’s only basic I/O, but the battery is hot-swappable, and USB-C provides multi-port flexibility via adapters.
Overall an interesting rugged OEM tablet offering that may be of great interest to resellers, rebranders, or system integrators. — Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, June 2022
