Getac S510 Review: Laptop with an Iron Constitution

The Getac S510 is not made to stay indoors. With a sturdy armor, bright screen, extra battery space, and local AI processing, this laptop feels at home in the great outdoors.

A rugged laptop is not your average office laptop. This type of device is not suited for a typical office setup but is designed to work in (extreme) outdoor conditions. Think of technical interventions, field research, or law enforcement. Durability and reliability are higher on the priority list than having the fastest processor.

The Taiwanese company Getac has specialized in rugged devices. The S510 includes the typical elements of a rugged laptop and simultaneously jumps on the AI PC bandwagon. This device brings two worlds together.

From Greenland to the Sahara

Een rugged laptop moet tegen een stootje kunnen en een eerste blik op de Getac S510 geeft weinig reden om daaraan te twijfelen. Getac zwaait met militaire standaarden voor val- en schokbestendigheid en een IP53-rating. Iedere poort is afgedekt met een klep die stof buitenhoudt. Het geadverteerde temperatuurbereik gaat van -29 °C tot 63 °C, dus je kan zowel naar Groenland als naar de Sahara reizen met dit toestel.  

You don’t have to worry about a drop or a shock, as long as it’s not from too great a height. It was tempting to test that claim in practice, but fearing that the parquet floor at home might not come out of a collision unscathed, we take the manufacturer’s word for it.

That this laptop is intended for the outside world is evident in the small details. The built-in touchpad has two physical buttons, which is handy if you’re wearing gloves, for example. The loud “click sound” can be annoying if you’re indoors. The keyboard looks small due to the size of the entire device but is pleasant to use.

The downside of the sturdy armor is that the laptop is not exactly light. A 2.7-kilogram laptop is not something you just slip into a backpack. Getac has found a handy solution for that: the laptop has its own handle.

Light Cannon

Getac’s target audience does not need the highest resolution or a smoothly scrolling screen. There is only one screen quality that matters: brightness. For outdoor use, it’s handy that you can always read the screen well.

The Getac S510 is as bright as the sun: we measure a peak brightness of 1,125 nits, which is three times higher than the average office laptop. With 15.6 inches, you have more than enough screen space.

The screen, however, is less consistent in color rendering. An average DeltaE value of 5.7 remains within limits, but with some colors, the TFT screen falters. We measure the highest deviation with blue values (18.5), but the red of the business category on ITdaily tends more towards orange as well. Photo or video editing is clearly not among this device’s core tasks. The deviation is too large to assess images by their color.

The quality of the 5 MP webcam is excellent for video conferencing. Only with direct sunlight does the webcam need a moment to adjust. If video conferencing is not part of your tasks, you can use the webcam to unlock your laptop via Windows Hello.

Copilot without a plus

Rugged laptops are rarely equipped with the latest processors. The Intel Core Ultra 5 125U is a midrange processor from the Meteor Lake generation. Our test configuration did not include a graphics card other than Intel’s built-in chiplet, 16 GB RAM, and 512 GB SSD storage. The option is available to expand the SSD memory by up to 1 TB. If you want to add extra graphics power, there is optional space for an Nvidia RTX A500.

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The AI claim is ambitious in this product category. The NPU in the Intel processor achieves 11 TOPS, which according to the chipmaker’s classification indeed makes it an “AI PC”, but not according to Microsoft’s. Microsoft has allowed the Copilot key to be placed on the keyboard but will not recognize the laptop as a “Copilot+ PC”.

Apart from the whole marketing story of Intel and Microsoft, local AI processing power can theoretically be useful on the Getac S510. After all, you need to be able to use the device in locations where you have no or unstable network connection. Which applications exactly benefit from a limited 11 TOPS is less clear. You can connect the laptop to 4G or 5G networks via a SIM card if they are available.

Mediocre CPU

How does the Getac S510 perform as a work laptop? We compare the processor performance with some “regular” office laptops from HP, Lenovo, MSI, and Microsoft. The HP and Intel devices are equipped with an Intel 7 processor, while MSI and Microsoft represent AMD and Qualcomm.

In the benchmarks, you can clearly see that the Getac S510 is equipped with a lighter processor and therefore cannot throw the same computing power into the fray as the other business laptops. These devices are designed to deliver optimal performance for various office applications. Nevertheless, the Getac S510 still delivers adequate performance in a professional context.

Battery

The Intel x86 processor is also much less energy-efficient than, for example, the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite based on the ARM architecture, as we have often observed. Under constant load, the laptop drains much faster. The high brightness of the screen certainly plays a role in this. If you are more economical with usage and settings, you can use the laptop for a full workday.

Moreover, the laptop also has a secret trick here. By default, there is one 6,900 mAh battery in the laptop (75 Wh), but you can add an extra battery with the same maximum capacity in the reserved compartment. This doubles your battery capacity.

Charging Connections

The charging power is 65 W, which you can call average for a laptop. Notably, Getac still opts for a classic charger in the box, instead of supplying a modern USB-C charger. If you have one at home, it will obviously work too.

Charging requires some patience. After just under an hour, you’re back at fifty percent, and you reach eighty percent after an hour and a half. Only with the MSI Prestige 16 does it take a little longer, but it also has a much larger battery to fill (240 Wh).

Getac knows what its target audience needs in terms of connections, each port tucked away in its own compartment. In addition to the classic connection ports like USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, and Ethernet, the serial port stands out. For a device like the Getac S510, this is an important asset because this type of port allows you to connect your laptop to edge devices or older machines. Optionally, you can even add a card reader or barcode scanner.

Final Verdict

The Getac S510 meets the requirements for a rugged laptop. The manufacturer once again shows that it knows how to make a rugged laptop. The sturdy armor and bright screen make the device suitable for outdoor use, where a device like the Getac S510 comes into its own.

In addition to an excellent basic package, the laptop has many extra assets. The provided space to add an extra battery, SSD, and other peripherals offers many possibilities to create the optimal configuration for every type of field worker. For all that, you pay a very high price. Just don’t expect outstanding CPU performance for that money.

Getac S510 – from 2,583 euros (excl. VAT) – three-year warranty