AMobile Ultra-Rugged Handheld Device GT-500

Tough and impressively rugged 5-inch Android handheld device with WorldMode communication for mission-critical deployments anytime and anywhere.

AMobile Intelligent Corp., announced the GT-500 early 2016 as a modern, general-purpose rugged Android handheld computer with comprehensive communications capabilities and integrated barcode scanner. Intended uses are, among many others, warehouse management systems, postal and shipping operations, government deployments, and public safety applications. RuggedPCReview has had a chance for extended hands-on with the GT-500, and this report presents our review and observations.

Contemporary smartphone footprint, but much tougher

Size has always been a vexing issue for designers of mobile computing devices. In theory, the larger and brighter the display, the higher the performance, and the longer the battery life, the better. In practice, many desirable features and qualities are mutually exclusive. Cost and weight are factors, too, and then there are fashion trends that can go to ridiculous extremes.

With the Ultra-Rugged Handheld Device GT-500 AMobile created a device very much in line with the concept of the original Pocket PC that Microsoft launched in the late 1990s. Small enough to fit into a pocket, large enough for real work, and sturdy enough to go along for the ride. But while Microsoft back then nervously wing-clipped the power of the Pocket PC so as not to snag sales from larger "real Windows" computers, makers of modern Android devices don't have such limitations. They create whatever, in their opinion, works best for their customers, and whatever makes the most sense.