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January 2021 Interview with Rick Hwang, President of Rugged & Video Solutions Business Group at Getac
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The third generation GETAC B360
Fully rugged and remarkably light and handy laptops first to take advantage of Intel Series 2 AI-oriented "Arrow Lake processors. By Conrad H. Blickenstorfer (photography by Carol Cotton)
On March 5, 2025, Getac introduced the third generation of its game-changing rugged B360 and B360 Pro laptop computers. According to the company, these two new models were the first fully rugged laptops to be based on Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors and Intel AI Boost technology. This allows the two machines to execute on-device Edge AI applications, quickly and seamlessly powering through tasks and scenarios that require real-time processing, high levels of data privacy and security, offline capability and cost efficiency.
Apart from using the game-changing "Arrow Lake" AI-oriented chips, what does the Getac B360 bring to the overall rugged laptop landscape? This third generation is a feature, performance and functionality update to a platform that revolutionized the fully-rugged laptop market back in 2020. Getac surprised the industry with a design that presented full ruggedness in a package that measured and weighed no more than traditional "semi-rugged" designs — computers with a lower level of build quality, sealing and protection.
So when compact size and light weight mattered, Getac had a fully-rugged laptop that was no bigger and no heavier than the competition's semi-rugged laptops that only offered lower levels of ingress protection against solids and liquids, less drop resistance, and overall less ruggedness — clearly a competitive advantage. And with this third generation of the platform, Getac has one again.
It's an advantage of a different nature, though, and the competition will quickly follow suit. But Getac was first in a race that's on everyone's radar — heavy emphasis on AI-type of performance. AI is everywhere these days, and there is a lot of marketing hype. But Intel's Series 2 Core Ultra CPUs do offer a real and quite substantial AI-type processing performance edge. Which means that systems built on that platform have the potential of bringing real world on-the-job advantage and productivity. With this tech, AI is no longer just a preview and promise of coming attractions.
And don't overlook that the basics still matter — how sleek and slender the Getac B360 platform was and remains in its powerhouse third generation. From a physical design standpoint, there really was no need to change its look and feel. The B360 still starts at just a bit over five pounds. DESPITE addressing the one concern we had when we evaluated the second gen B360 three years ago — the B360 had a rather small "gas tank" for such a high-performance laptop with a very bright screens, just 46.6 watt-hours. That's fixed now. The third gen packs 62.7 watt-hours, over a third more than before. AND it gets better "miles per gallon" — it draws less power. But more on that later.
What do you get with the third generation Getac B360?
In essence, with this third generation of the Getac B360, customers get a rugged laptop computer that's not only light and compact as before, but also one that totally hits the trend of where "edge computing" is going — packing enough processing power of the right kind to do emerging AI-type of processing out there in the field, even when mobile data internet access isn't available. What exactly does that mean? Well, ChatGPT and the like have become quite important in all sorts of ways. Getac says that on the 3rd gen B360, "customers using Llama 3.1 8B, AI applications running on the B360 were able to turn extensive texts into full reports in a matter of seconds." No cloud/internet required. That is potentially HUGE. And yes, it's true, we checked it out.
In terms of general size, the B360 has a 13.3-inch display, like rugged laptops have had for literally decades. Compared to today's super-slender consumer and business laptops, even a compact rugged like the B360 is substantial. With a footprint of 13.5 x 11.1 inches, the B360 is 1.4 inches thick and it starts at 5.1 pounds. The table below shows where the B360 fits into Getac's roster of rugged and fully rugged laptops late summer 2025:
Getac Rugged Notebooks: Where the B360 fits in
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Model
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V120
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B360
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S410
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S510
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X600
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|
|
|
|
|
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Display size
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12.2-inch
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13.3-inch
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14.0-inch
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15.6-inch
|
15.6-inch
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Ruggedness
|
Fully rugged
|
Fully rugged
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Rugged
|
Rugged
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Fully rugged
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Resolution
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1920 x 1200
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1920 x 1080
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1366 x 768 or 1920 x 1080
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1920 x 1080
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1920 x 1080
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Pixels/inch
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186 ppi
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166 ppi
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112 or 157 ppi
|
141 ppi
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141 ppi
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Aspect ratio
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16 : 10
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16 : 9
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16 : 9
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16 : 9
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16 : 9
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Luminance
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1000 nits
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1400 nits
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1000/1000 nits
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1000 nits
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1000 nits
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Size
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11.9 x 8.2 x 1.4 inches
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13.5 x 11.1 x 1.4 inches
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13.8 x 11.5 x 1.5 inches
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14.8 x 10.9 x 1.5 inches
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16.2 x 12.7 x 2.1 inches
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Volume
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136.6 cubic inches
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209.8 cubic inches
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222.2 cubic inches
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242.0 cubic inches
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432.1 cubic inches
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Weight (lbs.)
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4.63
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5.10
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5.25
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5.18
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9.70
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CPUs
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14th gen Core Ultra S2
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14th gen Core Ultra S2
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13th gen Core
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14th gen Core Ultra S1
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11th gen Core
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CPU Code
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Arrow Lake
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Arrow Lake
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Raptor Lake
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Meteor Lake
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Tiger Lake
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Max RAM
|
64GB DDR5
|
64GB DDR5
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64GB DDR5
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64GB DDR5
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128GB DDR4
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Max primary storage
|
2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
|
2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
|
2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
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2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
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6TB PCIe NVMe SSD
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Std. Battery
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63.0 whr
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62.7 whr
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74.5 whr
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74.5 whr
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149.0 whr
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Operating temp
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-20° to 145° F
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-20° to 145° F
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-20° to 145° F
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-20° to 145° F
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-20° to 145° F
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IP rating
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IP66
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IP66
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IP53
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IP53
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IP66
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Pro version
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No
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Yes
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No
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No
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Yes
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Server version
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No
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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The last gen B360 started with 8GB of DDR4 RAM and went up to 64GB. The 3rd gen starts with 16GB of faster and more efficient DDR5, also up to 64GB. Starting main storage is 256GB of PCIe NVMe solid state, and goes up to 2TB max. Optional secondary storage still goes from 256GB to 2TB. For some reason manufacturers rarely state what type/performance of SSD, and that also goes for Getac. That should be in the specs, since the kind of SSD is in a computer does matter.
The B360 display (which is of the IPS variety, as on most recent Getacs) seems unchanged. It still measures 13.3 inches diagonally. It still has 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, which translates into 166 pixels per inch, and the standard 16:9 aspect ratio. There is 1400 nits luminance, which is extremely bright, brighter than almost anything else out there. There's, of course, 10-point capacitive multi-touch and there's a hard tip stylus.
We mentioned above that the quest for smallest possible size and weight often comes at the expense of battery capacity. When Getac initially designed the 360 platform, they found no way to also include a big battery, and that became somewhat of a liability. Fortunately, Getac has taken care of the problem in the new third generation B360. The batteries are still as small and thin, but they now pack 31.34 watt-hours each. That is a big improvement.
Despite its — for a fully rugged laptop — remarkably low weight, the Getac B360 feels tough and substantial. It's an elegant design where form clearly follows, and visually highlights, function. Rugged laptops tend to use a black/dark silver color scheme with some sort of powder coating, and the B360 is no exception. Surfaces are attractively contoured. Much of the housing is metal. A sturdy carry handle is part of the design. Below is a look at the B360 from the top and from all four sides:
Unlike phones and consumer tablets that have the barest minimum of interface ports, rugged laptops generally have a full complement of standard-size ports. The sealing and protection of all those ports is crucial. And it is a challenge of considerable complexity. Getac's solution for the B360 are fairly intricate hinged plastic covers with rubber seals. The doors must be pushed into place, which can require quite a bit of force. Once in place they are snap-clicked into a locked position. You have to be careful to get them sealed properly and snapped into place the proper way. Once you get the hang of it, it's a decent solution. There remains, however, room for improvement.
Below is a look at the backside of the third gen B360, with all of its protective doors removed (each is secured with two small Philips screws) for a better look at all the ports. From left to right, there's a Kensington lock slot, an RJ45 jack, a Thunderbolt 4 port with USB-C connector, an HDMI 2.0 port, a USB 3.2 gen 2 port, two areas for optional and configurable I/O (our unit came with just a DB9 legacy serial port), a DisplayPort connector, and finally a conventional power jack — we say "conventional" because those are more and more replaced for charging by just Thunderbolt ports with USB-C plugs.
Below are the two side views of the B360, again with all protective doors removed. On top is the left side view with, from left to right, the tether anchor hole for the stylus, the stylus slot, the fan/heat exchanger grille, primary and secondary mass storage, and smart card reader.
On the bottom is the right sideview. Here we see, from left to right, the optional barcode scanner, optional SIM and SD card reader areas, 3.5mm audio jack, and another USB 3.2 Type-A port.
As far as wired interface goes, the 3rd gen B360 is largely unchanged from before. There are two now two additional configurable I/O options in the back, which brings the total number of options there to six. The new ones add a second Thunderbolt 4 port or a second TB4 port AND a second RJ45 LAN jack to the 9-pin serial port common to all six options.
So the six I/O customizations Getac now offers on the 3rd gen B360 are:
9-pin D-sub serial + 15-pin VGA
9-pin D-sub serial + DisplayPort
9-pin D-sub serial + 15-pin VGA + RJ45 LAN
9-pin D-sub serial + DisplayPort + RJ45 LAN
9-pin D-sub serial + 2nd TB4
9-pin D-sub serial + 2nd TB4 + RJ45.
The bottom side of the B360 G3 remains mostly unadorned. The two batteries fit flush into the body of the laptop. A springloaded lockable mechanism keeps them securely in place, while also making them hot-swappable in seconds.
In the center of the bottom is the surface-mount docking connector for the B360's optional office and vehicles docks. Next to that appear to be antenna pass-throughs.
Note here that Getac chose a different customization path with the B360 laptop than, for example, their UX10 rugged tablet. The UX10 tablet has three different expansion areas that each can accommodate one of the several available options, which makes for a very large number of possible permutations. With the B360, Getac gave the device a good number of expected I/O as well as a plenty of optional configurations, those including a Smart card reader, fingerprint reader, HF-RFID reader, barcode reader and more.
Well thought-out design
Designing a laptop is much like designing a vehicle. Under the hood is what makes the vehicle as well as the laptop go. Around that is the structure and packaging that makes it good and solid, and the outside presents an attractive and functional shape. Form follows function.
For a rugged laptop, the goal is to come up with an elegant, attractive design that communicates toughness, competence, professionalism, and also a unique brand identity. That is not easy. Getac has had decades of experience with designing such laptops, and that shows in the B360. It is a good-looking, trust-inspiring piece of equipment. Colors, materials, textures, lines, corners, labels — everything looks and fits just right.
There's also great attention to details. We consider that important. The mustachioed German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once supposedly conjectured that that's where the devil is, in the details. In all the small little things that often get overlooked, and that, if not properly designed and attended to, will come back to haunt you.
A laptop has lots of details, and Getac quite obviously thought them through. Below are some of the details that showcase this impressive attention to every detail:
Clockwise and starting from the upper left, you can see:
 - The clasp that secures the LCD screen against the computer case with the keyboard is one of the most important parts of every laptop. You don't want for the screen to open up when it shouldn't, and you don't want a clasp/lock that's clumsy and hard to operate. Getac got it just right with a spring-loaded clasp that automatically locks, but also easily lets go with just a tap on the clasp.
- If a rugged computer gets dropped (and it will), the screen must not be jarred open upon impact. Two steel bolts make sure that would never happen in the B360.
- If you use a stylus with your laptop, it should be tethered and it should have a stylus garage in a convenient and easily located spot. The B360 has that. And it says "Getac" on it. Most of us have many styli. To know which one goes with which device is a very good idea.
- Too many buttons are confusing, especially if they are poorly labeled. Getac gave the B360 just three, a good number. They are backlit and clearly labeled. A green power button and two programmable function buttons. Excellent.
- Annunciator lights tell the user what the computer is doing. All too often such lights are poorly labeled and in hard-to-see places. On the B360 they are clearly labeled and where you can easily see them, as it should be.
- The Getac B360's hot-swappable batteries are flush-mounted into the bottom of the computer case. It'd require a big seal to keep the entire battery compartment dry. So Getac used just an O-ring seal around the battery connector. A common solution, but especially well implemented here.
And another set of nice details: clockwise and starting from the upper left, you can see:
 - It's great to have hot-swappable batteries, but do you always know if your spares are actually charged? And how much? With the B360's batteries there's never any doubt; just push a button and five LEDs show the charge level.
- Many touch pads are too deeply recessed for convenient use. The B360's 3-1/2 x 2 inch capacitive multi-touch pad is recessed only as much so you can easily sense its perimeter with your finger(s). It's also very responsive and has the exact right surface stiction.
- You want to be able to replace hot-swappable batteries quickly and easily, but you don't want to have them come loose or fall out by mistake. The B360 has lockable spring-loaded levers that work just right.
- The B360 has a small fan and a fan grille. Have no fear, though: the fan's housing is completely sealed to the interior of the laptop, and the fan itself works even underwater.
- This is the port sealing method Getac uses on the B360. Sealing external standard ports is never easy, designing such ports isn't easy, and making sure they are properly secured requires a conscious effort. It takes a bit of getting used to the ports on the B360, but they get the job done.
- Consumer and enterprise laptops are often too slim and too compact to have decent speakers in the proper place. The B360's speakers are perfectly placed, to the left and right of the keyboard. Sound quality has been enhanced in the 3rd gen with a smart amp.
We did not fully dismantle the B360 G3 to get an idea what it looks like inside, how easy or difficult it is to disassemble and reassemble the unit, and get an idea of the type of thermal management system. We did, however, use our IR thermal imaging camera to see heat flows and heat dissipation. The images below show the B360 G3's thermal signature while it was running the very demanding 3D Mark Fire Strike benchmark. Amazingly, the temperatures we recorded are actually a bit lower overall than in the prior generation B360 G2, even with the much more powerful new processor. With the cooling fan going, we saw a peak exhaust air while running the benchmark of just under 100F, whereas in the G2 it was 106F.
Keyboard and hardware controls
A good keyboard is very important in a notebook for the field. If it isn't perfect, one might as well use a tablet. Getac has used a variety of keyboard technologies in its rugged and semi-rugged notebooks over the years. Initially Getac laptops used older-style beveled keys. Over time, keyboards became more water-resistant and used mechanical membrane technology. The B360 likewise uses an LED backlit membrane keyboard, with an optional LED backlit rubber keyboard also available.
In terms of layout and look, these days almost everyone uses the "island-style" look with fairly short key travel but good tactile feedback. That's important in the field; everything must be optimized for functionality, clarity and ease of use. Compared to the keyboards we saw in the second generation B360 and B360 Pro, the labeling and icons in our 3rd gen test machine is much more elegant. We're talking Apple level elegance here. The difference is quite dramatic. In fact, the whole design looks and feels much like the standard Apple keyboard, which today is pretty much the standard for good keyboard design. Even some of the key widths and arrangements have been re-designed, for the better. An example is switching the Fn/Ctrl keys on the lefthand bottom of the keyboard to the more common Ctrl/Fn sequence. A small change, but one that a lot of users will appreciate. On the right side, the old "hamburger" key that made menus and pulldown pop up has been replaced by the Microsoft CoPilot key.
Placement of the keyboard in relation to the slightly recessed capacitive multi-touch touchpad and the two "mouse" buttons is just right. The touchpad seems the same as in the prior version. And, almost needless to say for full-size laptop, the all-important QWERTY layout is 100%-scale. That means the distance between the center of the letter Q and the center of the letter P is exactly 6-3/4 inches. This way, anyone used to a standard keyboard will have no problem finding the key and feeling at home, even if they are not full touch-typists.
The LED-based backlight can be toggled on/off via a function key combination. Illumination is reddish-tinted white, and it clearly illuminates the keys in semi and full darkness.
Unlike some earlier Getac rugged laptops we reviewed, illumination doesn't bleed out much around the keys in the dark. That makes the layout easier to read in the dark.
Powered by Intel 14th generation "Arrow Lake" Core Ultra Series 2 processor technology
Since the third generation B360's new processors are one of its big attractions, I want to discuss the whole processor situation in some detail. Not so long ago, rugged laptops routinely were several processor generations behind the technological state-of-the-art. That was in part due to longer product life cycles in government and many vertical markets, in part due to much lower sales volumes, and in part also due to a greater focus on mature, reliable technology rather than the latest trends. That has changed over the last few years, mostly because of very rapid advancement in processor technology, and also because of a number of truly game-changing developments.
An example of that rapid advancement was Intel's switch to hybrid processors, something that's actually been the norm in smartphones for years. "Hybrid" here means that in multi-processor CPUs, instead of using the same type of processor core for all work, there are complex, powerful P-cores (power cores) for the heavy lifting, and smaller, less complex E-cores (efficient cores) for routine tasks. So, it became power cores for maximum performance, and economy cores to save battery life — packing the best of both worlds into one chip. Intel started that with their "Alder Lake" 12th generation of Core processors.
The first generation Getac B360 was based on 10th generation CPUs, but when Intel released the "Alder Lake" 12th generation, Getac quickly adopted it for the second generation B360. The hybrid architecture actually meant a fairly substantial change in how things worked. Since there were now two types of processing cores, hardware and software had to work together in novel ways to take full advantage of the two types of cores. There was now a new "thread director" that was to make sure that whatever came into the system was sent to the proper cores for processing. The second gen B360 was faster than the original, but not by as much as we had expected. Intel and Microsoft hadn't quite optimized the arrangement just yet, and that went for performance as well as for economy. Intel quickly addressed most issues in the 13th Core processor generation — a bit of a frustration for early "Alder Lake" hybrid adopters.
And then things changed again, and this time due to a true game-changing development. AI happened, and with it came a lot of change. AI-type of processing is inherently different from "traditional" processing. It's more like graphics. It's more parallel than serial in nature. Almost everything was caught by surprise by how quickly everything changed. Intel itself had already worked on the 14th generation, with thread directing all nailed down and all going well. But suddenly everything was about AI, and Intel quickly split the 14th gen of Core processors into two flavors. On the one side there was "Raptor Lake Refresh," with more refinements and advancements of the hybrid architecture. But AI required a different direction with different emphasis, and so there are now also "Meteor Lake" 14th gen Intel Core Ultra chips. Those don't just have a CPU for processing and a GPU for graphics, they also have an NPU — Neural Processing Unit — because that's needed for the special type of AI processing.
But there's more. Turns out that the NPUs that Intel baked into the first Core Ultra chips were a good start and made for a degree of "AI-Readiness," but no more than that. Some more NPU punch was needed, and also some more optimization for AI-type of processing. So barely half a year after Core Ultra, Intel launched Core Ultra Series 2. Series 2 brought much more powerful NPUs, going from about just 10 to over 40 TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second). And Intel also gave them powerful Arc-branded graphics instead of the traditional integrated Iris graphics. Arc GPUs were available before, but generally as discrete modules, and not integrated.
The third generation B360 uses those powerful new Series 2 processors. The table below shows all four CPU options for the B360 G3:
CPU
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Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2
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Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2
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Intel Core Ultra 5 Series 2
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Intel Core Ultra 5 Series 2
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Model
|
265H
|
255H
|
235H
|
225H
|
P-Cores
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6
|
6
|
4
|
4
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E-Cores
|
8
|
8
|
8
|
8
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Low Power E-Cores
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
Total Threads
|
16
|
16
|
14
|
14
|
P-cores Max Turbo
|
5.30 GHz
|
5.10 GHz
|
5.00 GHz
|
4.90 GHz
|
E-cores Max Turbo
|
4.50 GHz
|
4.40 GHz
|
4.40 GHz
|
4.30 GHz
|
Thermal Design Power
|
28/115 watts
|
28/115 watts
|
28/115 watts
|
28/115 watts
|
Smart Cache
|
24MB
|
24MB
|
18MB
|
18MB
|
Integrated graphics
|
Intel Arc 140T
|
Intel Arc 140T
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Intel Arc 130T
|
Intel Arc 130T
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GPU Peak TOPS
|
75
|
74
|
74
|
63
|
Graphics max speed
|
2.30 GHz
|
2.25 GHz
|
2.25 GHz
|
2.00 GHz
|
NPU Peak TOPS
|
13
|
13
|
13
|
13
|
Intel vPro
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Enterprise
|
Essentials
|
Enterprise
|
Essentials
|
Now, what does all of that mean? First you'll notice that all of the chip options for the B360 G3 are Intel "H" Series CPUs — chips designed for high-performance laptops. That's different, for example, from the Series 2 "V" processors in the Getac B360 Plus, which we'll review separately. The "H" Series chips available for the B360 are all hybrid designs that use power and efficient cores, but they also use "Low Power" efficient cores as well. The latter are used for very low power background tasks.
You'll note that the power cores in these chips are no longer "hyper-threaded", so the total number of threads in these processors is the total number of actual cores. Also note that the two i7 options have six power cores and the two i5 options only four. That will make for a performance difference, as does the i7 cores' larger cache and slightly higher clock speeds.
Next you can see that three of the four CPU options use Intel Arc 140T graphics and one only Arc 130T graphics. The sole difference there seems to be that the 130T uses only seven instead of the full 140T's eight graphics cores. That somehow must make sense to Intel. Bottom line is that running on seven instead of eight GPU cores means a drop in peak TOPS performance. The NPUs on this quartet of chip options are the same.
In order to get a sense of where the Getac B360 G3 stands in terms of raw performance compared to its G2 predecessor and its primary laptop competition from Dell, Durabook and Panasonic, we ran our standard benchmark suites (PassMark 6.1 and 9, CrystalMark, PCMark10, 3DMark, and GeekBench. The results are as follows:
PERFORMANCE COMPARISON
|
Getac
|
Getac
|
Dell
|
Durabook
|
Panasonic
|
Model
|
B360 G3
|
B360 G2
|
Pro Rugged 14
|
Durabook Z14I
|
Toughbook 40
|
Year tested
|
2025
|
2023
|
2024
|
2025
|
2024
|
Processor
|
Intel Core
|
Intel Core
|
Intel Core
|
Intel Core
|
Intel Core
|
Processor Model
|
Ultra 7 255H
|
i7-1280P (G12)
|
Ultra 7 165U (G14)
|
Ultra 7 165U (G14)
|
i7-1185G7 (G11)
|
Code name
|
Arrow Lake
|
Alder Lake
|
Meteor Lake
|
Meteor Lake
|
Tiger Lake
|
Thermal Design Power (TDP)
|
28/115 watts
|
28/64 watts
|
15/57 watts
|
15/57 watts
|
12/28 watts
|
P-core base clock
|
2.00GHz
|
???
|
1.70GHz
|
1.70GHz
|
1.60GHz
|
P-core turbo clock
|
5.10GHz
|
4.80GHz
|
4.90GHz
|
4,90GHz
|
4.10GHz
|
CPU Cores/Threads
|
16/16
|
14/20
|
10/12
|
10/12
|
4/8
|
Graphics
|
Intel Arc 140T
|
Intel Iris
|
Intel Iris Xe
|
Intel Iris Xe
|
Intel Iris Xe
|
Display
|
13.3-inch 1920x1080
|
13.3-inch 1920x1080
|
14.0-inch 1920x1080
|
14.0-inch 1920x1080
|
14.0-inch 1920x1080
|
Display Luminance
|
1230 nits
|
1549 nits
|
906 nits
|
925 nits
|
1235 nits
|
Cooling
|
Active (fan)
|
Active (fan)
|
Active (fan)
|
Passive
|
Active (fan)
|
Weight
|
5.31 lbs as tested
|
5.17 lbs as tested
|
5.50 lbs as tested
|
8.11 lbs as tested
|
7.88 lbs as tested
|
Minimum Power Draw
|
?? watts
|
4.2 watts
|
3.6 watts
|
?? watts
|
5.6 watts
|
PassMark 6.1
|
11,244
|
8,941
|
10,201
|
8,788
|
5,066
|
PassMark 9.0
|
8,243
|
5,488
|
6,342
|
4,800
|
4,459
|
CrystalMark
|
670,398
|
553,462
|
522,901
|
458,758
|
417,042
|
PCMark10 Overall
|
7,436
|
5,750
|
5,742
|
5,553
|
4,630
|
-- PCMark10 Essentials
|
10,857
|
10,308
|
9,925
|
9,645
|
9,177
|
-- PCMark10 Productivity
|
9,179
|
6,914
|
9,590
|
7,646
|
6,519
|
-- PCMark10 Content Creation
|
11,199
|
6,296
|
7,327
|
6,304
|
5,128
|
PCMark10 Drive
|
1,342
|
1,841
|
2,104
|
1,284
|
1,248
|
PCMark10 Battery
|
10:11 hrs (62.7 whr)
|
04:32 hrs (46.6 whr)
|
11:35 hrs (107 whr)
|
10:04 hrs (84.2 whr)
|
05:55 hrs (68.0 whr)
|
Watt-Hours/hour
|
6.16
|
10.28
|
12.07
|
7.40
|
11.49
|
3DMark Time Spy
|
4,190
|
1,452
|
2,336
|
2,026
|
1,163
|
GeekBench 5 Single Core
|
2,087
|
1,588
|
1,769
|
1,627
|
1,358
|
GeekBench 5 Multi Core
|
11,859
|
7,784
|
8,787
|
6,644
|
3,816
|
GeekBench 5 Open CL
|
39,950
|
15,989
|
19,270
|
14,405
|
12,419
|
What do the benchmarks show? The results are pretty much as expected. Newer chip generations outperform older ones. What we didn't expect was by just how much.
First, the new third generation Getac B360 outperformed its second generation predecessor in every test but one (PCMark 10 drive performance). And it outperformed the older machine by a substantial margin. In graphics performance, the Arc graphics that come with every one of the new B360's CPU options literally clobbered the older machine. In our testing we often see relatively minor performance improvements between platform generations. Not here. The third gen of the B360 is a BIG performance step forward.
Second, and this must be quite frustrating to many manufacturers, Intel itself obsoletes new products ever so quickly with its rapid-fire introduction of new chips. The considerable performance gap between Core Ultra Series 1 chips, and the Series 2 that was released barely more than half a year later must be bit vexing for those who jumped to Core Ultra when it first came out.
The once vaunted 11th gen of Intel's Core processor, the gen that we considered a true milestone, has now been left way behind. The Panasonic Toughbook 40 that's listed in the table with 11th gen tech has since also been upgraded to Core Ultra Series 1, but we haven't received a review unit from Panasonic as of yet.
Another thing that seems almost physically impossible: for years, lowering the thermal design power — basically the heat generated by the highest wattage of a system built on a given chip — was an ongoing quest. But now we're seeing higher and higher TDPs, with the chips in the new B360 clocking in at 28/115 watts, unthinkably high just a few short years ago. And yet, our review B360 was also the most "fuel-efficient" laptop in the table above, sipping just 6.16 watt-hours per hour in the very demanding PCMark 10 Battery test.
Finally, just to give you an idea how powerful the new B360 G3 is, here are additional benchmark numbers. The 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark consists of two graphics tests, a physics test that exercises the CPU, and then a combined test of both the CPU and the GPU to provide a truly comprehensive performance score. In that test, the stock second generation B360 scored a 3,928. The second generation B360 with the (quite costly) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 discrete GPU option, scored 7,553. The stock third gen B360 beat that WITHOUT an additional discrete GPU, scoring a blazing 7,820.
What does AI-ready mean?
When Getac introduced the third generation B360 in March 2025, the media release said it was "powerful AI-ready technology" which would allow users to "quickly and seamlessly execute tasks in scenarios requiring real-time processing, high levels of data privacy and security, offline capability and cost efficiency."
Here's a very quick introduction what all that means and how it all works. In the early days of computing, long ago, processors were 4-bit, then 8-bit (like the first IBM PC), then 16-bit, 32-bit, and 64-bit. There was a veritable war between CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) and RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing). Some argued that complex instruction sets were the way to go, others felt simple instruction sets worked just as well, and were faster and more efficient. Intel was on the CISC side, and ARM (the processor technology used in most smartphone chips) on the RISC side. Today's hardware is powerful enough to run whatever bit-length, and the controversy has shifted to what bit-lengths and "precisions" are faster and more efficient to run.
Well, it turned out that the type of math in graphics and AI workloads actually works faster and more efficiently with shorter bit lengths. As a result, AI benchmarks determine the performance of processors in "single precision" FP32 format, in "half precision" FP16 format, and in "quantized precision" INT8 format — 32, 16, and 8 bit. This is where GPUs and NPUs come in, Graphics Processing Units, and Neural Processing Units. In those areas, performance is specified in TOPS — Tera Operations Per Second, and a metric for AI model performance is IPS — Inferences Per Second.
The suitability of a processor and computer, of course, depends on what you seek to do with it. While general computing will never go out of style, graphics performance and AI-type of processing performance are increasingly important, and hence the growing focus on GPUs and NPUs, and the software that runs fastest and most economically on them.
And that is what Getac refers to when they talk about the "powerful AI-ready technology" in the 3rd gen B360. There will be much more progress in the future, but for now, the Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chips really steps up the game.
The table below shows the results computed by the GeekBench AI benchmark suite. The benchmark numbers are in IPS, inferences per second, the higher the better. "OpenVINO" is an Intel toolkit that optimizes and accelerates AI models on CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs. The table represents the relative performance of the B360's with its Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 processor on CPU, GPU and NPU, and also how that compares to an Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 1 processor system that we recently tested in our lab.
Framework |
Hardware |
Single (32bit) |
Half (16bit) |
Quantized (8bit) |
i7 155U |
i7 255H |
i7 155U |
i7 255H |
i7 155U |
i7 255H |
Series 1 |
Series 2 |
Series 1 |
Series 2 |
Series 1 |
Series 2 |
OpenVINO |
CPU |
1,920 |
4,338 |
1,933 |
4,466 |
4,802 |
11,542 |
OpenVINO |
GPU |
3,050 |
10,250 |
5,034 |
22,389 |
7,249 |
30,490 |
OpenVINO |
NPU |
1,941 |
4,203 |
6,810 |
9,455 |
10,385 |
13,881 |
The numbers in the above table provide a general idea of how typical machine learning/AI types of processing, measured in inferences per second, execute in different precisions on the CPU, GPU and NPU. This doesn't mean all that much for now. But it may well be a preview of coming attractions, where different types of software will be designed for, and executed on, the part of the computer (CPU, GPU or NPU) that can handle it most quickly and most economically.
Battery life
Just as is the case with electric vehicles, balancing range with battery size, weight and cost is a never-ending challenge for designers of rugged computing gear. Back when rugged laptops were heavy and bulky, there was room for a big battery, and customers didn't mind the weight so much. But that has changed. The Getac B360 is, for a rugged system, a thin & light design, and that required some concessions, the onboard amount of battery power one of them. How does that affect battery size and power in the B360?
Battery technology has come a long way, but progress remains slower than overall progress in electronics and miniaturization. Does that mean today's slender power packs have less capacity? Often they do. Rugged devices of the past routinely had standard batteries with 90 or 100 watt-hour capacities. Today it's often much less than that.
As is, combined, the B360's two slender (just 3/8-inch thick) batteries, now pack 62.7 watt-hours, a good and much appreciated step up from the predecessor model's meager 46.6 watt-hours! This addresses one of the few concerns we had about the second gen B360.
Getac specs don't list expected battery life in the B360's specs, probably because battery life depends on so many variables. So, given the B360's substantial performance and super-bright screen, what will we find?
Getac B360 BatteryMon Power Draws (at idle)
|
|
Backlight level
|
Darkest
|
50%
|
Brightest
|
|
Max Battery
|
3.4 watts (18.4 hrs.)
|
4.4 watts (14.3 hrs.)
|
8.5 watts (7.4 hrs.)
|
|
Max Performance
|
4.2 watts (14.9 hrs.)
|
5.1 watts (12.3 hrs.)
|
9.5 watts (6.6 hrs.)
|
We used PassMark's BatteryMon to measure basic power draw. Selecting the Getac "Best Power Efficiency" mode, and screen brightness toggle set to its lowest setting, we saw a minimum of 3.4 watts, significantly less than the second gen's minimum draw of just 4.2 watts. With the backlight set to 50% it was 4.4 watts (compared to the G2's 5.6 watts), and with the backlight at 100%, 8.5 watts — over two watts less than the predecessor's 10.7 watts. Dividing the full available 62.8 watt-hours by the lowest observed power draw of 3.4 watts would indicate a theoretical battery life of 16.4 hours.
Putting the B360 into Windows' "Best Performance" power mode and toggling the backlight to 0%, power draw was 4.2 watts, good for a theoretical 14.9 hours. With the backlight set to the 50% level, it was 5.1 watts, still good for 12.3 hours.
With the backlight at 100%, power draw rose to 19.5 watts. This means that in "Best Performance" mode and backlight as bright as Windows sets it, theoretical battery life is down quite a bit, but it is still 6.6 hours. All these battery draws are much lower than those of the last generation B360, despite its much higher performance!
All that said, of course, the power draw we measured was at idle. In real life use, computers go into standby mode after a period of idling, using even less power, but when called to do actual work, they use much more. Which means that real life battery life will vary.
This is why the PCMark10 Battery benchmark, which continuously exercises the computer with a variety of common computing tasks until the battery is exhausted, is a much more reliable predictor of real world battery life.
In that PCMark10 Battery test — with the laptop in economy mode and the display set to 200 nits luminance — the Getac B360 lasted 10:11 hours, which was way more than the predecessor's much shorter 4:32 hours. Between the higher battery capacity, the better power management in the newest electronics, and Microsoft's as well as Getac's optimization, the 3rd gen B360 can now easily do what is expected from a rugged laptop designed for use on the job — making it through a full shift and then some. The test result shows 9:47 hours from 99% battery down to 3%; we extrapolated from 100% to 0%
Ruggedness
Despite being significantly thinner and lighter than traditional fully rugged laptops, the B360 is a fully rugged platform that is designed to reliably perform under extreme working environments where weather conditions and physical abuse are an ever-present reality. The laptop can operate between -20° and 145° Fahrenheit (-29° to 63°C). Sealing is at the IP66 standard, and the machine fills MIL-STD-810H testing requirements for humidity, altitude, shock, drop, vibration and others, and the B360 is also compliant with MIL-STD-461G (electromagnetic interference). The pictures below show samples of the kind of ruggedness testing Getac performs on all of their computers.
To go into a bit more detail on the individual ruggedness testing categories:
IP ratings refer to Ingress Protection standards for electrical enclosures, with the first number describing the protection level against solids and the second protection against liquids. The B360's IP66 rating indicates total protection against dust, and the laptop is also protected against strong jets of water from all directions. That is far above semi-rugged laptops' IP52 or IP53 ingress protection ratings.
In terms of temperature resistance, the B360's extremely wide -20 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit operating temperature range was measured in accordance with MIL-STD-810H, 501.5 Procedure II and 502.5 Procedure II. The computer also passed non-condensing humidity testing up to 95% per MIL-STD-810H, 507.5 Procedure II, and can operate in altitudes up to 15,000 feet (and obviously in aircraft with pressurized cabins) per MIL-STD-810H, 500.5 Procedure II.
The device is RoHS-compliant. RoHS stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substances and regulates the use of certain hazardous substances in electronic equipment. The RoHS standard is fully implemented in Europe, with lesser restrictions applying in the US.
Shock, vibration, drop and ESD resistance are all tested according to MIL-STD-810H and other relevant regulatory procedures. Not all results are in the promotional literature or owner's manual (which for now only states "vibration & drop resistant"), so inquire with Getac for specifics and also check Getac's certification and compliance testing document (see here).
With respect to the ever important drop spec, Getac's web page specs don't mention a particular drop height, just that the tests performed on Getac units include MIL-STD-810H Method 516.6. — transit drop. That one generally requires 26 drops from four feet. Why four feet? Because when designing the drop tests, the government figured that if you drop something while standing, it'll drop about four feet, as opposed to something that falls off a table or counter, which is 2.5 to three feet. The Getac B360 passed the tests from a drop height of six feet. That is impressive.
I should mention that optionally available is ANSI/UL 121201, CSA C22.2 NO. 213 certification as electrical equipment for use in Class I, Division 2 hazardous locations (i.e. places where ignitable concentrations of flammable gases, vapors or liquids may happen). There are multiple configuration options to fit desired usage scenarios in potentially explosive environments typically found in the oil and gas, petrochemical, aviation and related industries.
Finally, Getac's rugged mobile computer decontamination document (see here) recommends a number of commonly available disinfectants for the B360 — still very relevant even in post-pandemic times. All those disinfectants have been tested for 10,000 swipe-downs at a pressure of 14.22 psi.
LumiBond® 2 display works well indoors and out
Computer displays have come a very long way since the early days of the PC, with many of today's displays being pretty much perfect. Indoors, that is. Outdoors, the sun can overwhelm the brightest display, and there are reflections that can make a screen difficult to see and use. Clearly, outdoor/sunlight viewability is of crucial importance to users of rugged laptops such as the Getac B360.
As a result, rugged computer manufacturers have long been in a race for the best possible outdoor/sunlight-viewable display technology. Several years ago, Getac came up with their "QuadraClear®". The term referred to its four core features: a bright backlight, anti-reflective coatings, linear polarizer, and circular polarizer.
All major manufacturers of outdoor-usable mobile computing equipment use those technologies, and so the difference boils down to a) backlight brightness and b) the extent to which the expensive optical coatings are applied and how the various layers are bonded (the fewer reflective surfaces, the better). Getac calls their layer bonding process "LumiBond®" (see LumiBond® page).
What constitutes a "powerful" backlight? That's where luminance, the intensity of light emitted, comes in.
Luminance is measured in candela per square meter, where candela refers to luminous intensity, the power emitted by a light source. Since "candela per square meter" is a bit cumbersome, the industry uses "nits" which really is just short for "units".
A standard laptop display is generally in the 200 nits range, and rarely reaches 300 nits. Premium tablets are in the 400-600 nits range. Some heavy-duty rugged gear went as high as 1500 nits, but that generally required a massive, heavy battery.
The Getac B360 display is listed as 1400 nits, which is very bright. And its various optical treatments cut down the percentage of incoming ambient light. That's important because the ratio between the backlight and the reflected incoming ambient light determines the effective contrast ratio, which then translates into the degree of real world outdoor readability of a display. In our testing we saw a maximum luminance of just over 1300 nits.
The image collage below shows the B360 display under a wide variety of viewing conditions.
Overall, its sheer brightness precludes the picture from washing out, the way it does on lesser screens, under almost any lighting condition. The semi-matte surface also totally eliminates the sharp reflections that bedevil standard "glossy" displays outdoors.
There are, however, no completely perfectly solutions to outdoor viewability with current display technology. Getac made this display as bright as possible while, with prudent use of full brightness, still offering generous battery life. But even with a semi-matte displays surface, reflections manifest — not in a distracting mirror-like way, but a degree of milkiness when the display diffuses light. The bottom right, with the display facing the clear sunny sky, photographed with some moving aberrations that are not otherwise present.
Overall, the B360 display is excellent. Both glossy and semi-matte screens have their pros and cons, but outdoors and in the sun, semi-matte's ability to diffuse the sharp reflections of glossy screens can be a distinct advantage. This is about as good as it currently gets.
One thing, though, and we already mentioned that when we reviewed the second gen B360 two years ago: It's really time to increase screen resolution! With ever more powerful GPUs, AI applications, and increasingly complex graphics and mapping software, machines such as the Getac B360 are now used to perform complex and very detailed imaging tasks and computations. Good old "Full HD" 1920 x 1080 pixel is rapidly becoming a weak link. It'd be nice to get 1440p 2560 x 1440 resolution, or better, at least as an option.
Glove touch and handling rain
One of the limiting issues with capacitive multi-touch is that in its generic form, it only works with human fingers or, to a lesser extent, with capacitive styli. Capacitive touch doesn't like rain and it won't accept thick gloves and such. Unfortunately, wetness and the need for gloves is exactly what one encounters out there where machines such as the Getac B360 are often used.
Getac was one of the first to address these issues, and solutions have been part of the LumiBond® 2.0 technology for several years. There's a special G-Manager "Touch Screen" display where users can select "Finger Mode", "Glove Mode", or "Stylus Mode". Here's how it works:
"Finger Mode" is the default mode for operation with finger tips, and it is also programmed to ignore rain drops and such, which isn't easy. Water is so conductive that it affects the capacitance between two electrodes, which is the concept projected capacitive touch is built on. It is, however, possible to use technology that measures the capacitance between one electrode and the ground, and that is likely what Getac did to keep the touch screen from reaction to droplets. That means that the stylus that comes with the G360 doesn't work in this.
"Glove" allows the B360 to be operated with gloves. That is done by increasing the sensitivity of the touch controller, so that it can recognize a finger even a brief distance away from the screen, as in the distance that the material of a glove adds to the finger's distance from the screen. That's the way Getac seemed to have done it.
"Stylus" mode is for use with the dual-mode input option. Touch continues to work in pen mode, but the system will not recognize touch when it senses the pen in use, and vice versa. Pen mode is also for use with narrow-tip capacitive pens, where the smaller contact area of the stylus takes priority over the large contact of finger touch.
Note that the touch configuration screen is part of Getac's excellent G-Manager, a comprehensive utility with seven info/settings screens that cover system, battery, GNSS/GPS, buttons, power profiles, touch and miscellaneous. Out there in the filed it's great to have all the settings in own device-specific utility rather than having to hunt through Windows Settings!
Summary: Getac B360 fully rugged notebook computer
With the third generation of the B360, Getac once again leapfrogs its primary competition in the modern, full-size, fully rugged laptop race. The B360 is a fully-rugged computer for the field that isn't bulky and doesn't weigh a lot. In fact, even in this new and more powerful version, Getac does the seemingly impossible: make a fully-rugged machine that can handle whatever hazard or abuse comes its way, yet is no bulkier, and weighs no more, than most semi-ruggeds. That is remarkable.
So to just quickly reiterate, the Getac B360 still only weighs just a little over five pounds even with two batteries, offers excellent performance thanks to using state-of-the-art technology (like Intel 14th gen Core Ultra Series 2 chips), and sports the kind of full, uncompromising ruggedness needed on so many jobs. Customers will also appreciate the higher capacity batteries that now easily last through a full shift on a charge
The third gen B360 brings with it a substantial jump in performance. Graphics, in particular, are much more powerful than before, and the addition of enhanced NPUs makes the B360 truly "AI-enhanced." Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, September 2025
Getac B360 G3 fully-rugged laptop Specs
|
Status |
Introduced June 2025, full review August 2025
|
Type |
Fully rugged notebook
|
Processor |
Intel Core Ultra 7 265H (6 P-cores/8 E-cores/2 LPE-cores, 5.3 GHz max turbo)
Intel Core Ultra 7 255H (6 P-cores/8 E-cores/2 LPE-cores, 5.1 GHz max turbo)
Intel Core Ultra 5 235H (4 P-cores/8 E-cores/2 LPE-cores, 5.0 GHz max turbo)
Intel Core Ultra 5 225H (4 P-cores/8 E-cores/2 LPE-cores, 4.9 GHz max turbo)
|
Thermal Design Power |
28/115 watts (all available processors)
|
Graphics |
Intel Core Ultra 7 265H: Intel Arc 140T, 2.30GHz, 75 TOPS (Int8)
Intel Core Ultra 7 255H: Intel Arc 140T, 2.25GHz, 74 TOPS (Int8)
Intel Core Ultra 7 235H: Intel Arc 140T, 2.25GHz, 74 TOPS (Int8)
Intel Core Ultra 7 225H: Intel Arc 130T, 2.20GHz, 63 TOPS (Int8)
|
OS |
Windows 11 Professional (64-bit)
|
Memory |
16GB DDR5 expandable to 64GB
|
Storage |
Main storage: 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Optional 2nd storage: 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB NVMe SSD
|
Expansion slots |
1 x Smart Card reader; optional: 1 x MicroSD card, 1 x 1D/2D imager barcode reader
|
Display type |
IPS TFT LCD, LumiBond® 2.0 sunlight readable LED display
|
Display size/res |
13.3"/1920 x 1080 pixel (166 ppi) 1400 NITs Lumibond display
|
Digitizer |
10-point capacitive multi-touch |
Keyboard |
LED backlit membrane keyboard; optional LED backlit rubber keyboard |
Housing |
Unknown |
Size |
13.46" x 11.06" x 1.37" inches (342 x 281 x 35 mm)
|
Weight |
Starting at 5.11 pounds (2.32 kg); weight as tested with two batteries and stylus: 5.31 lbs.
|
Operating temperature |
-20° to 145°F (-29° to 63°C) |
Drop test |
MIL-STD-810H 6-ft drop
|
Ingress protection |
IP66 |
Vibration |
e-Mark certified for vehicle usage |
Humidity |
95% RH, non-condensing
|
Disinfectants |
See Getac rugged mobile computer decontamination
|
EMI |
MIL-STD-461G certified
|
Power |
Dual hot-swappable 7.72V 4,060 mAH 31.34 whr Li-Ion batteries for a total of 62.68 whr
|
Cameras |
Front-facing 5MP webcam or optional Windows Hello face-authentication
|
Scanning |
Optional barcode scanner
|
Security |
TPM 2.0, Kensington cable lock slot, Smart Card reader, opt. HF RFID reader, HF RFID reader, Absolute Persistence
|
Interface |
1 x audio in/out combo, DC-in Jack, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A, 1 x PowerShare USB 3.2 Type A, 1 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, 1 x LAN (RJ45), 1 x HDMI 2.0, Docking connector.
Configurable I/O Options:
1. 9-pin D-sub serial + 15-pin VGA
2. 9-pin D-sub serial + DisplayPort
3. 9-pin D-sub serial + 15-pin VGA + 2nd RJ45 LAN
4. 9-pin D-sub serial + DisplayPort + 2nd RJ45 LAN
5. 9-pin D-sub serial + 2nd Thunderbolt 4 Type-C
6. 9-pin D-sub serial + 2nd Thunderbolt 4 Type-C + 2nd RJ45 LAN
|
Wireless |
Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200, 802.11be Bluetooth (v5.4), gigabit RJ45 Ethernet; opt. dedicated GPS OR opt. 4G LTE mobile broadband with integrated GPS, opt. 5G Sub-6 with integrated GPS, opt. dual SIM (Mini-SIM 2FF and e-SIM), opt. RF antenna pass-through for GPS, WLAN and WWAN
|
Price |
Inquire |
Web page |
Getac B360 G3 web page
|
Brochure |
Getac B360 G3 brochure/specs
|
Warranty |
3-year bumper-to-bumper warranty standard |
|
|
|
|