Getac S510 Review: Performance, Features

By Ambar Jimenez | 2025-04-27 11:01:55

Discover the Getac S510 in our comprehensive review guide. Uncover features, performance, and insights to help you make an informed decision.
In demanding environments where reliability and resilience are paramount, semi-rugged laptops stand as essential tools. From the confines of police cruisers and the urgency of ambulances to the rigorous conditions of industrial worksites and the unpredictable nature of remote outdoor locations, these laptops are engineered for durability and endurance, plain and simple. The Getac S510, with a starting price of $2,171 and a tested configuration reaching approximately $3,522, not only claims its spot as one of the largest semi-rugged laptops on the market but also solidifies its position as one of the best.The Getac S510 masterfully embodies reliability and performance, presenting an impressive array of features meticulously designed for challenging tasks. Its expansive 15.6-inch display boasts a sunlight-readable screen, ensuring visibility even in bright outdoor conditions. The feature list extends to include dual hot-swappable batteries for uninterrupted operation, integrated GPS for precise location tracking, a convenient carry handle for easy portability, and an optional integrated barcode scanner for efficient data capture. With its robust design and comprehensive feature set, the Getac S510 confidently seizes the crown from the Durabook S15 as our new Editors' Choice for semi-rugged laptops with larger screens.

Getac S510 Review - Guide

Built for Survival, Not Sleekness:

Every facet of the Getac S510's design prioritizes survival and functionality over aesthetic sleekness. Its substantial, armored chassis, weighing approximately 5.2 pounds and measuring 1.5 by 14.8 by 10.9 inches (HWD), dwarfs the slender profiles of typical consumer laptops.1 Given its weight, the inclusion of a flexible carry handle is a highly appreciated ergonomic touch, facilitating comfortable transportation in demanding work environments. Upon closer inspection, the S510's rugged nature becomes increasingly evident.Even in its basic elements, the S510 showcases its robust engineering. A sliding latch securely fastens the lid, preventing accidental opening during transport or in rough conditions.2 The display hinges are intentionally stiffened to minimize wobbling while still allowing for easy one-handed opening, a crucial detail for users often working with limited dexterity or while wearing gloves. Beyond these fundamental aspects, the S510 boasts even more tenacious specifications. It holds MIL-STD-810H certification, signifying its adherence to stringent military toughness standards. This certification guarantees reliable performance across a wide temperature range, from a frigid minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit to a scorching 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Furthermore, the laptop can withstand drops of up to three feet, providing crucial protection against accidental falls common in demanding work environments. Its IP53 certification further underscores its resilience, offering robust resistance to dust ingress and exposure to rain or narrow streams of water. While fully rugged laptops like the Panasonic Toughbook 40 offer even greater levels of protection, including a higher six-foot drop rating, complete dustproof design, and enhanced water resistance, they come with significantly increased bulk and a higher price point.

Bright and Functional Display:

The Getac S510's screen boasts an impressive brightness rating of 1,000 nits (candelas per square meter), ensuring exceptional visibility even in direct sunlight. This is a critical feature for professionals working outdoors or in brightly lit industrial settings. While our specific demo model did not include a touch screen, Getac offers a capacitive touch screen option that supports input from bare fingers, gloved fingers, or a capacitive stylus, enhancing versatility and usability in various work scenarios.3

Comprehensive and Protected Port Selection:

Understanding the need for reliable connectivity in demanding environments, Getac meticulously shields the S510's ports with durable dust covers, maximizing protection against the elements.4 Each port is also clearly marked, ensuring quick and accurate identification. On the right edge, users will find a SmartCard reader for secure access, a standard 3.5mm audio jack for headphones and microphones, and a nano SIM slot for optional 4G or 5G connectivity, enabling seamless data access in the field. Another protected compartment houses dual Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports for high-speed data transfer and display connectivity, along with a USB 3.2 Type-A port for legacy device compatibility. The AC power jack is conveniently located at the back corner.The rear of the laptop offers even more connectivity options. Under a protective cover on the left side (when viewing the laptop from the front), users will find an HDMI 2.0 monitor output for external displays, an additional USB-A port, and a reliable Ethernet jack for wired network connections. The middle cover conceals an optional second nano SIM slot, providing enhanced connectivity redundancy. Opening the cover on the right reveals a traditional serial port alongside two customizable port spaces. Our test unit was equipped with a VGA monitor output and a second Ethernet jack in these customizable spaces, but users can opt for a USB-A port and a DisplayPort monitor output instead, tailoring the connectivity to their specific needs.Moving to the left side of the laptop, our S510 proudly displays an integrated barcode reader, a valuable tool for inventory management, asset tracking, and various industrial applications. This barcode reader can be optionally replaced with a second storage bay for expanded internal storage or a DVD optical drive for legacy media compatibility. On the underside of the laptop, the dual batteries are intelligently designed for hot-swapping, allowing for seamless battery replacement without powering down the system, ensuring continuous operation during long work shifts. Similarly, the M.2-format storage drive can also be swapped without the need for specialized tools, facilitating quick maintenance and upgrades in the field. For wireless connectivity, the laptop features an Intel AX211 wireless card, supporting the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard for high-speed wireless networking and Bluetooth 5.3 for seamless peripheral connections.

Warranty and Accessories:

Getac stands behind the durability and reliability of the S510 with a comprehensive three-year warranty and includes the user-friendly Windows 11 Pro operating system. To further enhance its utility in various work environments, a wide array of accessories are available, including secure vehicle mounting solutions, durable protective screen films, and convenient in-the-field battery chargers with options for two or eight bays.

Surprisingly Comfortable for Office Tasks:

While semi-rugged laptops often prioritize toughness and usability with gloves, sometimes at the expense of typing comfort, the Getac S510 proves surprisingly accommodating for light office tasks. The keyboard stands out with its substantial key travel and gratifying tactile feedback, providing a comfortable and accurate typing experience. In fact, thereviewer even achieved a personal best typing speed on this ruggedlaptop's keyboard.

However, extended typing sessions revealed a minor ergonomic drawback. The laptop's thick chassis and the longer-than-usual reach to the keyboard caused the front edge to press somewhat uncomfortably against the forearms.

The touchpad was found to be excellent, offering a smooth surface for precise navigation and featuring two well-placed physical buttons that operate quietly. The buttons are also thoughtfully separated,preventing accidental simultaneous presses when wearing gloves.

Enhanced Usability with Shortcut Buttons and Utilities:

Shortcut buttons are indispensable features on semi-rugged laptops, where executingcomplex key combinations with gloved hands can be cumbersome. Getac'sintuitive G-Manager app allows for easy configuration of the P1 and P2 shortcut buttons located above the keyboard. These buttons can be customized to perform a variety of essential functions, including engaging blackout mode orsunlight-readable screen brightness, enabling the barcode reader,toggling airplane mode, switching power profiles, initiatingCtrl+Alt+Delete, or launching frequently used applications. Forconfigurations equipped with a touch screen, the laptop also supportsconvenient screen edge menus. Additionally, Getac offers its Driving Safely utility, a valuable tool for promoting workforce safety by restricting laptop use in unsafe driving situations.

Impressive Display Brightness and Webcam:

The display of the S510 is truly impressive, delivering dazzling brightness at its maximum sunlight-readable setting. This high brightness ensuresexcellent visibility even in direct sunlight, a critical advantage foroutdoor work. For extremely low-light environments, the display includes a blackout mode, which was measured at an impressively low 1.5 nits, minimizing eye strain in dark settings. The integrated anti-glare coating is indispensable for maintaining clear visibility outdoors. While the colors appear natural and well-represented, the screen's color coverage is somewhat limited, as detailed later in the review.

Getac also deserves praise for the S510's excellent webcam, which features a physical privacy shutter for enhanced security and is available with infrared (IR) capability for secure facial recognition login via Windows Hello. Another notable visual touch is the inclusion of classic LED indicators for essential functions like power status and wireless connectivity. However, the audio performance from the integrated speakers is a disappointment, sounding flat with a lack of bass and not reaching particularly high volume levels.

Performance for Rugged Tasks:

Under the hood, the Intel Core Ultra processor in the Getac S510 proved responsive for a wide range of everyday tasks. The single cooling fan became noticeably audible under sustained heavy load, but this level of noise would likely be masked in typical rugged environments likefactory floors or vehicles with running engines.

The processor can be paired with up to 64GB of RAM and a spacious 2TB self-encrypting storage drive, ensuring ample memory and secure data storage for demandingapplications. Notably, the S510 is one of the few semi-rugged laptopsoffering an optional dedicated GPU, specifically an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650. This dedicated graphics card can provide significant acceleration forvideo decoding and localized AI tasks, catering to users with specificgraphical processing needs.

Our specific Getac S510 demo unit was equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155U processor (10 cores, 4.8GHz turbo), integrated Intel Graphics, 32GB of memory, and a 512GB self-encrypted SSD. The base model starts at approximately $2,171, while our testedconfiguration, including the barcode reader, reached $3,522. Detailedpricing comparisons with competitors are not included in the review, assemi-rugged laptops are typically purchased through specializedagreements for government and industry clients.

Benchmark Performance:

In our suite of benchmark tests, the Getac S510 was compared against the semi-rugged Dell Pro Rugged 14 and the fullyrugged Panasonic Toughbook 40, as well as two premium, non-ruggedizedbusiness laptops: the HP EliteBook 1040 G11 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1Carbon Gen 13.

Our primary overall benchmark, UL's PCMark 10, assesses system performance in productivity applications. The S510 achieved a score of 5,621 in the main PCMark 10 test, significantly exceeding the 4,000-point threshold we considersufficient for everyday use, indicating its capability to handlestandard rugged computing tasks efficiently. However, it generallyranked last in processor-intensive benchmarks like Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core and HandBrake, which is expected given its less powerful CPU compared to some of the other tested units.

In UL's 3DMark graphics benchmarks, the S510 also came in last place, which is unsurprising as it featuresthe weakest integrated graphics solution in the group (vanillaintegrated Intel Graphics rather than Intel's more powerful Arcsolutions). While a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU is anavailable configuration option, the reviewer notes that GPU-acceleratedcontent creation and gaming are typically not the primary focus for most users seeking a rugged laptop.

Excellent Battery Life:

The Getac S510 demonstrated impressive battery life, lasting 15 hours and 21 minutes on a single battery in our local video playback test. The dual hot-swappable battery design offers the potential to double the runtime with a second battery installed. While falling short of the PanasonicToughbook's exceptional 41-plus-hour performance (tested with its second battery), the Getac would likely approach the 30-hour range under similar dual-battery conditions.

Decent Display Brightness, Limited Color Coverage:

The S510's screen performed as expected for a rugged system, achieving a peak brightness of 964 nits, ensuring excellent visibility in sunlight and aligning with thebrightness levels of the Dell and Panasonic models. However, its color coverage was limited, covering only 63% of the sRGB color gamut, similar to the Toughbook's screen. This limitation is understandable,as these rugged laptops are primarily designed for demanding work tasksrather than color-critical creative work or entertainment.

Conclusion:

The Getac S510 stands as a compelling choice for professionals demanding a large-screen, semi-rugged laptop that delivers unwavering durability and reliable performance. Its sunlight-readable display, dual hot-swappable batteries, comprehensive port selection, and optional features like the integrated barcode reader cater directly to the needs of users in challenging environments. While not designed for high-end content creation or gaming, the S510 provides ample processing power and exceptional battery life for everyday rugged computing tasks. Its thoughtful design, including the comfortablekeyboard and intuitive G-Manager app, further enhances its usability.Despite the somewhat limited color coverage of the display and theunremarkable audio, the Getac S510's robust build, impressive feature set, and overall performancemake it a deserving Editors' Choice in the realm of semi-rugged laptopswith larger screens.

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