If you’re a company that has to deploy its personnel into places where normal smartphones dare not go, your other option would be to look for rugged devices. But if you’re having trouble picking one, Google has a solution for you. Earlier this year, they launched their Android Enterprise Recommended program and now they’re adding and evaluating rugged devices for you and recommending which brands and devices your company should get for your personnel as they go out into construction, the desert, or wherever it is you’re sending them to.
The new category of rugged devices for the program also means that there is a new list of requirements and best practices that they are putting forward. They are evaluating and validating these rugged devices just like with the previous initial list that they recommended to enterprises, but this time with the added requirements of drop-testing and ingress protection as well as extending regular security patches to five years. All of these are important for rugged devices of course.
Other requirements that they are looking at to get their recommendation include minimum hardware specifications for Android devices 7.0 and above, and the delivery of security updates within 90 days after it’s released by Google, as well as the previously mentioned five years of security patches. It also needs to have support for bulk deployment, including Android zero-touch enrollment and support for at least one additional major OS release.
They also released the initial list of recommended rugged devices which include the following:
- Zebra TC25, TC51, TC56, TC70x and TC75x
- Honeywell Dolphin CT40, Dolphin CT60 and Dolphin CN80
- Sonim XP8
- Point Mobile PM45
- Datalogic Memor 10 (launching in October)
The program is working with Panasonic and other OEMs that have rugged devices so they can be validated over the next few weeks. Interested and relevant companies and enterprises should check out the full list of requirements as well as more details about these devices before making a decision about which one to get.
SOURCE: Google
