ITT I am documenting the customization and usage of my personal Latitude 7230 Rugged Tablet made by Dell Technologies. My intention is to share how I customize this device to suit my unique needs and to review its subsequent performance in the field. You are invited to ask questions about the device or offer suggestions of how I might improve my configuration.
Disclosure: This is not a sponsored review. I purchased this device with my own money and am in no way affiliated with Dell Technologies.
Overview
Specs
The following upgrades from the base model were chosen for my personal device:
- 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1260U, vPro® (10 cores, up to 4.7 GHz Turbo)
- 32 GB: 2 x 16 GB, LPDDR5, 5200 MT/s (onboard)
- 4G CAT16 - Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X20 LTE (DW5821e), AT&T, NMEA GPS port
- WLAN, WWAN, GPS Antennas (Pogo vehicle docking, RF passthrough)
- Contactless Smartcard reader (NFC), removable SSD, with passive pen
Unlike most modern laptops, these components are not soldered directly to the motherboard, which allows them to be easily replaced or upgraded in the future.
Accessories
I also purchased the following accessories for the tablet:
- Dell Keyboard for Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme Tablet - US English | Dell USA
- Dell Rugged Active Pen - PN720R | Dell USA
- Dell Shoulder Strap for Latitude Rugged Extreme Tablets & Notebooks | Dell USA
Personalization
In short, I wiped the hard drive and installed Debian Linux with the GNOME desktop environment. The suite of applications I chose from there is a topic for another thread, and the personalization I am referring to here is more in regard to my personal workflow with the tablet on a daily basis. Until quite recently, I have used this device almost exclusively as a laptop, rarely if ever removing the keyboard attachment. After my recent move to downtown Raleigh, I have had more utility for using the device as a tablet (specifically referring to the Mobile Live Stream Testing video linked in the demos thread above). The stretch goal for this tablet, however, is for it to be a sufficient replacement for a smartphone. With mobile broadband provided by AT&T, the device has a phone number and, theoretically, is capable of sending and receiving calls and text messages. Additionally, the contactless smart card reader could be used for NFC protocols - potentially even secure payments, though I imagine this would be quite difficult to achieve.
On its own, the device is quite light and easy to carry with one hand; even so, this 10.5 inch tablet is not nearly as convenient a mobile device as a smartphone that fits in your pocket. Carrying this device and using it on a moment’s notice is far too cumbersome to reasonably replace a smartphone. To do so, I imagine employing a suite of peripheral devices connected using both Bluetooth and the physical I/O ports that would make certain features more accessible. An internet-of-things exoskeleton using a rugged tablet as the control center. Grandiosity aside, this is basically what most people already have between their smartphone, smartwatch, and earbuds. The innovation here is in achieving this with open source software, self-hosted services, and an intentionality of design.
Review
In short, this is my laptop and I am happy with it. I do not intend to purchase a different one for a long time. The following review will highlight challenge I previously or currently face with the device, and my intention is to continue tweaking my configurations to improve these issues. This is a review of how well my specific device works for my specific needs.
Performance
Generally speaking, I can daily-drive this device for software engineering, live streaming, video production, and gaming. I can attach two 4K monitors and use it with the same fluidity as my Inspiron 3670 desktop (also running Debian Linux). The Latitude 7230 is not a gaming PC, nor is it an AI data center, nor a video production studio. It is a rugged tablet that performs on-par with a MacBook Pro.
The Integrated Intel®Iris® Xe Graphics is potentially a bottleneck for the applications I have intended for this device. As we have seen on previous live streams in the initial mobile live stream tests and Luanti streams, the videos I produce on this device often suffer from frame-rate issues.
It is not clear that the integrated graphics is the root cause of these issues. In fact, given that it seems to perform quite well under certain circumstances, I would wager that there are many settings I could adjust to improve performance. I will have to experiment with those changes in the future, and I will report back in this thread as I do so.
Features
I imagine all of the hardware features - camera, smart card reader, etc - work out-of-the box when the default Windows OS is used. I wouldn’t know. As a Linux user, some of these features require additional setup or are not totally non-functional. In particular, I am dismayed by the lack of support for Intel’s IPU6 cameras. Word on the street is that this support is coming in the next kernel update, but for now I have to use an external device to have a camera:
The smart card reader ostensibly requires special software for base usage as well as additional configuration to allow integrations such as user sign-on; however, I have been unable to get the software to even detect the smart card reader, though I haven’t put much effort into doing so just yet.
Fortunately, mobile broadband worked out-of-the box once a SIM card was installed. ModemManager provides a GUI for viewing SMS messages on this connection, but initial trials did not successfully deliver messages between mobile numbers. More experimentation is necessary.
Other minor quirks exist as well. For one, the volume and brightness buttons on the front of the tablet only function when GNOME is in tablet mode (as opposed to desktop - with a keyboard attached). Aside from this being the opposite of what would be useful, it isn’t clear weather this, as well as other idiosyncrasies, are caused by the hardware, software, or a combination of both.
Many of these issues could probably be resolved immediately with a more up-to-date kernel. Perhaps Arch Linux would be a better choice of OS for the Latitude 7230. I may switch to this in the future, but for now I am not finding the absence of these features overly encumbering. Again, I’ll post updates to this thread as I find fixes and workarounds for these missing features.
Price
Expensive. Very expensive. Unlike any other laptop or tablet I’ve seen, though, it is orders of magnitude more durable and accessible for self-service repairs and upgrades. Being on-par in performance to other devices in its price range, I expect my 7230 to have a much longer lifespan than the ordinary laptop.
Given my intention to explore the device as a platform for the aforementioned projects, I find it is well worth the price for my needs; however, those needs are fairly unique, so I do not necessarily recommend everyone replace their laptop, tablet, or (least of all) smartphone with this. That said, I would recommend the average consumer consider how devices marketed as “rugged” or “milspec” are often more durable, customizable, and upgradable than their “normal” counterparts.
Repair Services
As I mentioned, the Latitude 7230 has modular internal components like a traditional desktop, allowing users to open the chassis and self-service the device. At the same time, the device is IP65 rated, and I personally found the screws quite difficult to remove, leading to the following story:
While attempting to remove the rigid handle that came attached to the device, I stripped one of the screws and caused some minor cosmetic damage to the chassis. Dell devices are typically easy to self-service; however, the screws on this one were particularly stubborn, which is perhaps due to the IP65 rating. I contacted Dell support and was scheduled to have a technician come for an on-site repair within the next few days. Though the device was still under warranty, this warranty did not cover user modifications. I paid a few hundred dollars for the repair, which stung but did not strike me as unreasonable.
Unfortunately, the person who came to do the repair was not familiar with the device and struggled to reassemble it, causing significantly more damage than the original issue. I’ll spare the gory details, suffice to say the motherboard was now visible due to a now missing HDMI port cover - among other things.
I contacted Dell about this, and they immediately sent me a box to have the device sent to their factory for repair along with a full refund for the original service. There was a bit of difficulty in this process due to my having installed a custom encrypted operating system, which prevented the technicians from testing the boot sequence. I was comfortable doing this myself, and I had my device back within a couple of weeks as if it had been shipped brand new from the factory. In fact, I would have to check serial numbers to confirm that they did not. At the end of the day, my device looks and feels like none of this ever happened.
I have worked with Dell support and customer service on many previous occasions, but this was certainly the most eventful. Although it wasn’t an ideal set of circumstances, I felt comfortable throughout the process knowing that my device would eventually be repaired or replaced. Dell makes excellent devices, allow unparalleled customization of those devices, and then provide premium support for their products.