Janam's Cool, Rugged XT85 Mobile Computer

By  Tony Rizzo
Janam Technologies LLC is a veteran provider of rugged, handheld computing devices for mobile field workers. The foundation of Janam’s success is a laser-focus on creating products that deliver the highest levels of capability and full feature sets at price points that are significantly lower than competitors’ prices. Janam believes in developing products that meet price points holistically, rather than taking high cost products and simply “dumbing them down” and in the process compromising capabilities.

An excellent example of this philosophy and approach is embodied in the company’s newest handheld, the Janam XT85. The list price for the new ultra rugged handheld - which is relatively sleek for a rugged field device - is under $2,000. It is necessary to keep in mind that street pricing and volume discounts will drive that price point much lower.

The XT85 is built on Win Embedded 6.5. That said, it is worth noting that the XT85 is built with the future demands of customers in mind. For example, should customers escalate demands for an Android-based handheld, the XT85 is already designed to be manufactured to meet that demand. Such flexibility is another hallmark of how Janam is able to minimize hardware costs. Along with its state of the art operating system the XT85, which uses a Marvel microprocessor, also delivers a large compliment of state of the art hardware features.

Most notable for the XT85 (among many other features we have not noted here) is new cellular capability. UMTS/HSPDA/HSUPA is fully supported, making the handheld significantly more mobile. 802.11a/b/g/n is of course fully supported, as are Bluetooth and GPS. In addition there is a 5 megapixel camera as well as a motion sensing accelerometer - not features typically associated with a sub-$2,000 rugged handheld. Of course, it wouldn’t be a rugged handheld if it wasn’t able to easily survive multiple 5 foot/1.5 meter drops directly to concrete (not exactly a high tech measurement, we admit, but perhaps the most important for field service work).

The bottom line here - and what is exciting for those of us who have been involved with rugged devices since the early 2000s - is that field mobile devices are keeping up with their far less rugged tablet and smartphone cousins. The Janam XT85 is proof positive of this, and we recommend taking a very close look at it.