What devices suit site and workshop work?

Business-grade tablets in good protective cases for site, sealed or industrial terminals for the workshop, and a general acceptance that consumer equipment does not survive either environment for long. The specifications that matter are durability, outdoor screen readability and battery life rather than processing power.

The common mistake is buying on price and replacing repeatedly. A consumer tablet issued to someone working from a ute will typically be cracked, water-damaged or dead within the year, and each replacement costs the purchase plus the disruption plus whatever was on it that had not synced. A protected device bought once usually works out cheaper by the second year, and considerably cheaper if you count the lost photos and measurements.

Match the specification to the actual conditions rather than to the extreme case, because fully rugged devices are expensive and often more than the work requires. A business-grade tablet in a decent case handles most residential and commercial site work. Genuinely brutal environments, heavy civil, wet trades, constant drops onto concrete, justify the fully rugged tier. Workshops usually want a fixed sealed terminal rather than a tablet, since dust and constant handling are the enemies there.

Two things beyond the hardware. Outdoor screen readability is a real specification and a device nobody can read in sunlight will live in the glovebox, which wastes the whole purchase. And enrol every device in management so it can be located, locked and wiped, because in this industry devices go missing regularly and the business data on them should not go with them. If you want devices specified for the conditions, call 1800 456 567.