The Dell Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme is a tablet that can take a beating

Dell has announced the Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme, a tablet designed for working in harsh conditions, with 12th-gen Intel CPUs.

Dell has announced the Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme, a modern, rugged Windows tablet that's designed to meet the needs of workers who needs something reliable and durable. The tablet is tested to survive drops up to four feet, and it can resist temperatures between -20ºF and 145ºF, so it'll survive in extreme weather conditions. It's also IP65-rated for water and dust resistance, and you can even get it certified for use in hazardous locations if you need that kind of safety. Dell calls it the "lightest and most powerful 12-inch fully-rugged tablet on the market", with weight starting at 2.78lbs.

The Dell Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme comes with some big upgrades underneath, too. It's been a few years since the last model in the series, and this new one comes with 12th-generation Intel Core processors (coming from 8th-generation processors in the previous model). You can also configure the laptop with up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 2TB of SSD storage.

Additionally, the Dell Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme comes with dual hot-swappable batteries. You can easily remove and swap one of the batteries while the tablet is in use, so you never have to let it power off due to low battery. The dual batteries can also last up to 20 hours on a charge, so you shouldn't have to swap them very often.

The display is also getting a major upgrade, going from a 16:9 aspect ratio to a taller 16:10 format, which gives it the largest screen surface area on a 12-inch rugged tablet, according to Dell. Plus, it's an even brighter panel now, reaching up to 1200 nits of brightness for great outdoor visibility, and you can even use it with gloves. There's also a 5MP front-facing camera with Windows Hello support, plus an upgraded 11MP camera on the back, including a flash for use in dark environments.

Part of the appeal of this tablet is how highly configurable it is, too. It comes with a set of fixed ports, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB Type-A, a headphone jack, a microSD card reader, and a nano SIM slot. But you can also get a couple of expansion ports with choices for USB Type-A or HDMI on the right side, and RJ45 Ethernet, Mini-serial RS-232, or a barcode scanner along the top edge. These expansions are exchangeable, so you can get multiple and swap them around as needed. There's also an optional Smart Card reader.

As for wireless connectivity, of course, the tablet comes with Wi-Fi 6E support and Bluetooth 5.2, as well as optional cellular connectivity. You can get it with either a Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE modem or upgrade to a Snapdragon X55 modem for 5G support. The device is also FirstNet Ready for priority access to emergency services.

Along with the Dell Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme, Dell is launching a whole range of accessories designed to work with it. There's a detachable keyboard that's designed to be just as rugged as the tablet, a rotating hand strap, a magnetic mount, and more so you can tailor the experience to your specific needs.

The Dell Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme will be available by the end of the year, and pricing will be announced closer to the release date.

I've been covering the tech world since 2018, and I love computers, phones, and - above all that - Nintendo videogames, which I'm always happy to talk about.