Fujitsu Stylistic Q584 review

The benchmark for rugged tablets is the Toughpad line from Panasonic, but Toughpads are created for the outdoors where extreme conditions are common and accidents abound. This makes Toughpads very expensive, as you can see with the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 . Fujitsu's Stylistic Q584 is a response to that, with Q584 being suited to use in environments such as a warehouse.

The Stylistic Q584 has therefore been certified waterproof to IPX5, 7 and 8 standards, which means it should be protected when submerged in water for a short time. It's also dust protected to IPX5 standards. We’re happy to report that it survived a continued soaking under a tap and submersion in a sink of water without problem.

The Q584's 2,560x1,600-resolution IPS touchscreen is a particular highlight, being very responsive to finger prods and when using the built-in stylus. Colour performance is also excellent, with solid colours appearing bright and vibrant. In our screen calibration tests the IPS panel was able to display 90 per cent of the sRGB gamut. The only area where the screen could be better is when displaying higher contrast images, as finer details weren't so easily visible in the bright and dark spots of images. The screen is also very difficult to read in bright sunlight, despite the inclusion of a light sensor to aid with adaptive screen brightness. This rather limits the Q584’s potential for outdoor use, which is a shame.

Our unit came with a pair of accessories: the Slice Keyboard dock (S26391-F1272-L225, £205, www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk )and the Multifunction Cradle (S26391-F1377-L200, £77, www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk ). The keyboard and touchpad are a little cramped for our liking, although it’s certainly better using the keyboard and touchpad than the touchscreen when out in the field. The keyboard has a slide-out stand that stops the tablet from falling over. The whole assembly is worryingly flexible, though, and we’d prefer to buy a much cheaper Bluetooth keyboard, even if it doesn’t clip on to the tablet.

The cradle extends the use of the tablet by adding HDMI and VGA video outputs, a pair of USB2 ports (in addition to the USB3 port on the tablet) and a gigabit Ethernet port. This means you can use the Q584 as a fairly low-powered portable workstation, and it could come in handy for workers who only spend little time at a desk. The tablet can be tricky to pop into place on the cradle, but it's an otherwise useful way of using the tablet in varied working environments.

The Q584 is best suited to basic business tasks such as word processing, creating spreadsheets and processing emails. The combination of a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3770 and 4GB of RAM leaves the tablet feeling a little sluggish. Indeed, the Q584 scored just 16 in our PC benchmark tests. Basic web browsing, form filling, email and document editing is probably the extent of the tasks you'll be able to perform on the Q584. As the version of Windows 8.1 installed on the tablet is only 32-bit, it’s worth noting that around 1GB of the Q584’s 4GB of RAM is unavailable.

Helpfully, though, the Q584 is secured at a hardware level thanks to a Trusted Protection Module and Intel's Identity Protection Technology, which is built in to the processor. These extra tools mean that IT managers can ensure critical data is kept secure at all times. The Q584 even has a fingerprint scanner to help protect access to your desktop.

What the tablet lacks in performance it more than makes up for in connectivity. Our review lets you use a 4G mobile internet service, although you need a SIM card to access the internet. The tablet has a GPS sensor too, which makes navigation much easier for those working offsite. Users can also make use of the Q584’s near-field communication (NFC) technology to pair it with other devices, and its built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi adaptor to connect to wireless networks. As for storage, our review unit had a 128GB SSD, and we'd recommend it over the 64GB alternative.

In our challenging battery benchmarking test, the tablet lasted a disappointing 5 hours and 9 minutes. Even so, if you just use the Q584 for basic form filling and text entry you might get a full working day out of it if you're careful.

Fujitsu's Stylistic Q584 fills an interesting gap in the market, although we're sceptical about how well it does this. The Q584 survived a good dunking, but it doesn’t inspire the level of confidence that a Panasonic Toughpad does. It's also a little less powerful than the more rugged Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 , but does cost a lot less, even with the accessories included. If you're looking for a business tablet that doesn't place a premium on ruggedness, you should also take a look at the Dell Venue 11 Pro , which is much less expensive, even when bought with a keyboard dock and a cradle.

Price quoted here is for the tablet and keyboard dock only