Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: A Rugged Galaxy Designed for Today’s Work

February 2020 will bring a new glitzy, high profile “Galaxy Unpacked” event in San Francisco where the company is expected to announce its flagship consumer-facing products for the year including the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Z Flip phone. While those products will certainly get their share of press, they likely won’t quite have the impact of another new device announced this past January.

The brand-new Galaxy XCover Pro is the evolution of Samsung’s Active line, a series of rugged mobile devices designed and engineered for frontline workers. There’s a lot more to Galaxy XCover Pro, however, than rugged industrial-grade design. This device is equipped with the most recent version of Android and a host of functionality for the modern enterprise. Most notably, it has the ability to integrate Microsoft Teams’ push-to-talk “walkie talkie” capability to provide an unprecedented degree of communication and collaboration possibilities for frontline workers. Additionally, the device can function as a standalone mobile point of sale (mPoS) system that’s been approved for use in Visa’s Tap to Phone pilot program. Retail associates can integrate solutions for tracking inventory, scanning barcodes and processing payments wherever their customers – whether inside or outside the store.

The defense-grade Samsung Knox security suite is also integrated to ensure business-critical information integrity via hardware-backed protection, data isolation/encryption and boot and run-time protection. This is backed by standard biometric measures such as a fingerprint reader and facial recognition to allow frontline workers to access the device touch-free while performing services in the field. There’s also Pogo pin charging support and third-party compatibility for scanners, credit card readers and other peripherals from certified partners like Scandit, Infinite Peripherals, Visa and others.

The Galaxy XCover Pro is IP68 water and dust-resistant, capable of withstanding drops almost up to five feet. It’s also MIL-STD-810G certified for reliable protection against extreme humidity, altitude and other severe environmental conditions. It’s designed from the ground up for uninterrupted all-day usage in the field, via the 4,050 mAh battery that powers the device.

Oh, and that battery happens to be removable. That’s not a typo. You can replace the battery yourself at your convenience to ensure that charging is not an issue for frontline workers regardless of how heavily they use the device.

All of this is housed in a consumer-like sleek design that eschews the bulky, rubber-edge chassis of ruggedized devices of yore for an attractive and compact frame smaller than many consumer-grade phones with “rugged” cases slapped on them.

The Galaxy XCover Pro has the potential to redefine what a ruggedized device can be, standing apart as an uber-capable and dependable business smartphone versatile enough for a wide range of enterprise roles and use cases. As the modern workforce continues to evolve, the tools they need to get frontline work done must evolve with it. With the Galaxy XCover Pro, it appears that frontline workers will be able to be more collaborative, productive and secure than ever.

The only questions that remain are:

• What’s your plan to procure your allotment of Galaxy XCover Pro smartphones?
• Do you have business relationships with industrial accessory providers like KOAMTAC and ProGlove?
• Do you have the custom enclosures you need to keep your Galaxy XCover Pro devices and accessories like payment pads and scanners in a tidy, easy-to-operate solution?
• How will you configure, deploy and support them at scale to your frontline workers?

Just as Samsung partnered with Microsoft and Visa to add innovative functionality to the Galaxy XCover Pro, you must be sure that you have the right partnerships with Android Enterprise Recommended service providers, like Stratix, to help you get the best answers to these questions.