Inventory and inspection work is gentler on a device than a building site, and we will not pretend otherwise. What finishes off a consumer tablet here is the volume: a thousand photos a week, a battery flat by lunchtime, and one drop onto a laminate floor in an empty flat.
What kills devices in inventory and inspection work
- The photo count. A check-in on a three bedroom house can run to several hundred photographs, each dated and attached to a room. A personal phone fills up and starts asking you to delete things mid job.
- Hard floors and empty rooms. Laminate, tile and bare boards. A tablet balanced on a worktop or the edge of a bath slides off onto exactly the surface that cracks a screen, and a vacant property has nothing soft to land on.
- Dark cupboards, lofts and garages. Meter cupboards with no light and garages with the power off. The photo of the reading has to be legible or you are going back.
- Cold properties. A vacant house in January with the heating off for a month is colder inside than out. Batteries give less in the cold.
- The day of driving. Five or six appointments across a county, reports written in the car between them. The battery that was fine at nine is the problem at three.
- Tenant data. Names, signatures and photographs of other people's homes live on the device. Losing it is a data problem before it is a hardware problem.
What actually matters in a spec
The camera, first. Inventory reports stand or fall on their photographs. Look for a rear camera with a flash, because meter cupboards are dark, and autofocus helps with close shots of a scuff or a serial number. The A8 lists a 13MP autofocus rear camera with a flash; the A10 and A6 list 13MP rear cameras with a flash. Our guide to taking site photos that hold up covers framing, light and backing up.
Storage with room to grow. Photographs are what fill a work device. The A8 and A10 have 128GB and a microSD slot, the A6 has 64GB and takes a card up to 256GB. Whether that is enough depends on whether your report app syncs photos to the cloud and clears them. How much storage does a work tablet need works through it.
A battery that lasts the round, or can be swapped. The A8 and A10 both carry 8000mAh. The A8's is removable, so a charged spare takes over mid afternoon; the A10's is built in but has quick charge. The A6's 5050mAh battery is also removable. Making a tablet battery last a full shift covers the settings and the charging routine between appointments.
Screen size against carrying it room to room. An 8 inch screen is big enough to type a condition description and tick through a room schedule, and light enough to carry up three flights. A 10 inch screen is better for floor plans and long reports, but heavier all day. 8 inch or 10 inch sets out the trade.
Sealing is a bonus, not the point. IP67 on the A8 and A6 and IP68 on the A10 mean a device dropped in a wet garden is not a write off, but this job rarely immerses anything. You are paying for a body built to be dropped. Note that the A8 lists no drop rating or operating temperature; the A6 is rated for 1.5 metre drops and the A10 is tested to MIL-STD-810H, and both list a range starting at -20°C.
A screen lock. Set a PIN on day one and sync photographs to an account the business controls. How to protect customer data on a work tablet walks through it.
Android is fine. Inventory apps are written for phones and tablets, or run in a browser, so there is no reason to pay for a Windows device. Check the minimum Android version your app asks for: Android 12 on the A8, 14 on the A10 and 15 on the A6.
What we would pick
For most inventory clerks and inspectors, the Tuga A8 at £379. It is an 8 inch Android tablet with a 1280 x 800 screen at 1000 nits, readable in a south facing conservatory as well as a dim hallway. The 13MP autofocus rear camera has a flash for meter cupboards, there is 128GB of storage plus a microSD slot for the photo volume, and the 8000mAh battery is removable, so a charged spare in the car covers a long day. It is sealed to IP67, with dual SIM 4G for uploading reports from the property. Two honest caveats: it lists no drop rating and no operating temperature, so we cannot say how it behaves in a freezing vacant property, and it runs Android 12, so check your app supports it. A hand strap is not in the box.
If you type long reports on the device or work from floor plans, the Tuga A10 at £449 gives you a 10.1 inch Full HD screen, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage with microSD up to 2TB, IP68 sealing and MIL-STD-810H testing, at 680g. Its 8000mAh battery is not removable but has quick charge, and it is rated from -20°C to 60°C. The screen is 350 nits, dimmer than the A8, which matters outside more than it does indoors. A hand strap comes in the box.
For quick mid-term inspections from a coat pocket, the Tuga A6 at £349 is a 6 inch Android 15 handheld at 277g, sealed to IP67 and rated for 1.5 metre drops, with a 13MP camera with flash, a removable 5050mAh battery and 64GB plus a microSD card up to 256GB. The trade off is the screen: typing a full check-out report on 6 inches is slow, and its built-in barcode scanner is of little use here.
Accessories worth adding
For the A8 or A10, a Capacitive Stylus (£14.99) makes signatures neater than a fingertip, a Hand Strap (£24) keeps a one handed grip on the stairs, and a Rugged Carry Case (£34) with a shoulder strap and pockets for the charger goes from car to front door. A 12V DC Car Charger (£26) fits every device and tops it up between appointments, and a Tempered Glass Screen Protector 2-pack (£14) is cheap insurance against keys in the same bag. For the A6, the Belt Holster (£22) or Car Phone Mount (£17) suit it better than a case. All are on the accessories page.
Questions inventory clerks ask
Will my inventory app run on it?
If it is on Google Play and supports the Android version on the device (12 on the A8, 14 on the A10, 15 on the A6), it should. We cannot test every app, so install yours in the first week and use the 30-day returns if it does not suit.
How many photos will it hold?
That depends on your app's photo size and whether it clears synced photos, so we will not give you a number. Turn on cloud sync on day one, keep a microSD card in the slot, and see our storage guide for the rough arithmetic.
Is a rugged tablet overkill for this job?
For the sealing, probably. For the camera, the battery and a drop onto a kitchen floor every few months, no. The three year sums are in rugged vs consumer tablet cost; if your clerks work happily on phones, start there and move up when storage or battery becomes the problem.
We have a team of clerks. Is there a discount?
Yes, automatically: 3% off at 2 devices, 5% at 3 to 4, 8% at 5 to 9 and 10% at 10 or more, in any mix. See bulk pricing, or ask for a quote and a proforma invoice. Every device comes with a 12-month warranty, 30-day returns and free delivery to UK addresses in 7 to 10 working days, with no VAT to add. The 3-Year Warranty is £65 per device on the A6, A8 and A10.
