Choosing the right hardware — recommendations for your bessa installation

This guide helps you decide which hardware to buy for your business — before you set up bessa for the first time. It is written for operators about to purchase, for resellers preparing a quote, and for IT administrators who need to assess an existing network.

The recommendations are based on what we see in day-to-day support: a large share of the incidents that reach us are not caused by the software, but by unsuitable devices or an overloaded network. The sections below explain which hardware we recommend, why we recommend it, and what requirements follow from the size of your installation.

At a glance

Why professional point-of-sale hardware?

Technically, bessa POS runs on almost any Android device. The difference does not show during installation, but in continuous operation — and there it shows systematically to the detriment of consumer devices.

Continuous operation, not the usage profile of a private device

A consumer device is designed for a few hours of active use per day with plenty of idle time in between. A Sales Point runs twelve to sixteen hours straight with a permanently active display, a permanent network connection, and attached peripherals. Power supplies, batteries, and displays of professional point-of-sale hardware are built for exactly that profile; consumer devices are not.

Aggressive battery optimisation

In practice this is the most common cause of hard-to-trace faults. Many consumer device manufacturers layer their own, particularly aggressive power management on top of the Android standard mechanisms — background processes are terminated as soon as the device goes unused for a moment, even when the app has explicitly been excluded.

For a Sales Point this has immediate consequences:

• A Sub-Terminal loses its connection to the Main Sales Point and only finds it again the next time the app is opened manually.

• Order tickets reach the printer late or not at all, because the print job is stuck in a terminated background process.

• The connection to the card terminal drops in the middle of a payment.

• The order monitor only shows new orders after the screen is tapped.

These faults occur irregularly, disappear during every test, and cannot be reliably diagnosed from logs or fixed by reinstalling. Professional point-of-sale devices ship without such interventions.

Cheaper radio components

On consumer devices, manufacturers save on radio modules because they rarely stand out in private use. In point-of-sale operation they very much do:

• Wi-Fi: weaker antennas and poorer roaming behaviour between access points. The device clings to a distant access point instead of switching to the nearer one — the connection formally stays up while data transfer becomes unusably slow.

• Bluetooth: unstable connections to mobile receipt printers, card terminals, and barcode scanners, often in combination with the power management described above.

Missing built-in peripherals

Professional point-of-sale devices come with what a checkout station needs: a built-in receipt printer, a cash drawer port, a barcode scanner, an NFC reader, a customer display. On a consumer tablet, every one of those functions has to be added as an external device — each with its own power supply, its own cable or its own Bluetooth connection, and therefore another possible point of failure.

Manageability and life cycle

Point-of-sale devices typically stay in service for five years or more. Professional manufacturers supply firmware updates across that period, keep a model available, and provide their own app store as well as management features such as device owner mode for remote maintenance. Consumer models are often replaced annually and receive updates for a much shorter time — reordering the same device is usually impossible after two years.

Installation scenarios

The actual requirements depend on how many devices are attached to your Main Sales Point. Every additional Sub-Terminal, order monitor, and card terminal means one more permanently open connection that the Main Sales Point has to manage and synchronise.

Mobile or single Sales Point

One device, no Sub-Terminals, at most one card terminal. Requirements are lowest here — a mobile all-in-one device with a built-in receipt printer from the Sunmi V3 or L3 series covers the whole operation. For stationary use at a fixed point of sale, a compact desktop device from the Sunmi D3 series is equally suitable.

This is the scenario in which you have the most freedom regarding the network. As soon as a card terminal is added, however, the network recommendations below apply here too: the terminal needs a fixed address and a stable connection to the Sales Point.

Small multi-station installation

As soon as Sub-Terminals and an order monitor are added, the Main Sales Point becomes the central hub: it holds the connections to all Sub-Terminals, distributes the print jobs, and synchronises every transaction with the bessa cloud. As the Main Sales Point we recommend a stationary all-in-one device from the Sunmi D3 or T3 series with at least 4 GB of memory.

From this size onwards, a professional network is the foundation for trouble-free operation — see below.

Medium multi-station installation

With four to six Sub-Terminals and several order monitors, it is above all the load from parallel connections that increases. We recommend a stationary device from the Sunmi T3 series. Pay particular attention to memory: with large product catalogues, 4 GB is the limit, and 6 GB is the safer choice.

In this scenario the Main Sales Point should be connected by network cable wherever possible. Wi-Fi is meant for the Sub-Terminals, not for the central hub.

Large multi-station installation

More than six Sub-Terminals, several order monitors, and several card terminals. Here we recommend the top models of the Sunmi T3 or D3 series with 6–8 GB of memory and an octa-core processor.

At this scale, note in addition:

• The Main Sales Point is connected by cable, not over Wi-Fi.

• Wi-Fi coverage for the Sub-Terminals is provided by several managed access points — not by repeaters.

• Sales Points, printers, card terminals, and dispenser systems are given fixed IP addresses or reserved DHCP addresses.

Sub-Terminals

Sub-Terminals are almost always mobile devices in table service: they are carried around, they get dropped, they get wet, and they have to last a whole shift without recharging. We recommend two device families for this:

• Sunmi V3/L3 series — mobile all-in-one devices, optionally with a built-in receipt printer so that payment and printing can happen directly on the terminal.

• Orderman 10 — a handheld terminal developed specifically for hospitality, running Android with Google Mobile Services, rated IP67, drop-resistant, with a swappable battery and an anti-glare display that stays readable outdoors.

In businesses with long opening hours, the swappable battery is the decisive criterion: a device that has to be taken out of service to charge is missing exactly when it is needed.

Network

After the choice of device, the network is the second major lever for stable operation — and, based on our support experience, the most common cause of intermittent faults that cannot be attributed to any single device.

We consistently recommend professional networking equipment, such as UniFi by Ubiquiti. Consumer routers and the combination devices supplied by internet providers are simply not built for an environment with several permanently connected devices.

An example from live operation: a customer runs a Main Sales Point and a card terminal on an LTE modem from a consumer manufacturer. The setup basically works — but roughly once a month the customer has to restart the modem, because it maintains neither the connection between the permanently active devices nor the connection to the internet. No software fault, no misconfiguration, simply a device at the end of its capabilities.

The key points in brief:

• A dedicated network for the Sales Points — separate from guest Wi-Fi, IoT devices, and office use.

• Fixed IP addresses for the Main Sales Point, printers, card terminals, and dispenser systems.

• Multiple access points only as a managed system — no Wi-Fi repeaters.

• Different names for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks, with the Sales Points attached firmly to one of the two.

• Connect the Main Sales Point by cable wherever possible.

The complete network requirements are documented on two help pages:

• Network security & port requirements — which hosts and ports have to be opened. This page is the template for coordinating with an IT department.

• Wireless Ordering on Sub-Terminals — Wi-Fi design, fixed IP assignment, and network separation in detail.

Peripherals

The same logic applies to attached devices as to the Sales Point itself: we support a wide range of models, but not every combination is equally well suited to continuous operation.

• Receipt printers — on mobile devices preferably the built-in printer; at stationary workstations a network printer with a fixed IP address rather than a Bluetooth connection. Supported models: Printer Support

• Card terminals — the choice depends more on the payment provider than on the Sales Point. Network terminals need a fixed IP address. Overview: Payment Terminals

• Order monitors — a screen in the kitchen or behind the bar shows open orders. Heat, grease, and humidity at the installation site have to be taken into account. Details: Order Monitor

• Dispenser systems — connected serially or over the network; the requirements are set by the respective manufacturer. Overview: Dispenser Systems

Checklist before purchasing

• [ ] Installation scenario determined — how many Sub-Terminals, order monitors, and card terminals will there be, including two years from now?

• [ ] Main Sales Point meets the processor and memory requirements for that scenario

• [ ] Sub-Terminals are mobile, drop-resistant, and have a swappable battery

• [ ] Network is professionally built, Sales Points sit in a dedicated network

• [ ] Fixed IP addresses assigned for Main Sales Point, printers, card terminals, and dispenser systems

• [ ] Wi-Fi coverage verified across all service areas, no repeater in use

• [ ] Receipt printer and card terminal checked for compatibility

• [ ] Replacement device or spare-parts availability clarified with your reseller

Frequently asked questions

Will bessa run on my existing tablet? Usually yes — bessa POS is an Android application and can be installed on off-the-shelf devices. For a single Sales Point without Sub-Terminals and without a card terminal, that can work for an initial period. As soon as further devices are added, experience shows that the apparent cost saving is lost again in the extra effort of day-to-day operation.

What does "not supported" mean in practice for consumer hardware? It does not mean that the software will not work, or that we will not help you. It means that faults originating from the device itself — terminated background processes, dropped radio connections, lost print jobs — cannot be reproduced by us and therefore cannot be fixed by us either. Such cases sit with the device manufacturer, whose support is not set up for point-of-sale operation.

Is my internet provider's router good enough? For a single Sales Point with no other devices, usually yes. For any setup with Sub-Terminals, order monitors, or network printers we recommend professional equipment. The extra cost is well below the cost of a single outage during service.

Wi-Fi or network cable? The Main Sales Point by cable wherever possible, because it is the central hub for all Sub-Terminals. Sub-Terminals are mobile and necessarily run over Wi-Fi — here the quality of the Wi-Fi coverage is decisive. Network printers and card terminals also run more stably over cable.

What about iPad or iPhone? bessa POS is an Android application. The guest app of the bessa product family is also available for iOS, but the Sales Point application is not.

The recommended models are no longer available — what now? Product lines are regularly replaced by successors. What matters are the requirements from the scenario table above — processor, memory, and belonging to a manufacturer's professional point-of-sale range. Your reseller or bessa can tell you which models are currently available.

Can I mix devices from different manufacturers? Yes. The Main Sales Point and the Sub-Terminals do not have to come from the same manufacturer — a Sunmi Main Sales Point with Orderman Sub-Terminals is a common setup. Within the Sub-Terminals, however, a uniform device type makes training and spare-parts management easier.

Related topics

• Structure your bessa account — companies, locations and Sales Points

• Set up your bessa Sales Point — step by step

• Network security & port requirements

• Wireless Ordering on Sub-Terminals

• Printer Support, Payment Terminals

• Term: Main Sales Point, Term: Sub-Terminal