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Durabook Laptop Marketing Claims 'Destroyed'

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the hard-knocks dept.

jkwdoc writes "The crew at [H] Consumer got a hold of a Durabook sample from Twinhead and got the green light to hold Twinhead to their word about what kind of abuse the unit can withstand. Twinhead originally claimed that their unit could survive 26 drops from 29 inches. A cracked LCD and busted hard drive later, they changed their tune. Complete with video!"

32 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Marketing nonsense by udderly · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Twinhead originally claimed that their unit could survive 26 drops from 29 inches. A cracked LCD and busted hard drive later, they changed their tune.

    Seriously, did anyone really think that *any* notebook could take that?

    1. Re:Marketing nonsense by Herkum01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, but you know, if you don't expose their lies for what they are they will keep telling the same lie over and over.

    2. Re:Marketing nonsense by Erwos · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Doesn't matter. _They_ claimed it could, thus THEY need to make it happen. Or change the claim, which is what happened.

      There are indeed some systems that could probably take that sort of punishment, though.

      --
      Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
    3. Re:Marketing nonsense by fluffy99 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Panasonic Toughbooks supposedly meet the milspec. We've got a few at work and they are ruggedly heavy and have that nasty rubberized keyboard. Haven't drop tested any though.

    4. Re:Marketing nonsense by udderly · · Score: 3, Informative

      I bet there's a *huge* difference between dropping the notebook flat and dropping it on a corner. It's still hard for me to believe that any notebook I've seen (including the Panasonic Toughbooks) could take repeated 30-inch drops on the corner of the case and still work properly. If anyone knows differently, I'd love to hear about it.

    5. Re:Marketing nonsense by jonored · · Score: 3, Informative

      I can't really say much for the newer models, but I'm typing this on a CF-27 toughbook that's dropped from my back (probably something like like 150cm; I carry it on a strap) onto a concrete floor; the paint scratched, and the floor chipped rather substantially. It takes a point impact to the center of the back of the screen, or being fully thrown into a brick wall to crack the screen, and the machine will still run afterwards, it'll just have a visible crack in the screen. Especially the older toughbooks are well beyond the military spec for such things.

    6. Re:Marketing nonsense by jonored · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The one I'm writing on (CF-27 toughbook) wouldn't flinch even if it were on. You'd not want to do it on a table you care about, though, as it'll leave gouges in the surface; there's no plastic padding on the corners. A friend of mine was giving a presentation on a CF-26, and when asked if that was a toughbook, unplugged the cable, closed the hatch over it, threw the laptop against the brick wall, running, picked it up, plugged it in, and finished the presentation. Of course, that did crack the screen, but it was decidedly an out-of-spec event.

    7. Re:Marketing nonsense by jacksonj04 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The ToughBooks I've used on sites before now take a serious beating. Drops off scaffolds, falls to concrete (corner and flat, open and not), kicks, and at least one which had a pile of bricks dropped onto it (Left a nice gouge in the shell, but worked perfectly). If the laptop is running or not makes no difference.

      --
      How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
    8. Re:Marketing nonsense by lakin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not over and over indefinitely though. They claim the lie will work 26 times, but our testing has shown it is infact significantly less than that.

      --
      Paul
    9. Re:Marketing nonsense by neongrau · · Score: 3, Funny

      Twinhead originally claimed that their unit could survive 26 drops (of water)

      from 29 inches.
    10. Re:Marketing nonsense by multimediavt · · Score: 4, Interesting
      FTFA:

      DURABOOK Rugged Standard All DURABOOK systems pass US Military and European Committee rugged feature standards to ensure its durable qualification. These standard test measurements include: DROP TEST - MIL STD 810F, Method 516.4, Procedure IV, 26 drops of 36 inches (29 inches for all 15" DURABOOK systems) onto plywood over concrete with unit off and display closed. Now, this is something that the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Military will not tolerate. The Durabook is *claimed* to meet MilSpec and I am curious to know how many of these things they duped the military into buying. I'll be very surprised if they don't get shut down for this. It's fraud, plain and simple, and although comical results were gotten at, the company has got some serious explaining to do! I have seen and played with MilSpec laptops and, frankly, I wasn't surprised by the test results when I saw the design. I was surprised that they claimed MilSpec. MilSpec portable computers look like the old Dolch boxes that I don't think they make any more. Kind of like an old Osbourne system with a modern set of guts, but ammo box (or better) quality metal all around. I dropped that thing off a loading dock straight onto concrete (by accident, really) and it did dent on the corner, but everything worked peachy!
    11. Re:Marketing nonsense by Thaelon · · Score: 2, Informative
      Four years of experience fixing college issue laptops says you're wrong.

      The three most common ways (in no particular order) for a laptop to be dropped are in fact:
      • spinning off of a table after someone trips over the cord
      • spinning out of the crook of someone's arm
      • while open and running, breaking free of someone's grip on the upper edge of the LCD and impacting on the furthest point from the hand as they walk from one place to another
      • impact while inside a backpack against whatever they threw it against before they remembered there was a laptop inside

      --

      Question everything

  2. RTFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The testers were fairly impressed with how well this laptop took a beating. The title of this post is pretty inaccurate.

    1. Re:RTFA by Nasarius · · Score: 2, Informative

      Those two statements are not mutually exclusive. While they were impressed that it could survive a few serious drops with minimal damage, they also debunked the absurd claim of 26 drops.

      --
      LOAD "SIG",8,1
  3. Still not so bad... by Danimoth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While it certaintly looks like it didn't live up to the full expectations, the damage taken was gradual. For the most part it was "optical drive came out, system still works." I wouldn't want to see what happens to my macbook pro in the same circumstance.

    --
    No smoking sigs indoors.
  4. Accckkkkk too many pageviews by sulli · · Score: 5, Informative
    These hardware review sites are awful, forcing you to tab through ten freaking pages just to get to the bottom line. Do they still get paid by the ad view rather than the click?

    On topic, forget these no name laptops that give away samples to shady review sites, Panasonic Toughbook is the real deal.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
    1. Re:Accckkkkk too many pageviews by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Insightful

      These hardware review sites are awful, forcing you to tab through ten freaking pages just to get to the bottom line. Do they still get paid by the ad view rather than the click?

      I'll let you in on a little secret: when you read a review like this, jump to the last page: you'll find the conclusion there, which is usually about the only thing interesting in the article. And in the case of this article, videos as well, which is even better.

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    2. Re:Accckkkkk too many pageviews by TubeSteak · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'll let you in on a little secret: there are many videos, not just on the last page.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    3. Re:Accckkkkk too many pageviews by Babbster · · Score: 2, Insightful

      IMHO, this complaint has become tiresome. The people generating these sites are trying to make money off doing so. Instead of trying to get people to pay subscription fees (and thus turn interested people away), they do so with ads, and they probably make some money off of views of the ads and can rotate different ads per load. Having to go to more than one (or 10) pages for an article with actual information generated by actual people getting paid for their work doesn't seem like a very high price to pay.

      Personally, I find the layout of most [H]ardOCP articles to be pretty well done - for example, when they're reviewing hardware gaming performance, unless they're comparing several pieces of hardware, they don't give each game/test an individual page; their conclusions are typically on a single page; and the introduction, explaining what they're doing, is usually on a single page.

      In other words, I can typically look at 3-4 pages of each review and get the information about which I'm most concerned. In this particular case, you can get the relevant information off about 4 pages - considering the amount of data, pictures and videos they offer, it seems perfectly reasonable to me.

      I would also note that some people (like me) don't want to spend a lot of time scrolling down one or two very long pages. Dividing the pages actually helps me quite a bit since I often read articles such as this over a few viewings instead of sitting down and reading it all in one shot.

      It's funny. I was arguing on this site with someone who felt that people shouldn't complain if they don't like something about World of Warcraft - my take was that paying money for the service absolutely entitles one to complain if there's something they don't like. On this, I'd take the other side and tell you to stop griping about free stuff. Even if it is just a money-grab for [H]ardOCP, they're not grabbing that money from you, and clicking a few extra times shouldn't be that taxing.

  5. Mean time to failure by Pretzalzz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Surely a reasonable person would expect the 26 drop number to be a mean time to failure sort of number. Otherwise you are left to think: "Oh, 26 drops is no problem, but that 27th is the real doosy".

    1. Re:Mean time to failure by punkr0x · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, if they are (were) claiming that it would survive 26 drops, then that should be the minimum amount of abuse that could break it. The average should be much higher.

  6. The MIL-STD drop test is in the shipping box by Animats · · Score: 5, Informative

    The MIL-STD-810F test, procedure IV, calls for 29 drops of the test article while in its shipping box without functional damage. Think of that as soldiers unloading a truck in a hurry. Or baggage handling at some airports.

    The operational tests are much milder. Procedure I, functional shock, is 40G for 11ms, 3x on each axis, with the unit running, without any operational glitches. Think of this as in use in an off-road vehicle bouncing over rough terrain, i.e. normal military usage. Procedure VI, bench handling, is a 100mm drop test in normal orientation, power off, 4x. That's just dropping it on a table from 10cm.

    1. Re:The MIL-STD drop test is in the shipping box by Alpha232 · · Score: 4, Funny

      That is crazy, everyone knows that 0.001 m is the same as 0.001mm, if you look at it on paper... You must work for Verizon... And we already know that Verizon Can't Do Math .
  7. Durability testing summary from the article by EMIce · · Score: 4, Informative

    Summary

    Obviously, the Durabook didnt survive some of the abuse Twinhead initially claimed it should, but lets look at this in real-world terms.

    If you find yourself accidentally dropping your laptop 26 times from a height of nearly three feet, you should probably see a doctor. Most of us have probably sent our laptops tumbling only once or twice. Our first Durabook survived three very gnarly drops before something broke off completely (an easily replaceable optical drive faceplate), and at least 10 drops before we started to get some significant hardware failure. It took around 20 drops for the hard drive to fail. Thats some fairly serious protection, especially since the data on that hard drive is often worth more than the laptop itself.

    The second unit was more of the same. Although we saw some minor damage within the first 6 drops on both units, all of the essential hardware, including the LCD and hard drive, was still fully functional and the machines had no problem booting. This is a huge testament to the security a form factor like this can give the consumer.

    ----------------------

    So as far as hardened notebooks go, it fairs decently, but marketing's original claims were clearly out of whack with reality.

  8. Surprised no one mentioned by edwardpickman · · Score: 4, Informative
    These are the real deal.

    http://www.griduk.com/

    I've seen test videos and they are amazing. You can drive car over them and all that happens is the screen cracks, they are still useable. Also seen them dropped down a flight of concrete stairs and they still worked.

    1. Re:Surprised no one mentioned by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Mining is the first industry that comes to mind

      Yeah, we used to use a thing called a Husky Hunter as a datalogger in underground mining. One fell down an ore pass, along with several thousand tonnes of rock and was retrieved several days later. The screen and most of the keys had been abraded off, but by pushing the keystubs with a paper clip, we were able to retrieve the stored data (worth much more than the Husky).

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  9. Reminds me of the time... by Reverberant · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... back at my last job, one of my co-workers ordered a bunch of ruggedized WinCE boxes for a set of field measurements products. The units in question were supposed to survive a 4-ft drop.

    One day I was walking past his office and I saw that he received the units. I stopped in, and picked up one of the units. I looked it over, and asked if these were the units in question. He replied 'yes.' I then proceeded to drop the unit I was holding on to the floor.

    My colleague jumped up, yelling "what the h*ll are you doing?" I replied "the unit is supposed to be able to survive a 4-ft drop right? I wanted to see for myself."

    FWIW, the unit kept on ticking....

  10. Tandy Model 10x by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 4, Informative
    Anyone remember the Tandy Radio Shack Model 100/101/102 "laptops"? - they were small BASIC-programmable computers that same out in the 80s with an LCD screen right above the keyboard and no moving parts to speak of since programs were retained in RAM by a backup battery. We still had some of them going strong and being used for field work on automation systems in a previous job (after year 2000 :/ ). We had them literally fall down flights of stairs, and it didn't seem to have any bad effect. They just sort of bounced.


    If one wanted a "tough" notebook for field work, why not revert to that kind of form factor? Screen above the keyboard covered by thickish Plexiglas - no screen hinges to break and the screen can be thicker. All storage on a (say) 5 GB Flash ROM disc. No moving parts. USB ports or Bluetooth to connect external peripherals when needed. Slightly slower processor than top of the line for lower heat production - a fan wouldn't be needed. All powered by standardized LiIon or NiMH AA-sized batteries. You should even be able to use alkalines or NiCads in a pinch.


    -b.

    1. Re:Tandy Model 10x by fishbowl · · Score: 4, Informative


      >Anyone remember the Tandy Radio Shack Model 100/101/102 "laptops"?

      The Model 100 revolutionized jornalism. This was in no small part due to the fact that it ran on AA batteries -- available anywhere in the world, and that it was the first portable computer to easily combine a word processor and a modem, the perfect and obvious thing for field reporters. They were extremely reliable, and were a de facto standard for quite a few years.

      Except for certain PDA devices with keyboards, I have yet to see a portable computer that matches the battery life of a model 100 TRS-80 -- a Kyocera product, by the way. These machines were an absolute joy to use; but I'm not saying we were not painfully aware of their limitations.

      --
      -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
    2. Re:Tandy Model 10x by alnicodon · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Lately I've bought an Alphasmart Dana, which looks like the Tandy you describe, and is a Palm system with a battery, changeable for 3 AA batteries, leaving you with a 25 hour autonomy. If that is not enough, you may still get; from the same manufacturer, the simpler "Neo" offers a whopping 700 hours autonomy, and 8 text buffers (no PalmOS this time), and some basic connectivity to a PC.

      http://www.alphasmart.com/products/

      Not exactly "feel the power" kind of stuff but imho, these do nicely match the portability, general resilience and autonomy requirements. They're rather expansive, too.

      Another interesting way is to adjoin a Bluetooth keyboard to a PDA.

      Just my 2 eurocents.

  11. Re:This machine is HOT! by Redshift · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is much much much harder than you think to light a magnesium-cased computer: see http://www.simson.net/hacks/cubefire.html

  12. dell inspiron by delvsional · · Score: 2, Informative

    I dropped a dell inspiron of a roof once, and it ran fine with no damage whatsoever. granted it was in a leather laptop case(that wasn't zipped up). It rolled end over end down a steepish roof and fell about 20 feet to the ground. I was doing a site survey for wireless internet and it stayed where it was until I walked away.

    --
    Oh Crap, I'm an optimist.....