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Panasonic ToughBook Testing Facility Tour

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bruised-but-not-beaten dept.

An anonymous reader writes "ToughBooks are considered by some to be the most resilient of all notebooks. So how does Panasonic ensure that their line of indestructible portables are just that? In a recent tour of the Kobe plant in Japan it was discovered that 1000's of ToughBooks are destroyed each year in pursuit of the most rugged systems. Soaking, electric shock, heating and electromagnetic radiation are among the many methods of torture used."

14 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like fun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    They have any openings for QA Testers?

  2. Indeed by mfh · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... and now Slashdotting.

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  3. How to REALLY test a notebook by operagost · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't see a curious four-year-old being employed in any of their tests. I'd like to see how one of these stands up to crayons and peanut butter sandwiches.

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    1. Re:How to REALLY test a notebook by Teh+MegaHurtz · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't see a curious four-year-old being employed in any of their tests. I'd like to see how one of these stands up to crayons and peanut butter sandwiches. Also known as the curious CEO test
    2. Re:How to REALLY test a notebook by Aqua_boy17 · · Score: 4, Funny

      We support both Toughbooks and Lifebooks here. What they really need is a roomfull of Nurses and their 4 year old kids. We had one returned because the nurse couldn't connect to the network. Upon inspection, I found a yellow gummi bear firmly pressed into the RJ45 connector. It's pretty hard to configure the DNS settings of a yellow gummi bear. Maybe it's easier with the red ones?

      Seriously though, we're moving back to Fujitsu's over the Panasonics. The Toughbooks (at least the T2's we have) haven't proved to be all that tough and their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. Fujitsu had problems in that department as well, but lately has made strides in the right direction. We need the touchscreens for this application (our RN's complete tons of medical assessments using checkboxes) so that kind of narrows our choices.

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    3. Re:How to REALLY test a notebook by Snoopy77 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'd mod you informative instead of funny.

      My CEO went through two toughbooks in three years and he doesn't even take it onto industrial sites. He can kill any electrical device by simply using it as normal. We've given up on spending twice as much for these toughbooks. We just make sure we've got a good three year warranty these days and get him a normal notebook.

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  4. Methods of torture by rachit · · Score: 1, Funny

    Soaking, electric shock, heating and electromagnetic radiation are among the many methods of torture used. They should bring Jack Bauer in for this "testing" department
    1. Re:Methods of torture by operagost · · Score: 2, Funny

      No good. Notebooks don't have testicles.

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  5. ToughBook ToughLove by ettlz · · Score: 4, Funny

    From TFA:

    Behind locked doors at Panasonic's Osaka and Kobe facilities poor ToughBooks are thrashed to within an inch of their lives. ... I saw a very sorry looking CF-29 strapped to a rack, being poked with metal spikes.

    Every dominatrix should have one.

  6. Trust me on this by quokkapox · · Score: 3, Funny
    An overconfident dad with a philips-head is much more dangerous than a four year old.

    You can take the computer away from the four-year-old. Your dad will want to try "one more thing".

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  7. bad workmanship by sentientbeing · · Score: 5, Funny

    The drop testing machine that's located at the Osaka R&D facility is one of only eight in the world, but unfortunately it wasn't working on the day we visited.


    Things just arent built to last these days . .

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  8. Just imagine... by stormeru · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...a Beowulf cluster of tortured ToughBooks with post-traumatic symptoms.
    Beware! While they are idle they might compute a way to revenge against the human torturers with electroshocks. Oh wait... these are not Dell notebooks.

    Shame for me, before reading this story I never knew that Panasonic is involved in notebook production.

  9. Sound very familiar by rossz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Soaking, electric shock, heating and electromagnetic radiation are among the many methods of torture used.
    They just described my pending divorce.
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  10. Re:Daylight Screen Standard? / $4169.95 by NeilTheStupidHead · · Score: 2, Funny

    Even better, watching everyone else in the room crap their pants when you pick it up, single-handed, by the edge of the LCD cover and *throw* it across the room to a collegue. Or, when carrying it by the handle (which mine still has), using it as a door knocker. As a joke, I once used the cover to break open a stubborn walnut that broke a friend's cheap nutcracker

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