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Panasonic ToughBook Testing Facility Tour
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."
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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.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Even with toughbooks the single biggest problem with portable computers is screen brightness. In direct sunlight lcd screens are not practical. I speak from expirence beacause I developed a business application for the tablet pc. I have recieved plenty of feedback from customers about how hard it was to use them in the field.
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.... (after all it is 11 pages) Try surfing here for some quick hits on how their notebooks are tested and what standards they meet.
s t.asp
http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/df_te
If they weren't so bloody expensive, I'd get one. It looks like it would survive the real world quite nicely. If only all notebooks were built to HALF of what these are built to survive.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Why would anyone want to pay 30% more for an equivalent product?
Why does Sony charge so much money even though nearly 100% of its products is now assembled in low-wage China? Panasonic still tries to build its products in high-wage Japan.
Getting on an airplane with one of These
can panic the TSA morons quite fast.
The thing looks like a bomb from the TV show 24.
At minimum you look like a spy or someone who is not doing good things.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The other maker of hardened laptop / PDA's is Itronix. I've got an old Itronix laptop that's built like a brick. Both Itronix and Toughbooks (particularly the later) are popular with police and fire depts. Fire depts. are very hard on laptops. They use them for things like communications, looking a dept. databases (fire inspection notes), info on hazardous materials,etc. I've heard of one fire chief who likes to test a vendor's notebooks by tossing them across the room. He's not very popular with sales reps.
I got my Itronix used (years ago) on E-bay. It has a 'Sprint' logo on the cover. Apparently was used by field service techs.
[Insert pithy quote here]
From TFA:
Every dominatrix should have one.
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we have been using them for over two years for some of our users, and have found them to be not so tough. Connectors come loose, screens crack and backlights fail. Thinkpads have proven much more reliable.
Give users something and tell them it is tough and they will break it by being wreckless.
Give users something and tell them it is fragile, there is a good chance they will treat it reasonably.
Better to give a rugged notebook to someone who needs a rugged notebook due to the work that they do and tell them that it is not indestructable and that they should handle it as carefully as their job permits... Then it should last a reasonable amount of time.
Just my 2 cents worth.
-- The universe began. Life started on a billion worlds...
-- Except on one where stupidity was there first.
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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Saw one take a dive off of the top of a moving patrol car, onto asphalt (moral of the story: don't leave laptops on top of cruisers). Popped a few things out the side, but everything slid back into place, and it booted right up. Dunno about long-term abuse, but I found that test pretty impressive. For organizations such as those, I can easily see how the extra cost for a Toughbook would be worth it. You'd make it back within a few months with the amount saved by not having to replace components and entire units all the time.
Their high price is the biggest problem with them, the second problem is their toughness. Sounds strange? Well, I had to use one of the bastards last summer. I was working for my university who had spend a few grand on a toughbook years a go. Of course, now it was too slow to run anything I wanted use, but there was no way the university was getting rid of it; it had cost a fortune and it hadn't broken. That made it useless.
If you want to use a laptop in a field over summer, buy the cheapest you can find and keep buying them every year. 5 years later you'll have spent less money (even if you break a couple and need to go buy some replacements) and you won't be stuck with an outdated, but perfectly functioning, computer.
Toughbooks, I hate them.