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3 Rugged Notebooks Take a Beating
bsk_cw writes "Brian Nadel got a chance to try to destroy three 'fully rugged' notebooks and get paid for it — Computerworld had him drop, spray, drown, bake, shake, and freeze notebooks from General Dynamics Itronix, Getac, and Panasonic. All three suffered some damage, but only the Getac M230 actually died as a result. Brian made videos of the tests (which were apparently done in his home, including his kitchen)."
What about the GIs who also take a serious beating?
Well, obviously, you have to give up some form of frivolous pastime in order to show solidarity with them.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
I'd like to see this same test done with any of the Apple laptops.
Brian made videos of the tests (which were apparently done in his home, including his kitchen)."
Proof that Brian is not married.
To save you having to wade through 6 ad-filled half pages - here's the link.
Why this link is't published to start with is beyond me.
Is crushing a suspect's child's testicles illegal?
John Yoo: "No, [if] the President thinks he needs to do that."
Mental note: buy panasonic stock...
Fisher-Price today announced that, rumors to the contrary, they do not intend to introduce notebooks for children. A company spokesman gave the company's reasoning in prepared remarks, "These laptops survived being buried, broiled, frozen and drowned for a weekend? That is a typical lazy Sunday for our products in the hands of our customers. We are supposed to be impressed by that? No, our customers would scoff at such fragility."
This doesn't seem to have any value unless you compare them to normal notebooks. It's just as important to know if buying any "rugged" notebook is worth it.
I heard a few years ago that someone ran over his Powerbook G4 with a truck and it survived. I'd love to see how a Macbook Pro would compare to these "rugged" notebooks.
All the drop tests in the video showed the units being dropped onto a soft mat. Where's the drop onto the tile floor? Where's the drop onto parking lot asphalt? From a moving rental car? Landing under the wheels?
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
Well, come on, man, tell us what we need to know.
Did it blend?
What kind of maniacal beast would cook their brand new multi thousand dollar laptop in the oven?? Maybe he was hit over the head when he was a kid with laptops and this is some kind of twisted cathartic therapy?
Does this guy do house calls? If so, my neighbour's laptop might need some "testing".. I know his sound system works thanks to his rigorous 24 hour full-volume test, but I'd like to be just as confident in his laptop's abilities as well.
Oh, and don't tell him you're testing it either. It's a ummmm..surprise birthday present from me. Yeah, that's it. Birthday present.
Commodore64_love: I don't comprehend people who're so frightened of death that they'll bankrupt themselves to stay alive
They should not be dropped flat or on their spine to simulate drop damage. I've seen plenty of notebooks survive that. Pick a corner.
He missed one, battery life at low temps. A few years back for a former employer we looked at ruggedized laptops for field work and battery life at low temps was a major draw back. Our conclusion was that pencil and paper was still the best.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Your parents should have named you Getac M230.
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Nothing is better than the six year old test. The Beeb ran a test a few years ago on rugged testing CF cards. They nailed them to a tree, given to a six year old with simply instructions to "destroy" and put in a strainer and stove top boiled. now THAT is what I call ruggedized testing.
Don't bother clicking through for the videos. All three only show how they dropped the laptops on the floor. Whooping three shots per laptop: falling on the floor on the spine, base from 29 inches and in a bag from 60 inches. Nothing interesting. Just go with the print version if you want to read it.
Growth from 575,000 units to 879,000 units in three years represents 15 percent growth, when compounded annually. Are you in a market segment that is growing that fast?
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
This almost sounds like a bad choice of words, given its slightly ambiguous meaning. Heck, I'd call my current work desktop and laptop "rugged" since neither are from this millennium.
My IBM (nee Lenovo) Thinkpad T40 still works flawlessly after being bungied to the back of a motorcycle in rainstorms. Let's see how those models do in THAT test.
The company I work for has had trouble with toughbooks because people think they are alot more rugged than they really are. Employees have a real false sense of security with them. With the big macho 'Rugged Notebook' they expect it to be able to take abuse. What has happened in out experience is they still break when dropped from four feet onto pavement, and with a 'Rugged Notebook' they are more likely to be dropped because of the false sense of security. We have found that we are far better of with a really well built non-rugged notebook, like a t-series.
... will it blend?
I am very sucseptible to "let's have another drink"
You want to see videos of U.S. soldiers getting blown up?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
*smacks the author of this article square upside the head with his 10 year old toughbook*
If you're interested in facts I'll tell you what they are and I'll give you sources - Chomsky on The Big Idea
only touchpads? I'd imagine that a trackpoint would perform way better than a touchpad when wearing gloves, for example.
VPS-like shared hosting, on under-crowded servers.
How about:
1) Clothes dryer - 30 minutes on high
2) Dishwasher - heavy duty cycle, with screen open?
3) Washing machine - Cottons cycle, hot water, bleach and fabric softener.
No issues.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I mean, I would never run Windows, but it kind of sucks that I paid so much and can't even use a free (real) OS.
I work for an ambulance company. We use the Itronics GoBook III. It's rugged and touted for use by Fire depts, Police, Military and Ambulance people, with some other as well. We have a fleet of about 30 of these books, and have yet to have a problem with the rugged parts. We do have issues with displays getting cracked, ports breaking loose, missing keys, things like that. We've had one run over by an ambulance(they are heavy), and it survived. It was misformed but usable. As for actual performance, good luck. Your top of the line electronics do not match well with survivability in rugged laptops. They do make fine weapons to defend yourself with if need be.
I'm sure it adds something to the cost of laptop to make it "tough", but is the real reason they're not all "tough" for a $5 upcharge is that makers want them to break (even after we buy their overpriced cases) so we come back and buy another one after trivial Newtonian physics has been experienced?
Why can't they make them all tough, or at least make "toughness" such a trivial feature that it doesn't require spending an extra $1500?
How do you manage to do that with that little thing? Tweezers?
Was on and running when I dropped it down a flight of stairs, it hit corner first and kinda spun end over end. I nearly had a heart attack because I'd only had it for about 2 weeks, but when I got down to it the only thing wrong was a single crack in one spot on the case that is only about 1/4 of an inch long...... I wanna see em throw those laptops down a flight of stairs, THEN tell me they're tough :P
Not surprised the Panisonic passed. I seriously doubt the tests he performed measure up to the tests the DoD performs on the Panisonics.
Why did he only test them to 25 degrees? I've had to take my laptop outside in colder. If I had to guess, I'd say the coldest I've taken my laptop (a Dell Inspiron 6000, hardly a tough laptop) out in is 10, and it's worked fine afterwards. If he's going to test the physical limits of these tough-books he should test them beyond everyday temperatures, especially since winter temperatures often get below 25 in many places.
This sig is false.
"To imitate the sudden freezing, thawing and overheating of a notebook, I put each system into the freezer at 25 degrees Fahrenheit and let it sit there for 15 minutes. After they were allowed to warm up, I put them into an oven set to 175 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes."
15 minutes at 25 degrees? Come on -- find me a laptop, rugged or not, that *couldn't* do this. What a useless test.
I'm not a fanboy. I'm a consumer.
Dell has 2?
Latitude XFR D630
Latitude ATG D630
They claim that "it meets the strict military standard, MIL-STD 810F"
Watch out for the Itronix Gobooks, we've got some of them deployed in our police cruisers, and the PC card slots are not well attached to the MB. With the celluar data cards installed there (due to needing ext antenna connector) we've destroyed 4 of 6 that way.
The Toughbook CF-27s we had before this survived years w/o a hitch, on the other hand.
The above original post was a more a jest and not really serious. However, I completely agree that on a hot summer day, a car can become nice and toasty. I'm sure a black car with black leather seats would fry most bottoms, and bad things would happen to electronics. As with the guy who posted about his dad's ham radio, I am not surprised.
Oh sure - I can just imagine.
"I put it in the oven to dry it out."
"Dry it out?"
"After I dropped it in the pool."
[Forehead smack]
When I first got here someone who worked flight line brought in an Panasonic that had fallout out of an airborn helicopter and onto the tarmac. It was all dented up and I could actually see the internal components. I plugged it in and the damn thing powered right up! I was shocked because this thing was beat up.
Oh Itronix... we seriously thought these things were made here in Iraq. What hunks of crap! I've had my share of experiences with them, all bad. They are slow, buggy, bulky, ugly... If price is not an issue definitely go with the Panasonic over Itronix. If I ever get a choice, I choose Panasonic over Itronix.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
I have had my P3 1GHz toughbook for a long time. It has survived MANY drops onto hard and soft surfaces. It has survived extended use in the rain. I even ran over the corner of it once and no bending/issues.
The only issues it does have is the port cover hinges are very flimsy so most of the time those covers don't survive long.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Dude, of course it blended, all objects* blend!!!
In fact, all three of the tested notebooks blended when Tom pushed the "destroy" button.
Mmmmm, notebook smoke! Don't breath that!
*Chuck Norris does not blend.
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