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Dell Rugged Laptops Not Quite Tough Enough

Posted by timothy on from the one-good-hit dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Trusted Reviews has put the new Dell XFR rugged laptop through the grinder and it hasn't fared as well as expected. Considering that these guys drove a car over a Panasonic Toughbook, they went pretty easy on the Dell, but it still couldn't take the punishment. It looks like Dell still has a way to go to steal the ball from Panasonic when it comes to all terrain computing."

4 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Did the submitter even RTFA? by Shag · · Score: 4, Informative

    Did *you* RTFA? They stated quite clearly that the Dell had issues with water ingress, including water getting into a battery compartment that isn't isolated from the mainboard.

    Yes, it worked again after they let it dry out for a day... but that's bad.

    I volunteer somewhere that bought one of these Dells, and honestly I have no idea why they needed a ruggedized laptop.

    --
    Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
  2. Notsotoughbooks by juanhf · · Score: 4, Informative

    We used to believe that the ToughBooks were the end all be all of ruggedized computers; that is until the day someone actually managed to break one!

    If you read the warranty statement from Panasonic you will see the following under Section 3 - Limited Warranty Exclusions

    "Failures which result from alteration, accident, misuse, introduction of liquid or other foreign matter into the unit, abuse, neglect, installation, maladjustment of consumer controls, improper maintenance or modification, use not in accordance with product use instructions"

    That means that if your coffee somehow spills on the laptop and fries the motherboard Panasonic will not repair it under warranty!

    On the other hand if you purchase a Dell or an HP ruggedized notebook with the accidental damage protection the notebook will be repaired with no questions asked.

    Considering the cost of the Panasonic ToughBooks, I would take a Dell XFR + CompleteCare any day!

    Besides, regardless of what notebook you own, if you roll over it with your vehicle (by accident) and it happens to break, would you not rather be covered?

    1. Re:Notsotoughbooks by darkmayo · · Score: 4, Informative

      You are comparing a base limited warranty with an ADP warranty, apples an oranges.

      Panasonic has ADP warranty as well which like the rest of the brands has to be purchased, I am not aware of any company that has accidental damage protection as there baseline warranty for a laptop.

      --
      "I am a kernel in the linux army"
  3. Re:In my case, temperature tolerance... by Kagato · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's pretty much spot on. They need the hardware to work in temperature extremes. And even then I would assume they would by the semi-rugged model. The Panasonic Toughbook is a great machine. They still make them by hand in Kyoto. Panasonic doesn't trust the quality of factories in other parts of Asia, part of the price premium means you're getting a laptop built by a highly skilled workforce with a keen eye on tolerances.