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Rugged Laptop/Tablet Suggestions, 2010 Version?

Posted by timothy on from the pick-a-desert-with-less-sand dept.

robbievienna writes "I'm currently living in the Arabian desert. Typically, unless a building has been sealed against the elements, sand and dust get everywhere. I purchased a keyboard cover for one of my laptops, and noticed that there was more accumulation on the underside than the topside. I've had sand crunk up the guts of one laptop and one tablet (Nokia N810). My coworkers who are native to the region tend to trade out their technology every six to twelve months, but I don't want to migrate data and adjust to new hardware that frequently. I was wondering what suggestions people have for working in this type of environment — both for laptops and for tablets. For reference, I work in a pseudo-secured zone where computers (phones, etc.) are not permitted to have cameras. A DVD drive would be nice, but is unnecessary. The more USB ports, the better. The last time the question was posted on Slashdot was five years ago, so I'm presuming that there are new industry leaders."

12 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Good Luck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Depending on the exact timeframe you're looking at for the standard replacement cycle there vs. your total expected residency, you may be better off financially just going the replacement route and mitigating damage by keeping your N810 sealed in a Ziploc bag or something. Seriously, the last time I looked at prices for truly "ruggedized" equipment, I was floored and my wallet felt violated just by reading the prices.

  2. Panasonic Toughbook by Nimey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They've got units that are rated for such harsh environments. They're not cheap, though.

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    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

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  3. Rome by Great+Big+Bird · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When in Rome, Do as the Romans do.

  4. SSD not spinny disk by olddoc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The 2 things that fail on computers are hard disks and fans. I wonder if a really low power cpu could run without sucking dust in if a cpu cooling fan wasn't needed much.

    --
    Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
  5. Re:Field notebooks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I live in the same environment. Panasonic toughbook or replace shit every 6 months. If it's in a very nice building, then a thinkpad, because it weights half as much, but is rugged enough to last that long. I'm thinking about flash drives from the heat perspective. However, toughbook is the answer.

  6. iPad is still better. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'd recommend waiting until the iPad comes out, then get one.

    1. Re:iPad is still better. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It certainly won't be explicitly "rugged" in any serious way, nor will there be any warranty express or implied, concerning dropping it; but it wouldn't at all surprise me if it ends up being pretty durable against ingress of sand purely as a side effect of Apple's aesthetic preferences.

      Steve and his guys hate slots, buttons, ports, battery bays, or anything that breaks up the polished outer surface or suggests that the user might be able to do anything more invasive than plug a set of headphones in. Consequently, their designs aren't terribly easy for stuff to get into(or once it gets in, out of, as anybody who has ever had to deal with the "single speck of dust/crud/eyelash hair that somehow got behind the iPod screen cover" problem can attest).

    2. Re:iPad is still better. by scdeimos · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't understand people that claim somehow the iPad isn't real computing.

      It's not about the processing power under the hood. Can you install OpenOffice on it, or any other application that hasn't been given the "Ok" by Apple to be distributed through the iTunes App Store? No.

      The iPod, iPhone and iPad are just terminals into Apple's closed application repository. Although developers can create pretty much whatever they want and submit it for the App Store, Apple has final approval thus making it a closed environment. And Apple has the power to revoke any application at any time for whatever reason it sees fit.

      Want proof? Apple blocks iPhone security software; Apple Removes Wi-Fi Finders From App Store; Apple Bans Sexy Apps, Developers Upset; Apple Bans Jailbreakers From The App Store; Apple Censors Dalai Lama iPhone Apps in China; Commodore 64 Runs Again On The iPhone (after Apple pulled it from the App Store until the developer changed it); Apple Kills Google Voice Apps On The iPhone; and my favourite, because it shows Apple's double-standards, Licensed C64 Emulator Rejected From App Store, because Apple claims Emulators are against its SDK agreement, but still allows Sega game emulators.

      I can't help but wonder how long it will be before Apple rejects the Opera browser from the iPhone, because "it duplicates existing iPhone functionality" (Safari) which is also one of the SDK agreement clauses, and its reason for blocking the Google Voice apps.

    3. Re:iPad is still better. by MikeFM · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You can always remote connect to a system and run anything you want. Or jailbreak your iPhone. Or sign up as a developer. Many options exist but everyone complaining is to lazy to bother. A device that doesn't suck in it's default configuration is just beyond some people to understand. The kind of people that buy a discount HDTV from walmart and are surprised that it has a bad picture and sound and dies two weeks after the warranty expires.

      If I felt like it I could probably get OpenOffice running on my iPod, the Mac version could probably be adapted pretty easily, but what would be the point? Installing every app you ever saw on a device is a bad measurement of how useful that device is.

      Duplicate functionality is confusing to consumers. If you want more options then take 5 minutes to jailbreak your device or pay $100 to be a developer and you can compile and run whatever you want. Android is a mess because they allow anyone and everyone to do whatever the freak they want and it ends in a confusing, and bad, consumer experience. If you aren't smart enough to jailbreak your iPhone or compile a program then you shouldn't be running those apps anyway. The PC concept sucks because it is confusing and degrades into chaos quickly. I've seen grown men break down crying because of their Windows experience. I can't say I've ever seen anyone cry because they couldn't use OpenOffice or Opera on their iPhone.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
  7. out of your box solutions including OS X by arete · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I realize you asked for a ruggedized laptop. However, that everyone else replaces theirs regularly points to the idea that you should consider that as a serious alternative and not discard it out of hand. I called this 'out of your box' because they're all doing it, and you're rejecting it a priori. I see basically three legitimate issues with this solution:

    a) maintaining a consistent interface for you to be used to
    b) providing easy data migration to the replacement device
    c) total cost of multiple non-ruggedized devices compared to the realistic lifespan of ruggedized ones.

    I'm not suggesting that my parent post had the right thoughts in mind, but Apple does provide surprisingly good, quick and easy solutions for a&b in OS X and the iPhone; I would expect the iPad to continue this.

    Apple is not historically great about 'c', but that sand environment is hard even on the modestly ruggedized ones so it's not impossible.

    Of course, I imagine their are .e.g Linux distros with good solutions to a & b and other laptop vendors who tend to have a consistent interface.

    Of course you might need to account for shipping, purchasing, processing, or environmental costs in 'c', but even on the environmental front it's not a given that one device is better than 3, esp if it gets recycled well (many parts of the sandworn one will still work, and it'll be early enough that those, minus your HD, are reasonable used replacement parts in the right shop...)

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    1. Re:out of your box solutions including OS X by BobPaul · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Any linux distro would be good at A & B. Just install your distro, rsync your /home to the new computer, and reboot. Then all you need to do is re-install your software and, presumably, that's all in the repos. Anything not in the repos should be kept in deb/rpm/tgz files in your home folder somewhere.

      Outside of that, about the only thing you might want are backups of configs in /etc that you modified.

  8. Not worth it by 1s44c · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Panasonic make some very nice tough laptops, there are also a few other makers around that claim they make tough laptops.

    However my advice is don't bother. The cost of a low end panasonic toughbook is over 6 times the cost of a good spec thinkpad. The toughbook is unlikely to last 6 times longer and even if it does it's going to be obsolete by that time. Unless your life depends on that one laptop working right now just buy good quality ( not acer ) decent spec laptops and replace either the whole laptop or parts as needed.

    You need good and tested backups in any case as even the best laptop could get stolen.