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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."

6 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    FWIW, I just spent a few weeks in the Moroccan Sahara and most of the natives who had laptops, had a Macbook

  2. Rugged Notebooks by Island+Admin · · Score: 5, Informative

    A quick google came up with the following website: http://www.ruggednotebooks.com/
    They have notebooks with sealed keyboards, low reflectivity (especially greate for the desert conditions :) ).

  3. Field notebooks by juventasone · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are models that meet MIL-STD-810. Have you seen any of these tried in your environment? Some of them have already been mentioned such as the Panasonic Toughbooks and HP Elitebooks.

  4. A fan-less computer by Kozmik · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can spend a lot of money and buy a ruggedized laptop ( panasonic toughbooks are the best known examples and they have a range of models from semi ruggedized to fully ruggedized ).

    However the feature you want from the ruggedized unit is the fact that fully ruggedized laptops are setup to be fanless ( the better designed ones ). Fanless means they don't need to suck in air, which would need to be filtered, which then becomes a point of failure.

    So for example most netbooks for example run an atom cpu that just needs a heatsink and no fan. That then eliminates the point of failure of the fan sucking in dust. There are desktop choices that are the same, underclocked or low power cpu's that don't produce enough heat to need more then a heatsink so can run fanless.

  5. OLPC by FreeBSD+evangelist · · Score: 5, Informative
    The One Laptop Per Child program (I have an original XO) builds for that exact environment.

    http://laptop.org/en/laptop/hardware/index.shtml
    http://laptop.org/en/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml

    There is a lightweight version of Windows they can run if you can't make it with "Sugar". You can find them on eBay.

  6. AMREL Rocky by JungleBoy · · Score: 5, Informative

    I use an AMREL Rocky notebook in my field work. Hop out of the helicopter and toss it on the rocks while you unload other gear. Rain? No problem. Dust? No problem, it's completely sealed. The bottom is actually a finned heat sink bonded to the CPU. Since it has no fans/vents, it is a bit under-clocked. But it's awesome. http://www.amrel.com/rugged-computers/default.asp

    --
    "You never know when some crazed rodent with cold feet might be running loose in your pants."
    -Calvin