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)."

Obvious...

Brian made videos of the tests (which were apparently done in his home, including his kitchen)."

Proof that Brian is not married.

Re:Obvious...

He also missed out on an awesome opportunity for a Martha Stewart impression when he was pulling those things outta the oven.
...Proof that I am married?

Insert obvious "you're not married you're gay / a nerd joke".

Re:

well its good to know what the laptops can take...lord knows when we will fall asleep in our oven during a late night programming session...I mean come on...dont we all climb in to keep warm or is it only me?

Print link - avoid 6 pages of ads

To save you having to wade through 6 ad-filled half pages - here's the link [computerworld.com].

Why this link is't published to start with is beyond me.

Re:Print link - avoid 6 pages of ads

As stupid and annoying as going through 6 ad-filled pages, that is entirely the publisher's choice to do, and working around it would be, while maybe not wrong, not nice. They pay for their bandwidth, and you have to admit that going to slashdot without ad support, would suck.

Re:

I tend to think of ads as electronic warfare. "They" try to get as much exposure, I try to minimize it. That means they get to try their latest pop-up/pop-under schemes, and I get to sharpen my skills with AdBlockPlus, NoScript and a very broad hostfile to

Re:Print link - avoid 6 pages of ads

I'm [sic] also think it is morally wrong to let them enjoy ad-income.

Great thesis. Now support it.

To put my money where my mouth is, I will attempt to support the opposing view (disclaimer: yes, I run Google AdSense on my web pages). Web pages such as the one in TFA are information that you, at your option, may find useful. Generating the content, and acquiring the bandwidth to provide it to you, costs money -- sometimes just a little bit (as in my case), and sometimes a lot (as, I suspect, in the case of TFA above -- destroying laptops in an abuse test can't be cheap). The content provider is providing that information to you completely free (as in beer). How then, if you do not charge for access to the content, do you pay for the bandwidth, hardware and, well, content required to provide interesting, relevant content? One way is to serve ads on the web page. Provided that the ads aren't the annoying, overly garish, flash-based crap that seriously detracts from the host web page, I don't believe this is too much to ask. As I said above, I put Google AdSense on my web pages because I don't think a simple text-based ad on the border of a web page is too intrusive. While other web hosts might disagree, I don't really give a rip if you want to run ad blockers, NoScript or edit your host files to block ads on my server. My web sites are primarily a hobby; I would just like to generate a little extra income to help offset the costs of bandwidth and servers. FWIW, I am a long way from breaking even on costs. My sites are pretty low volume (and ironically OTA right now; gotta call my upstream and find out what's going on...sigh).

And if they can't exist without the money from ads, well, they are free to remove their website.

On the flip side, if you are so morally opposed to ads on a web page, you are free to not visit my web sites ;)

In Related News...

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."

What kind of drop test is that?

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?

The Six Year Old Test

Nothing is better than the six year old test. The Beeb ran a test a few years ago [bbc.co.uk] 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.

Re:The Six Year Old Test

It would have been more disasterious if he gave it to a 4 year old and telling them to be careful with it.

Re:

I don't think it deserved that sort of torment :(

kitchen test

Well, come on, man, tell us what we need to know.

Did it blend?

Laptop raper!

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?

Laptop Testing services

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.

drop test seems pointless

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.

Missed one

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.

Re:

Huh, seems like it's be easy enough to add a temperature sensitive battery warmer - granted it would lower battery life a bit, but not as much as the temperature would.

Tiny Market

The market is growing quickly. In 2007, with sales of 575,000 systems, rugged notebooks made up only about 1% of the global notebook market. However, Krebs forecasts growth for rugged systems to top 11% annually, with sales reaching 879,000 systems in 2011.

So, they expect it to grow rapidly from 1% of the market all the way up to... 1.5% of the market over the next 3 years. Wooo!

Geek math error alert

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?

The videos are a joke

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 [computerworld.com] if you want to read it.

The motorcycle-in-the-rain test

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.

Problem with Rugged Notebooks ... False Security

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.

but...

... will it blend?

Itronics

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.