Panasonic ToughBook Testing Facility Tour

An anonymous reader writes "ToughBooks are considered by some to be the most resilient of all notebooks. So how does Panasonic ensure that their line of indestructible portables are just that? In a recent tour of the Kobe plant in Japan it was discovered that 1000's of ToughBooks are destroyed each year in pursuit of the most rugged systems. Soaking, electric shock, heating and electromagnetic radiation are among the many methods of torture used."

If you don't have time to read TFA....

[8127972]

.... (after all it is 11 pages) Try surfing here for some quick hits on how their notebooks are tested and what standards they meet.

http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/df_tes t.asp [panasonic.com]

If they weren't so bloody expensive, I'd get one. It looks like it would survive the real world quite nicely. If only all notebooks were built to HALF of what these are built to survive.

Re:not bright enough

[Lumpy]

your customers are not buying the right toughbooks.
  the toughbook-30 looks fantastic in bright direct sunlight as it has a correct reflective LCD instead of a standard Laptop screen, IF ordered correctly.

Most places do not buy the right gear when it comes to toughbooks because their accounting department craps their pants when they see the price.

Itronix

[rlp]

The other maker of hardened laptop / PDA's is Itronix. I've got an old Itronix laptop that's built like a brick. Both Itronix and Toughbooks (particularly the later) are popular with police and fire depts. Fire depts. are very hard on laptops. They use them for things like communications, looking a dept. databases (fire inspection notes), info on hazardous materials,etc. I've heard of one fire chief who likes to test a vendor's notebooks by tossing them across the room. He's not very popular with sales reps.

I got my Itronix used (years ago) on E-bay. It has a 'Sprint' logo on the cover. Apparently was used by field service techs.

Re:not bright enough

[silentbozo]

Correction, in direct sunlight, backlit LCDs do not fare well - which means pretty much every color screen on the market. My ancient transflective Palm LCD works just fine in sunlight, as did my old black & white PowerBook Duo.

They cost about $4000

[LotsOfPhil]

$4000 laptop is too expensive for me, sigh. [toughonline.com]

It is possible to kill the hard drives

[fishandring]

I worked at a company where they kept losing toughbook hard drives. They are not cheap to say the least because they reside inside a gel-suspension. Come to find out the techs were laying the toughbook at eye level on top of 15000 watt generators for extended periods of time monitoring the SCADA system. There's only o much vibration any hard drive can take...

Re:not so tough

[operagost]

Sorry, but that's ridiculous. Thinkpads have nice hard disk protection, but drop an open one on the floor and the screen and hinge are DEAD.

Re:It is possible to kill the hard drives

[ratman69]

We are having a similar problem, I work for a fire department and we have mounted toughbooks in our Fire Engines right over the engine cowling. They all lasted about a year and then the Hard drives started failing at a ridiculous rate. I suspect its a combination of lots of vibration and lots of heat. Nice thing is Panasonic has been replacing them, no questions asks. They show up in 1 day, 2 max. The sales rep even gave us a few drives to keep on hand so we can repair them without having to wait for the replacement part to ship.

Re:If you don't have time to read TFA....

[bitrot42]

The page is in Japanese, but the videos speak for themselves:

http://panasonic.jp/pc/appli/tough/ [panasonic.jp]

And this is for the *semi* rugged line!

More videos (fully rugged line):

http://panasonic.com.au/products/information.cfm?d etailsID=236&contextID=2482 [panasonic.com.au]

Re:Watch it though....

[philicorda]

Nah.
I have been around most of the world with my trusty CF27 toughbook and never had a problem. It looks even more agricultural than the more recent one you pictured. Never had a problem.

In hong kong, forgot about it (heavy jetlag) and left it on the X-ray machine while going through customs. Went back half an hour later and picked it up. All they asked me to do was identify it and it was fine.

I guess if I went to the states it could be more difficult, as they get spooked quite easily over there.