Toughbook

For that price, I would rather buy an apple computer. Plus the Toughtbook doesn`t look that great. It looks like something that should be used in a war zone like Iraq.

@alladin That is its intended purpose. Work sites, heavy travel, war zones etc.

Thank you Panasonic. I couldn't possibly do my job without a Toughbook. Mine was once frozen at - 25 degrees then dropped in water, and it still survived...

ebisen, where did you find water at -25 degrees? Don't you mean it was dropped on ice (ie it's shockproof, not waterproof)?

Considering the price I've always wondered how many of these Toughbooks they sell. Seems like a real niche product.

cleo,

he said frozen & then dropped in water

They sell alot of these and the used market is quite robust also. Most robust notebook made for quite a few years.

I like the older Titanium framed IBM notebooks (before Lenovo).

I've worked projects for mobile workers where we purchased 20,000 units. Yes, they are a niche product, but between mobile workers and military uses, they sell enough. We bought 10% more than were needed to always have a replacement stock that could be fedex next day. These systems are deployed all over the world - Alaska, Panama, Iraq, and all over the USA in telecom trucks in tens of thousands of locations.

Prior to Toughbooks, we bought Itronix hardened laptops.

Personally, I can be careful enough to afford 4 regular laptops instead of 1 of these, but I've seen line workers treat these just like they treat any other tool and throw them around in trucks or forget them on the roof.

Do they have a solid state drive, or just a regular spinning disk, maybe shock-mounted? 160GB isn't much, 300~500GB SSDs are pretty common now, such as in mac book pros!

Cleo, it was in Northern Europe, the PC was used to take log data for 24 hours, then it slipped from my hands directly into ice cold river water. No problems at all and I'm still using it, 3 years after. I work in automotive

Great to use on ships! I will definitely get one.

Toughbooks hold about 60% percent of law enforcement mobile computer market in the US. They are great for this. Cops are harsh on equipment and if you bolt it down in a car it needs to be tough. Regular users will fine a toughbook CF equivalent to driving a tank which is something they might find unnecessary.