A rugged laptop is a piece of computer equipment that has been manufactured in such a way to withstand damage that typical computers cannot survive. A properly ruggedized computer can be dropped, drenched with water, dramatically vibrated or bounced around inside fast moving vehicles, and successfully operate in extreme weather temperatures. Well known rugged computers are the Panasonic TOUGHBOOK and the Getac series of products.
But Why?
Sometimes it can all be in a name. At Rugged or Die we specialize in ruggedized products. We’re all familiar with the word Rugged it means durable, hardy, strong, tough, resilient. There’s a good reason there is a market for ruggedized laptops instead of the cheap potato chips you can buy at big box stores. When it is important your computer always works or the device is used in sensitive environments it needs to be reliable, it needs to be rugged. It’s exactly why when you look inside a police officer’s vehicle you will see a larger than normal laptop / tablet. They are ruggedized products. It’s exactly why our military use them, or our fire departments. You’ll see all kinds of people from all over the world using these kinds of equipment when failure just isn’t an option.
How do I know?
You don’t need to guess if a product has been built to be rugged. There are specific ratings that will be marketed and advertised with the laptop. The US military has developed a ruggedized standard known as “MIL-STD-810”. This standard has had many revisions and can be observed by the letter at the end, the current revision as of this blog is “H” making it, “MIL-STD-810H”. One of the best in the industry as of the time of this article is the Panasonic TOUGHBOOK FZ-40.
According to who?
In the United States of America we have a lot of great things we do well. One thing we excel at is marketing. The US system of marketing allows businesses to make all kinds of claims, like the “world’s best cup of coffee” you see plastered to the side of every coffee shop in America. There is no government regulatory body that proactively goes through to verify that a claim made by a company is factually true. When it comes to ruggedized laptops with MIL-STD-810H standards it is very important you don’t just take the terminology communicated by the manufacturer as truth, you need to ask for the 3rd party documentation. Reputable manufacturers will have 3rd party companies test the products against these standards and will happily supply the certificates. If they cannot produce this certificate or the 3rd party company used seems suspect, do not trust them. There are international manufacturing companies that try to reverse engineer quality made goods, advertise as an equal, and try to drive their value through lower pricing. These international companies are not producing quality products and if you fall for their misdirection you’ll end up with an underperforming product that can have devastating financial consequences or even result in the loss of human life. Panasonic TOUGHBOOK likes to use the Southwest Research Institute for their 3rd party testing. For these reasons we are most often to recommend the Panasonic TOUGHBOOK 40, FZ-G2, CF-33, and FZ-G2 devices.
See our next two upcoming blogs for a deeper dive into MIL-STD-810H Standards!
