ThinkPads are Ruggedized Machines

[NS]

I was surprised to see that he could stand on the thinkpad and NOTHING happened to the LCD.

It depends on the angle he stand on the thinkpad. To make the experiment fair, why not pick a few of our forum members to try standing on their thinkpads with one leg up like a ballet dancer??

[NS]

Regardless of what Matt says, a thinkpad is still a thinkpad; will never become a toughpad. A panasonic toughbook is a rugged laptop built to serve all those abuses. So if a thinkpad is half as rugged as a panasonic toughbook, we should be happy and satisfied with what we have and if thinkpads can be built as powerful and rugged as a panasonic toughbook, then no one will buy a panasonic as their prices are different.

A vendor selling whatever product will say their product is good. Who will ever sell something and criticise their own products..?

*Sorry for being blunt and if my post ever offend any thinkpad maniac, i am sorry*

I need to get this piece of comment off my chest.

[pianowizard]

Yeah, I'm sure that's what caused it, but a laptop should be designed to handle being picked up that way.

Yes, it's designed to be picked up that way perhaps up to hundreds of times, but not thousands or tens of thousands of times!

[draco2527]

Is the author joking?? I think saying that a ThinkPad is almost as good or better than two levels of Toughbook is laughable.

I can not agree!!!

The name "Toughbook" is for the most part a branding/marketing strategy!!!

There are many notebook models made by Panasonic labeled "Toughbook"; the only one that deserves the name is the Fully Ruggedized one...the other ones DO NOT! (IMHO) and yes I had a Demo of each one provided by Panasonic. I posted some comments in this forum on the fully rugged one...

FULLY-RUGGED - Especially for use in command and control situations. These include models like the 30 and the 19
SEMI-RUGGED - For any user who is worried about their PC being damaged. These are models like the 51 or 74.
BUSINESS-RUGGED - Not really ruggedized machines at all. These are just capitalizing on the Toughbook name. Models include the W5 or T5 plus a few others.

Our machines would equal or better Panasonic’s durability vs. their “Semi” and “Business” rugged machines.

Agree...nothing more than glorified laptops...I bounced the Fully Rugged off the floor about 3 hops and all it had was a nick...when I mentioned trying the same with the SEMI rugged he laughed and said "It will break"... The SEMI RUGGED CAN NOT HANDLE a 500ML water bottle dumped on the Keyboard like the Fully rugged can either...so in a "normal" environment this will have no bearing as the ThinkPad can do the same for less!! These are tailored for more mobile people that do construction work etc...as they tend to take slight bumps, etc a little better...but you dropp a semi-rugged and a ThinkPad and the results are more than likely the same -there are reports HERE IN THE FORUM- of members DROPPING their ThinkPads and NOTHING happening...so the same can hold true for anything....

The Business...NOTHING RUGGED about that!!!

Depending on the application, a ThinkPad may even be a good match vs. a “Fully” rugged machine.

This can hold true...if you are the "construction" manager and you sit most of the time inside your trailer and the laptop SITS on a table for 99.9% of the project -months OR YEARS-(I was a pipe fitter...Electric Power plants...) then why should the company spend $4K+ on YOUR machine when the Company can supply two other people in the same setting with a ThinkPad that will live in that environment for most of its life?


The MIL-SPEC testing outlines what should be covered...but as stated by the Lenovo Blog:

All in all, there are about 25 categories within the 810F spec. In order to say you have passed MIL-STD testing, you don’t have to pass all of them. Even if a vendor passes only one, it can claim tested to MIL specs as long as somewhere in the literature it states which category was passed. Most vendors, even with their “ruggedized” systems only pass a 4 to 6 of these subcategories — usually things like humidity and dust resistance. If you are looking for a ruggedized PC, it is always important to read the fine print!