Notebook PCs for the accident-prone

Mobile computing can be a haphazard business, and new notebooks from General Dynamics and Panasonic give their owners permission to drop them (from a reasonable distance) as often as they like.

General Dynamics Itronix miniscule rugged notebook PC

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)

General Dynamics' GoBook MR-1 claims to be the smallest fully rugged ultramobile PC, and it may very well be. It weighs 2 pounds, and is about the size of a small jewelry box. It was made to have all the same features and capabilities of the full-size GoBook XR-1 but in a more compact form factor. That means four wireless connections: Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, GPS, and Wireless Wide Area Network. It's built on Intel's Napa platform. (NOTE: We goofed when we first posted this, giving the wrong platform. The GoBook is indeed built on Napa.)

All of General Dynamics' touchscreen notebooks, which are cold- and heat-resistant, now come with its proprietary outdoor viewing capability, called DynaVue. Outdoor viewing is one of the most confounding problems related to rugged computing. General Dynamics' solution is to put the polarizing film closer to the top of the touchscreen underneath the glass to reduce reflection.

Consumers aren't General Dynamics' customers--the company sells to militaries, telecom and utility workers, and public safety officers.

Panasonic's new Toughbook 52

(Credit: Panasonic)

Panasonic's new Toughbook 52, which replaces the 51 series, is aimed at business users as well as government, utility and safety workers. The 52 model adds a widescreen display and a carrying handle, but keeps the magnesium alloy case and shock-mounted hard drive of its predecessor. It's built on the Santa Rosa architecture, and has a Core 2 Duo processor.

Though it's semi-rugged (as opposed to fully rugged), Panasonic still promises the Toughbook will survive a 1-foot drop on concrete, and that the removable hard drive can weather a 3-foot drop. Besides being drop-proof, it's also apparently spill-proof--the notebook has a special system so that any liquid spilled on the laptop is drained out of the bottom without getting inside.

[Hope M.]

Notebook PCs for the accident-prone

These accident prone PCs are the best as this time because of the relevance of the technology that they are able to deliver. They are really intended for the safety officers in the field. The rest of the products are to be sold to the government employees, and for occupations requiring a lot of safety.

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[laremiller]

not drop-proof

>>Besides being drop-proof, it's also apparently spill-proof<<

A laptop that can survive a drop of merely one foot is not "drop-proof." Most drops occur from desktops or tabletops, or from the hands of someone who is standing or walking. So it needs to be able to survive a drop of 2.5 to 3 feet in order to merit the "drop-proof" label.

[ruggednotebooks]

Rugged Notebooks

How do you decide what products you will review? Are they paid reviews?

The reason I ask is that you seem to only review and write about products that are sponsor products. I write a blog that discusses products you seemingly have not covered.

Is it possible to submit articles or posts.