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Panasonic Toughbook 40
- lagniappe 2y agoI don't want to contact sales.
- progbits 2y agoIf you click "configure" there are prices. Seems to start at $4500 for lowest specs.
- ugh123 2y ago>First AI-enabled TOUGHBOOK PC >(AI)-driven tasks for customers across law enforcement departments, federal agencies and utility companies. What are the applications of law enforcement with AI in the field?
- m463 2y ago> What are the applications of law enforcement with AI in the field? "Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply."
- hypercube33 2y agoI was thinking more like demolition man. In a firm voice tell the maniac to lie down
- m463 2y ago(uncertain if you recognize quote is from robocop ED-209)
- frankfrank13 2y agoLikely some simple RAG-based document Q&A (e.g case files, statutes, etc).
- eth0up 2y agoOne is writing police reports, according to a recent post on HN. Didn't read it though. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41358965 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41358965
- humptybumpty 2y agoAh! A way cut costs. It’s well known that you always need to have two officers in a police patrol: one can read and the other one can write.
- acdha 2y agoProcessing media seems useful - have a squad car doing plate and face recognition for suspects, voice recognition and analysis for anything they’re talking about with people, etc. all would be things which could be really useful modulo legal concerns (e.g. it’s probably not a constitutional issue if, say, an officer is talking to someone and their laptop is pulling up information about people or places mentioned, but it’d be a huge issue if they were trying to search people’s phone data without following legal guidelines). A really simple one: you know how Apple has a assistive feature for hearing impairments which warns users about ambient sounds like emergency vehicles or crying babies? I could imagine a police force wanting something like that simply to do something like logging gunshots, vehicle crashes, etc. and possibly triggering an alarm if the officer doesn’t say it’s okay within a short period of time.
- wkat4242 2y agoTwo words: Minority Report :)
- kotaKat 2y agoAlmost zero-to-none that we already have solutions for like voice recognition or license plate recognition.
- widowlark 2y agoAI is even better at racial profiling than the police. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/police-facial-recognition-technology-cant-tell-black-people-apart/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/police-facial-rec...
- wildylion 2y agoNot exactly law enforcement, but a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away we were running local AI to try and spot people lost in the wilderness from drone footage. I imagine same goes for military now...
- ackbar03 2y agoWhen you need to train that pytorch model in the middle of syria
- sharpshadow 2y agoIf they have a specialised GPT they could run it locally during temporary internet outages.
- nxobject 2y agoI'm thinking computer vision applications, especially ones that can't be done on a smaller device – e.g. "based on video from these bodymounted cameras, determine the changing position over time of X, Y, Z."
- narrator 2y ago7.4lbs! Unless you're working in construction, or mining, or security or something like that, probably better to get something else.
- lenerdenator 2y agoSometimes you need a self-defense device and laptop all in one. When you knock a mugger down with one of those, he stays down.
- jcgrillo 2y agoThese ruggedized laptops (I have a Dell variant) are the only way to get a sunlight readable display. It's true they're heavy.
- eth0up 2y agoI have the Dell variant too. Great laptop in general, but not as rugged as the proper toughbook
- gunapologist99 2y agoDell Rugged vs Dell Rugged Extreme. Rugged Extreme is definitely as rugged as a ToughBook, but with that obvious very visible tradeoff in weight and size.
- michaelt 2y agoYeah - I've used toughbooks in the past, and honestly they're 6x more likely to survive being dropped, but also 3x more likely to get dropped in the first place because they're so heavy.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- somerandomqaguy 2y agoPolice, EMS, fire service, and military use them. The laptops are often mounted inside of the vehicles and need to withstand a fair amount of bumping around. A lot of them also specifically include RS232 ports to interface with industrial equipment as well. I daily used a semi rugged for a while for shits and giggles. Actually wasn't bad to lug around, it had an inbuilt handle made it easy. And there was very little guilt about quickly slamming the lid shut so moving it around from place to place was actually easier then you'd think.
- rx_tx 2y ago> Integrated tetra-array mic That's definitely an uncommon way of saying quad microphone array. It's an AI toughbook due to having a unspecified "1.4Ghz AI Boost NPU" which seems to be something Intel offers, and according to other websites, operates at 34 TOPS.
- mmh0000 2y agoMany years ago, at a previous job, I was issued a Toughbook. I loved that I didn't have to even think about babying it. I could just slap it closed when done and throw it (literally) back in the truck. I didn't like the cost of the thing; which is still costly today. However! Just like back then, today, you can get REALLY good deals on used Toughbooks through eBay. Because they are niche and not many people want to carry an 8Lb brick with them.
- robotnikman 2y ago>you can get REALLY good deals on used Toughbooks through eBay. Wow you are right, I took a look and many are in the $200-300 range, though without a drive. I might just grab one to mess around with, and stick in a spare drive I have laying around
- rbanffy 2y agoJust remember that being indestructible also means the cheapest ones are ancient as well.
- samplatt 2y agoI've taken apart a Toughbook to try to resurrect a dead hard drive. It was the most brutally annoying laptops I've ever had to tear apart. I have SO much respect for those machines, but if it's being sold without a HDD, be prepared for some pain getting it open and then back together again.
- aae42 2y agoi'll be happy to pick one of these up used for 10% the price in a few years
- xnx 2y agoPanasonic CF-31 i7 16GB 1TB already seems like a decent value at $640 https://www.ebay.com/itm/235658243945 https://www.ebay.com/itm/235658243945
- voidmain0001 2y agoThat price should be divided by 10 since the CPU is 5th gen from 2015[0]. [0] https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-5600U+%40+2.60GHz&id=2456 https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-5600U...
- adamomada 2y agoBest offer your $64 and see if you get it. My bet is no and the eBay seller knows a bit more about what it’s worth
- hypercube33 2y agoBrand new ones are only up to 11th gen Intel last I checked. They stay on long term and stable parts so they can sell them a few years unlike normal business machines that get refreshes every year or so.
- shrubble 2y agoor similar https://www.ebay.com/itm/285907921261 https://www.ebay.com/itm/285907921261 with 500GB drives, should be an easy upgrade to 1TB if desired?
- ryzvonusef 2y agoif you search for panasonic fz40 on google or youtube, what do you get, results for the lumix camera or the toughbook laptop, both by panasonic, both having the same model number? google gives me the laptop, youtube gives me the camera
- writeslowly 2y agoWhat are the use cases for the advertised barcode reader accessory that appears to shoot the laser out the side of your laptop? https://connect.na.panasonic.com/toughbook/accessories/fz-vbr552m-panasonic-barcode-reader-xpak https://connect.na.panasonic.com/toughbook/accessories/fz-vb...
- ssijak 2y agoTo read barcodes
- xnx 2y agoProbably a fair number of document, media, or small part inventory tasks where the laptop would be on cart. Sometimes easier to bring the barcode to the scanner than bring the scanner to the barcode.
- joecool1029 2y agoGovernment procurement contracts for these probably wanted it since they need a way to inventory assets and this gives an all-in-one solution. Military and law enforcement are probably the main purchasers of these.
- sdtransier 2y agoOne possible use case would be for police officers to scan driver licenses when pulling people over. When I worked for a city IT department, they had to have separate barcode readers installed in the cars for that, so I imagine it'd be nice to have it integrated into the laptop.
- tourmalinetaco 2y agoIt may be redundancy; have a dedicated reader but if it breaks you don’t need to go to the station for another one.
- throw0101d 2y agoInventory / part tracking comes to mind. The barcode scanner drops the likelihood of typos in part and serial numbers I've heard it said that an airplane is ten thousand parts flying in formation: keeping track of maintenance and replacement parts is important in many (safety-critical) industries, and so having a scanner that one doesn't have to remember, lug around, and fumble with [0] could be useful. [0] https://www.amazon.com/s?k=barcode+scanner https://www.amazon.com/s?k=barcode+scanner
- tonymet 2y agooculus with a $20 bluetooth keyboard would be a better field computer
- GuB-42 2y agoThe point here is to bring the computer to the field, not to bring the field to the computer.
- tonymet 2y agoi don't follow. A wireless oculus , DC supply & bluetooth keyboard should be enough for the field.
- kayodelycaon 2y agoI doubt that setup would last a week in a desert.
- numpad0 2y agoLeave it lens up for 5 minutes and they make a good BBQ starter.
- stonogo 2y agosure, if you don't mind replacing it weekly.
- toyg 2y agoCan't wait to share sweaty goggles with "Wet" Joe, who last washed his face for his wedding in 2006.
- tonymet 2y agothis was funny , i'll admit
- kalleboo 2y agoIn the first 15 minutes someone is going to set it down in the sunlight and mar the display
- bityard 2y agoI've encountered a few of these over the years. On the one hand, they are impressively rugged. And easy to repair. But the ones I have laid hands on had terrible displays, terrible keyboards, and terrible touchpads. And this was back when ALL laptop keyboards and touchpads where far inferior to what they are now. I'm sure some use them because they like the aesthetic, it would not be most people's first choice as a daily driver.
- jedberg 2y ago> I'm sure some use them because they like the aesthetic, it would not be most people's first choice as a daily driver. Almost anyone who uses one does it because they work in an environment where nothing else would survive. Construction sites, mining, dusty or wet places, etc.
- InitialLastName 2y agoThere's a niche group of people (particularly electronics distributor FAEs for some reason) who have them for the same reason many people own F150s: because they like to look like they work in that sort of environment.
- jedberg 2y agoFascinating. I've never run into anyone with a vanity toughbook, but I can totally believe this.
- masklinn 2y agoNever run into vanity fully rugged either. I’ve met people who used business rugged as daily drivers, they’re somewhat less hostile and still rather nice: spill proof, hotswap battery, handle and strap, not as solid as the fully rugged but lighter and better looking. Still expensive as hell new.
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
- jedberg 2y agoOnly 7.4 lbs! Surprising but also awesome.
- havblue 2y agoGoing through security, a TSA agent inspected my Toughbook and was really impressed by how cool it looked. I didn't have the heart to break it to him that the laptop was outdated at the time. It was just a laptop that you could drop, nothing special about it.
- jnwatson 2y agoGotta respect Panasonic for identifying an underserved market and crushing it for almost 30 years.
- ahaseeb 2y agoYes I am surprised no one else went for it Great example of riches are in niches
- mciancia 2y agoNot no one. There is also getac, durabook, rugged series of some dell laptops, there is (was?) itrinix and probably a bit more that I don't really know of :)
- jl_418 2y agoI’ll drop ruggedpcreview.com here- no affiliation but have checked once in a while for years; they have a lot of press releases, if not reviews, of the rugged PCs available.
- catherinecodes 2y agoGetac and Dell are active there, particularly for law enforcement. There's a good youtube channel[1] that compares them all from time to time. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/@Bobjohnson https://www.youtube.com/@Bobjohnson
- grobbyy 2y agoI have a ruggedized Dell. It's not nearly as tough as the Panasonic I used, but it's tough enough. On the other hand, it is much more useable. I don't know if that's a brand or model difference.
- solardev 2y agoGeeze, starts at $4500ish...
- dnndev 2y agowe used them because they guaranteed parts and repair for something like five or ten years. This was the number one reason we purchased hundreds... No complaints, they were very stable. We tried other cheaper models and they would overheat etc.. ( used on large ships )
- AcerbicZero 2y agoI remember running into the old version of these super early in my little IT life, back when I was just at AIT; All that time playing with FCBC2's and Blue Force trackers ended up giving me an addiction to very graphically boring military simulation games, but I'm not complaining. We also used to run HMMWVs over them on my deployments, mostly to prove points and win bets lol. That got stopped after an MRAP crushed one though - The rakkasans who know, know ;)
- alexb_ 2y agoThis stuff is not for consumers. It's for the military. That's why they cost so much and put so much emphasis on features that seemingly don't have any purpose (a bar code scanner and modularity but bad specs? auth readers but a terrible display and keyboard?) As someone in the military, these are everywhere - that's their main customer. When judging this product, realize that's what it's built for.
- masklinn 2y agoIt’s for any job where care is not expected or possible, not just the military. They’re everywhere in mines and factories, they’re used by first responders, they’re routine for race teams, field techs, surveyors, …
- shahzaibmushtaq 2y agoOut of curiosity, has anyone ever used these types of laptops for programming?
- masklinn 2y agoMostly useless. They are hideously expensive, the specs are really not great, the keyboards and displays are meh, and the trackpads are obnoxiously bad. They are for using in the field where damage is expected. So you might want that if your programming is tuning car ECU during races, or you do your programming on a sailboat while crossing the Atlantic. Otherwise they’re just underpowered back-breakers.
- quailfarmer 2y agoYes, we used them for a rocket launch in the desert. The main distinguishing feature is that these (CF-31 and related) are fully dust proof, the fan of a normal laptop will pull in dust and die. These were certainly slower to use, but we were just hacking around small bugs as they caused issues.
- xeonmc 2y agoDo you mean that the fans are dust proof but small bugs may be too much for it to handle?
- masklinn 2y agoThey mean they were were using the laptops for basic bug fixing in the middle of the desert, so although the CFs are not very snappy that was not too much of an issue (compared to not having a working laptop).
- culebron21 2y agoI did use a lighter version of Toughbook back in 2007 (bought it for weight of just 1.3 kg, and passive cooling). There was no annoying noise, but a slowed CPU, which made it slower than average. Mandriva Linux was too fat for it, but WinXP worked fine. Unfortunately, they discontinued the lighter version.
- unusual-name 2y agoI used to use Thoughbooks every day at work while I was working as an EMT. I kinda have a love/hate relationship with them. I loved their ruggedness. They can fall from the stretcher to the ground, you can sit on them and they even work when it's raining on them. But everything else is not that great. The keyboard feels awful, the touchscreen sometimes didn't work (which was awful because the application was designed for touchscreens) and the trackpad is tiny compared to other laptops. Still they're better than the alternatives that other cities used. Documenting with pen and paper is exhausting, iPad aren't as rugged and their on screen keyboard is even worse and smartphones just don't appear that professional.
- FireBeyond 2y ago100% better than the GETACs my ambulance service used, those were hot garbage, with even worse touchscreens (or it may also have been that my service was so cheap they'd buy them on eBay, and even buy partially broken ones and the Director of Ops would Frankenstein multiple broken ones together to get one working)...
- a1o 2y agoI used both, but the thoughbook with Windows and the GETAC with Android. The touchscreen experience was much better in the GETACs I used. The thoughbook is good in the laptop format as linked but not the thoughbooks that are meant to be used as tablets - those die easier.
- throwaway2037 2y agoDo you think the keyboard is awful because it needs to survive incredible abuse and operating conditions (liquid spills, etc)?
- lb1lf 2y ago-Probably, there's a (at least used to be) rubber membrane between key caps and switches to ensure water, coffee, hydraulic fluid, blood, assorted acids, dust, gravel etc. does not make it inside when you douse it in one or more of said substances. (My last Dell Precision died after having been first on the accident site when a high-pressure manifold burst, courtesy of a sub-par weld - it sat merrily on a tank opposite, logging pressures, temperatures and contamination levels during an operation when suddenly, the manifold opted out of existence, blasted the Dell into the bulkhead, cracked the casing in so many places we didn't even find all the parts afterwards, dousing the remnants in hydraulic fluid (which, as it happens, is quite corrosive and reasonably carcinogenic, too.) Had a similar thing happen to a ToughBook years later. Simply donned gloves, took it outside, hosed it down in lukewarm water for a while, rebooted and got back to work. For all their shortcomings, ToughBooks are amazing at their intended use case. (Oh, and before anyone asks - we set up the test rig, make ourselves scarce, and only then do we start the pumps and apply pressure. I am a firm believer in staying alive.)
- ackatz 2y agoI started my IT career in emergency medical services. It was amazing to see the beating these computers can take. I have seen toughbooks (Panasonic, GETAC) survive after being run over by an ambulance, fall off the back of an ambulance at high speed, etc. They are very modular and easy to fix.
- tmtvl 2y agoVaguely related: Emperor Linux sells (sold? IDK if they're still in business) Toughbooks with Linux pre-installed: http://emperorlinux.com/systems/rugged/ http://emperorlinux.com/systems/rugged/
- wkat4242 2y agoI'd love something like that. But they're soooo expensive.
- giancarlostoro 2y agoThose things are tanks. They're also very modular. Never owned one, but have seen them around a bit. I've also seen them run Linux pretty decently. ;)
- spankalee 2y agoIt would be cool to see Framework enter this market so that you could get a ruggedized notebook that's modular, repairable, and upgradeable through the whole stack.
- masklinn 2y agoTough books are already modular and very repairable. Not really upgradable but that’s a minor concern given the market. The testing necessary for the certs is expensive, and these are 99.9% procured by governments and large companies, complete waste of time and money for framework.
- lb1lf 2y agoOooh, I finally managed to coax my manager into getting me a ToughBook at a previous gig, after I'd churned through a Dell Mobile Workstation or two a year doing field work. The ToughBook lasted years. True, the keyboard left a bit to be desired, the screen ghosted like you wouldn't believe and the colours were a bit, uh, off, not to mention ridiculous resolution - but killing the thing was essentially impossible. It is the Land Cruiser of laptops. Expensive, sluggish, heavy, indestructible. It even had a serial port (and, still does as an optional extra!) Nowadays, I spend much less time in the field and use a T14. Has served me well thus far. Oh, and I can actually carry it around without thinking twice of it.
- rbanffy 2y agoThere are some Dells that are quite indestructible as well. OTOH, it’s usually cheaper to let someone kill a couple laptops than to get a single rugged one. Plus, not all parts of the dead laptop are destroyed, so things like memory and solid-state storage can be easily transplanted to the next victim.
- nine_k 2y agoThis is true, as long as a day in the field without a working laptop does not cost comparably to a new laptop. Imagine your laptop cracking and ceasing to work when the helicopter that brought you to the interesting location has just disappeared in the distance.
- ethbr1 2y agoTo me, that's the real Toughbook market: when the supply chain is impractically far away and downtime is unacceptable.
- lb1lf 2y agoThis was my M.O. - something had failed on a ship somewhere or other. Sometimes, it was dockside (Hooray!), more often than not off some disagreeable coast, meaning I'd get airlifted out bringing anything I could conceivably need (and a few things I couldn't, just to make sure!) - then make sure it all worked before I left. I always carried a couple of USB sticks with software, licences and documentation on them - one in my carry-on, one in a zippered pocket - and extra interface cables &c so that if everything went oops, I could just borrow a laptop at the client end, install my stuff and get going in a few cups of coffee's time. Most interesting experience: A customer managed to store their spare parts ashore (!), and we found the reason a big oceanographic sampling system didn't work was because a very proprietary plug inside a data acquisition device hadn't been properly inserted during assembly, damaging the connector beyond repair. We wound up having to disassemble a small DC motor (to get at the lacquer wire - very, very small cross section!) and hand solder jumper wires onto each of the 88 pins on the PCB. Took us a few hours, each of which cost our client on the order of $7k in fuel and crew wages, but it worked in the end, ship's electrician and I taking turns getting those pesky, small wires in place without upsetting the work we'd already done. Soldering .02" pitch connectors with a bog standard Weller iron is a character-building experience. It gets better once you've tacked a needle onto the tip, though. The alternative? Taking the whole vessel back inside helicopter range, then airlift a $5 plug out (Oh, and a crimp tool! Might as well bring a spare plug, too. Just in case.) That would have cost significantly more than the downtime they had while we were soldering. Having the spares aboard so that we'd be looking at them instead of for them when we figured out what was wrong? Ten minutes of downtime, $5 in parts, done.
- RantyDave 2y agoI have a (second hand) one of these. The trackpad is a travesty. Borderline unusable.
- ThePowerOfFuet 2y agoBut it can be used with gloves on.
- rx_tx 2y agothe specs on the one in the article mention it's a multitouch RESISTIVE trackpad, so I don't expect it to be great, at all.
- ThePowerOfFuet 2y agoTry using a capacitive touchpad in the pouring rain.
- mission_local 2y agoGirl Talk used to go on stage with a Toughbook wrapped in cellophane
- tengbretson 2y ago12 hours of battery life on something that size and weight is a joke. What did they fill the rest of the chassis with, concrete?
- amlib 2y agoThey filled it with the same dense material that is in your head.
- hypercube33 2y agoSteel or composite. they are extremely modular and built to pound nails in for 300lb gorillas in work vehicles and still boot up the next day. If they are used to dig a hole you can hose them off as they are generally some level of water or chemical proof. military, construction, field techs, police, EMT, contractors, mechanics and vehicles like semis and forklifts.
- tengbretson 2y agoI'm aware that it's chassis is made from tough materials, and I even know what steel is. My point is that a 0.6" thick laptop[1] with the same processor boasts 18 hours of battery life as the standard capacity. Unless you're alleging that there is a 1.5" steel plate in that thing somewhere, I suspect theres some room in that 2.1" that could fit a better battery. [1] https://www.newegg.com/p/1TS-0025-00CZ9 https://www.newegg.com/p/1TS-0025-00CZ9
- seabird 2y agoThat space is being taken up to deal with stricter thermal, dust, moisture, RF, shock, vibration, etc. requirements. It'll run on one battery while you change the low one. I really hope you're kidding trying to draw any comparison to a Surface laptop.
- elromulous 2y agoOne of these famously stopped a bullet. They're quite literally bulletproof. https://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/mobile-computing/laptops/heroic-laptop-takes-bullet-for-us-soldier-133972 https://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/mo...
- stavros 2y agoIt's not bulletproof if it didn't keep working.
- hiatus 2y agoBulletproof vests need to be discarded after being shot.
- justin66 2y agoA vest is bulletproof if you can shoot it and the human inside it keeps working. A laptop case is bulletproof if you can shoot it and... ?
- samatman 2y ago...the human behind it keeps working.
- tjoff 2y agoNot without their laptop they won't be working.
- FinnKuhn 2y agoYou obviously need to replace it just like you would with a bulletproof vest ;)
- justin66 2y agoI'd advise that human to invest in some body armor, for a variety of reasons. But it sounds like we're not talking about the same thing.
- yuvadam 2y agoI wonder how those compare to Dell Latitude Rugged laptops?
- nom 2y ago> Certification: MIL-STD-810H, MIL-STD-461G, IP66 and optional C1D2 That's why they always seemed a bit overbuilt to me.. most field work does not require such rugged devices. They are made for military use and similar areas with crazy requirements. Few laptops exist that can check their boxes. If you design a laptop to these specs, you end up with a passively cooled rubberized metal box with an unpleasant keyboard.
- rbanffy 2y agoA bonus feature is that you can use it as body armour.
- rbanffy 2y agoWhen I was in college I remember seeing ads for military lunchbox computers with VME buses and SPARC processor boards. Wish I could find one of those.
- bb88 2y agoYou're looking maybe for the Tadpole or maybe Macrolink. Both were bought by other companies. Here's an article from 2000. https://www.militaryaerospace.com/home/article/16710746/rugged-computer-makers-embrace-the-cots-world https://www.militaryaerospace.com/home/article/16710746/rugg...
- rbanffy 2y agoShame these are no more. Elegant tools for a more civilised age.
- JoblessWonder 2y agoAs someone who has to purchase rugged laptops for users at my job... Dell has nailed away with the Toughbook market for us. When I first started Panasonic was the only game in town but Dell saw the market size and has done a great job. Now I can just deal with one vendor. They have 2 levels of "ruggedness" and the one that works for most field work can be purchased for less than $2,000 new through the Dell Business Outlet.
- lemme_tell_ya 2y ago> First AI-enabled TOUGHBOOK PC Have we now reached peak AI hype?
- selcuka 2y ago> Have we now reached peak AI hype? We had already reached it with the "Oral-B GENIUS X with Artificial Intelligence" toothbrush. [1] https://www.oralb.co.uk/en-gb/product-collections/genius-x https://www.oralb.co.uk/en-gb/product-collections/genius-x
- lemme_tell_ya 2y agoyup, this wins, by a long shot
- heresie-dabord 2y ago> First AI-enabled TOUGHBOOK PC Human: Toughbook AI, write me a draft report for this arrest. Toughbook AI: Nice try! I ain't your secretary, wiseguy!
- pontifk8r 2y agoAfter my daughter went through two laptops in high school (1st: "I closed a pen in it and broke the hinge" 2nd: "Dad! Someone ELSE knocked it off my desk") I found an ex-state-police toughbook, it even had a carrying handle. Plasma monochrome screen. Slow. But it ran all of the applications necessary for school. Turns out it had a cool factor all it's own, and she really liked that laptop. She figured out she could neglect and abuse it. I even left the "property of " stickers from the state police on the thing, which gave it extra... something. It was still working when she gave it back to me before she went to college. I think I sold it for $100.
- IAmGraydon 2y agoHow could a monochrome screen work for a student? They typically have to look at assignments which often include color-coded graphs, data legends, etc.
- jimmygrapes 2y agoI'm sure color blind people are capable of learning too
- foldor 2y agoColour blind doesn't mean someone sees in black and white. It means they have difficulty differentiating between two colours. Often red / green, but not always.
- pdpi 2y agoFound it kind of funny that the display went all the way up to 1200 nits, which would make it a pretty high-end HDR display, but it's not actually HDR. Then I realised that these things are likely to end up being used in environments with completely uncontrolled lighting, so the display needs to overpower whatever other light sources you have around if you're going to be able to use it. Makes sense that designing for hostile environments isn't just about shock/dust/water resistance, but also stuff like that.
- lb1lf 2y agoThis. The big bright ball in the sky, for instance. (This is a very real problem for my employer - we make stuff which is installed on ship's decks. We've always used Siemens displays as their service organization is second to none, long-term parts availability, global presence, lots of tame engineers on call, etc.) However, they simply don't have any rugged screens which are really sunlight readable, I believe they max out at 900 nits if memory serves. Result being that we designed a kind of shade similar to the ones graphic designers used (use?) around their monitors to keep stray light from messing with what they see on screen. Would have preferred a screen with Raiders of the Lost Ark end-scene brightness, though.
- byyoung3 2y ago[flagged]
- Animats 2y agoI still have a Caterpillar Tractor branded rugged phone. The actual maker, Bullitt, a UK company, went bust. The rubber cover over the USB charging port was the weak point, and I had two of those wear out. The batteries swelled up in two units because the phone spent most of its time plugged into a charger. Good idea, bad execution on the details.
- divbzero 2y agoI like how the Featured Specs include “Durability: Fully rugged” as if that’s an official specification. The Full Spec Sheet is a bit more specific: • MIL-STD-810H: 6’ drop, shock, bench handling, vibration, rain, dust, sand, altitude, freeze/thaw, high/low temperature, temperature shock, solar radiation, contamination by fluids, humidity, salt fog, explosive atmosphere • MIL-STD-461G • IP66 • Optional C1D2 (class 1 div 2) groups ABCD
- culebron21 2y agoI love these still have home-pageUp-pageDown-end keys column. This is so great to edit texts, but every laptop nowadays mimics Macbook, which hasn't (and has a turnOff key between backspace and f12, which everyone cargocults from Mac too).
- corgihamlet 2y agoOn Mac Fn+Up, Fn+Down, Fn+Left and Fn+Right can be used as PgUp, PgDn, Home and End respectively.
- pineaux 2y agoNot the same thing
- culebron21 2y agoI tried a laptop with these, they don't always work in combos, like Shift+PageUp, or Shift+Ctrl+PageUp didn't work at all. It was so inconvenient that I just refunded it a day later and bought a Toshiba (they stopped making laptops at all, sigh).
- donw 2y agoAh, yes, the original ultra-luggable.
- Gud 2y agosorta on topic, does anyone know of a sturdy, well built thin and low weight laptop? I’ve used 3 X1 carbons(using an gen 8 ato the moment) and I’m very satisfied with them so far. But always looking for alternatives. How are the framework laptops regarding weight and sturdiness?
- vachina 2y agoThe LG Gram SuperSlim. I’ve accidentally brought it hiking in my bag. But it only comes with Intel unfortunately, and because of it it whines like a jet when browsing.
- spacemanspiff01 2y agoI like my framework, I dropped it from about 4feet onto concrete, the corder was dented and the fingerprint scanner broke. I spent the 100 dollars to get a new keyboard/trackpad/fingerprint sensor cover panel (the dent location and warping of the panel made replacement of the fingerprint sensor individuallly not viable) Past that everything still worked fine, no damage to screen (but that is just my particular drop) I like it, and would rather have higher specs that can be fixed if shit happens than paying a premium for durability on older hardware.
- lvl155 2y agoI rather use an iPad with waterproof case.