There’s a big wide world out there and your laptop better be able to stand up to the knocks and blows if it's to survive. Veteran rugged laptop expert Mike Bedford investigates

Dropping your laptop, soaking it, and rattling it around in the back of a Land Rover is surely a recipe for disaster. Unless, that is, you have a rugged and waterproof model. At one time, rugged laptops were specialised pieces of kit with a serious price tag. They were bought by the emergency services, civil engineers, the armed forces and surveyors – all users who regularly worked in far from ideal conditions. However, accidents can happen to anyone and, in recognition of this, some manufacturers offer laptops with a degree of protection for a more modest price premium. Here we investigate those laptops that are designed to take a knock or two. We'll look at some of the tricks of the trade – how manufacturers protect their laptops from the elements – before movingon to see what you should look for if you're in the market for a rugged laptop. Also, since you're likely to come across unfamiliar facts and figures as you delve into this sort of equipment, we've provided a guide to understanding the specification sheets. Perhaps you're a civil engineer and want a laptop you can use on site and throw into the back of your 4x4. Perhaps you're a business user who recognises that a laptop is at risk from the moment it's removed from the confines of the office. Either way, there should be something here to interest you as we enter the world of rugged laptops.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

Fragile electronics, rotating hard disks, and large LCD screens don't sound like the sort of things that can easily be protected against accidents. Yet over the years, manufacturers have devised various means of protecting these and the other components in a laptop from being dropped and vibrated, from the effects of water, and from a wide range of temperatures.

The most obvious starting point is a case that won't splinter into a thousand pieces if it's dropped on to a hard surface. So rather than ordinary plastic, rugged laptops have cases that are made from a special high-impact plastic or, better still, magnesium-alloy which is both lightweight and tough. Rubber bumpers are sometimes fitted to the corners for additional protection and a carrying handle is often included, so that you're less likely to drop your laptop. But even if the case survives a tumble, many of the more sensitive parts would still be at risk without some special attention. The screen, for example, tends to be somewhat smaller than on conventional laptops, since large screens are more susceptible to damage. The hard disk – rotating at thousands of revolutions per minute and with the heads hovering a fraction of a millimetre from the damage-prone platter – is also at risk. Typically, disks and screens are protected by mounting them in a shock-absorbing mount – sometimes made from a gel-type material – so that the shock of a drop won't be transmitted to the sensitive parts.

Although the company's laptops aren't rugged in other respects, IBM has gone one better by including an Active Protection System in some of its ThinkPads. A motion sensor detects the sudden changes in motion that would indicate a fall and, under these conditions, temporarily parks the disk's heads so they're clear of the platter. Making a laptop watertight involves using gaskets wherever there's a joint or a hatch in the case and using specially waterproof connectors. Alternatively, connectors are protected by a rubber flap that clips firmly over the socket to protect it from water when it's not in use. Keyboards are also a weak spot, so rubberized membrane keyboards tend to be used to provide the necessary protection from water. On top of these measures, all sorts of techniques have been used to make laptops more appropriate for use in the great outdoors.

Models intended for prolonged outdoor use in winter have been fitted with heaters to keep the electronic parts within their operating temperature range. Keyboards have been designed with extra-large keys so they can be used by someone wearing gloves. Some models have even been fitted with glow-in-the-dark keys to make them visible at night.

Conversely, rugged laptops are often provided with screens which can be more easily read in bright sunlight than ordinary LCDs. One manufacturer of ultra-rugged laptops even designed a case that could be dropped into fuel oil and a whole range of chemicals without damage.

BUYERS' GUIDE

The main thing to remember if you want to buy a rugged laptop is that protection against environmental disasters comes at a price and the law of diminishing returns applies. No piece of equipment will ever be fully protected against damage, and prices escalate wildly the closer you get. For example, the Panasonic Toughbook CF-T2, which is really a business laptop with a degree of protection against rough handling costs £1939 (inc. VAT). By way of comparison, the Getac W130, a fully rugged but only drip-proof laptop with a similar processor, costs from £2703 (inc. VAT), and the slightly more powerful, but seriously tough and waterproof A770 from the same company starts at £4113 (inc. VAT).

The cost of protection isn't just financial – rugged laptops also tend to be less powerful than their non-rugged counterparts. In part, slow processors are used to provide a longer than normal battery life, since users of rugged laptops often need to work for a full working day without access to a mains supply. However, it's also true that rugged kit has a much longer product life than standard equipment, so some of the units currently available will have been designed quitea few years ago. This is inevitable, as development costs are high yet sales volumes are comparatively small. Kontron's Power Lite (from £4406 inc. VAT), for example, has a 700MHz Pentium III, significantly less than most entry-level laptops. However, before you dismiss this sort of specification out of hand, do bear in mind the type of task these laptops are designed for. Power-hungry multimedia applications are the exception rather than the rule in go-anywhere computing, and a low-end processor is more than adequate for the vast majority of the down-to-earth jobs these laptops are used for.

Therefore, in making a decision you need to weigh the degree of protection against the price and the specification. If you're a business user wanting some protection against accidents, you'll be drawn towards those units with a modest degree of ruggedisation and a relatively small price premium. If you know that you're going to be using your laptop in really hostile environments, you'll probably end up with a seriously tough piece of kit with a serious price tag. In either case you'll have to accept a fairly low-end processor.

So far, we've tended to bundle together ruggedisation and waterproofing, but although many laptops do offer both forms of protection, this isn't always so. So in addition to appraising how hostile your environment is to electronic equipment, you should also analyse the nature of the risk and choose accordingly. Bear in mind also that rugged laptops differ in how well they'll survive in especially high or low temperatures and humidity.

Although you will be able to draw up a shortlist by thinking about the level and type of protection you’ll need, there are other aspects to consider too. If you're likely to be working for prolonged periods away from the office – as many users of rugged laptops do – you might need wireless connectivity. This is something you'll commonly find in rugged laptops and we're not just talking of the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability you'd expect to find in an ordinary laptop. GSM or 3G mobile phone interfaces are often available, either as standard or as a factory-fitted option.

Another common option which will be of interest to surveyors and civil engineers is a built-in GPS receiver which can locate the laptop, anywhere in the world, to within a few metres. All are available, for example, in Itronix's new GoBook III (from £2993 inc. VAT). Although you may be able to buy mobile phone interfaces as PC Cards, or GPS receivers with a Bluetooth interface, you shouldn't underestimate the worth of having these options built in or fitted to an internal PC Card slot. Remember that an external PCMCIA slot isn't waterproof, so as soon as you remove the rubber cover to insert a card, a rugged laptop becomes much more susceptible to damage by water. Certainly this doesn't apply if you're using a GPS receiver with a Bluetooth interface, but the GPS unit itself is unlikely to be rugged or waterproof so, once again, a built-in unit is preferable.

What we've seen so far are just some of the common features of rugged laptops, but even if you have an unusual requirement, there's still a good chance your requirements will be met. Although internal PCMCIA slots provide one expansion option, Kontron even provides PCI expansion slots in its FW8000 and FW8500 models (£5758 inc. VAT and £6698 inc. VAT, respectively), so you can add expansion cards which are normally only available for desktop PCs. This facility has been used, for example, to provide the interfaces needed for data logging in the field or on the factory floor.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Going for the rugged alternative isn't a cheap option. Because of this, companies have been known to buy ordinary laptops and budget for frequent failures, throwing them away when they suffer a mishap. But this is to ignore one important fact – buying a new model after you've trashed your old laptop doesn't restore your valuable data. If you recognise that the data on your laptop could well be more valuable than the hardware itself you'll realise that prevention could well be cheaper than the cure. In other words, it could work out cheaper to pay over the odds for your laptop than to live with the consequences when you drop it into a puddle in the car park.

RUGGED LAPTOP SUPPLIERS

GETAC
?? www.getac.com
KONTRON
?? www.kontronuk.com
PANASONIC
?? www.panasonic.co.uk
TERRALOGIC
?? www.terralogic.co.uk  

THE CHEAP ALTERNATIVE

If you recognise the risks of having an unprotected laptop but can't afford a rugged model, you might want to consider additional protection for your laptop. Pelican  ( www.peliproducts.co.uk ) do a range of rugged and waterproof cases, some of which are intended specifically for laptops. Aquapac (www.aquapac.net) produce a laptop carrying bag that is waterproof and it floats – even with the laptop inside.

UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBERS

Immunity from physical shock is often given as a ‘drop test’ figure and this is pretty much what it sounds like – a measure of how far you can drop the laptop without causing damage. However, this is a fairly unscientific figure, since it doesn’t specify how the laptop has been dropped and, even if it says what it was dropped on to (eg a concrete or wooden floor), unless different manufacturers use the same method it makes it hard to compare. If, on the other hand, the manufacturer quotes MIL-STD 810F (an American military standard) you can be sure that the test involved dropping the unit on to all 26 faces, edges and corners and that it was dropped on to plywood over concrete.

The specification for waterproofing can be vague with phrases like ‘drip proof’ and ‘shower proof’ sometimes cropping up. Slightly more scientific is a statement such as ‘4 inches of rain per hour’.

Ideally, though, if you want to make comparisons, you should look at the IP figure (eg IP57). Ignore the first digit (in fact it may be shown as ‘x’) and take note of the second, which can vary from 0 to 7. Zero indicates no protection against water at all, whereas 7 means that the unit will withstand being immersed to a depth of a metre. You might find handhelds which boast an IPx7 figure, but for laptops, IPx4 is far more typical. This means that the unit is capable of shedding sprays of water from any direction.
Understanding