Twinhead's extra-durable Durabook N15R1
By Peter Rojas 
posted August 18th 2005 10:50AM
posted August 18th 2005 10:50AM
Usually the design of ruggedized laptops skews heavily towards the utilitarian (Panasonic's Toughbook excluded), but Twinhead has a new one out called that Durabook N15R1 that could pass for a regular 15-inch laptop (albeit a pretty generic one). Then again, it's not quite as ruggedized as it could get, even though the N15R1 is spill resistant and is designed to withstand multiple drops from heights up to 29 inches, it definitely is not up to military spec and probably wouldn't survive for long in a sandstorm or at 20 below.
Having been a systems administrator in Iraq, you would be surprised what crap hardware will survive a sandstorm.
But it has TWO HEADS!
Oh wait, no it doesn't.
You could take the opposite approach and get a powerbook. Then you have a good looking laptop and are deathly afraid to drop it or spill anything on it because of the cost. ;)
Last week we received in for service a 17" powerbook with deep dents on all eight of its corners. (had beeen dropped numerous times, or once down a couple flights of stairs) How can people DO that to their laptops??
How can people DO that to their laptops??
I had my powerbook for all of 2 weeks before I dropped it. I was using it at the kitchen table, plugged the power cord into the outlet away from the table instead of the one behind the table (god forbid I bend over). When I was done working, I pushed my chair out stood up and walked away, tripping over the power cord, which yanked the open powerbook off the table and onto the tile floor. I had a minor heart attack, then I picked up the powerbook, it still worked perfect, but now had a dent in the corner and it doesn't shut properly anymore (as an aside, the tolerance of the lock is exceedingly small).
Live and learn.