While was paging through the latest catalog from Best Buy, I came across some very interesting digital cameras. Now digital cameras are not really my thing unless I’m actually shopping for one, which I’m not. What caught my eye about these cameras was how tough they were. The first one, an Olympus Stylus 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera is shockproof up to 5 feet, waterproof down to 10 feet and freeze proof down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Its larger sibling, the Olympus Stylus 10.1MP Digital Camera is shockproof up to 6 foot 8, waterproof down to 33 feet and freeze proof down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. It is also crush proof up to 220 pounds.

This got me thinking about Notebooks, and whether there were any tough ones. The Panasonic Toughbook came to mind. Even though other manufacturers also make ruggedized laptops, the Toughbook are the ones that come to mind when thinking of a heavy-duty portable computer.

The Panasonic Toughbook W7 is an Ultraportable ruggedized laptop. The Toughbook W7 is rated to survive a 1-foot fall, which doesn’t sound like much compared to the cameras mentioned above, but laptops are generally full of moving parts and have delicate LCD screens.

Posted on October 5th, 2008 by mervyn