"Rugged" Laptop Recommendation?

[Junkyard]

I'm sure there is a member or two here whose jobs require them to work outdoors with a laptop computer. So far I have always gotten by with a standard laptop and hoped that I don't get caught in the rain or worse drop it as I'm climbing a ladder. I've always shied away from a dedicated "rugged" laptop model because they tend to be expensive, and non-upgradeable on the hardware side.

We are hiring another technical support person to assist me, so I'm wondering if now is perhaps the time to take another look at a heavier-duty unit. Does anyone here use one? If so, what brand/model? What are some of the pluses and minuses about it? Appreciate any insight.

 

[Scott F]

My company used to supply us field service technicians with Panasonic Toughbooks. Mine got run through a 25ft long commercial dishwasher once and still worked when it came out the other side. It wasn’t open at the time. We treated them harshly and they help up well. I’m a Mac guy so I had no other PCs to compare it to. Aside from higher prices, they were pretty good.

 

[mulegolf]

I have an Asus FA506 Tuf Gaming computer that I bought to operate my golf simulator. I've had it around a year now and have knocked it off of a computer desk and dropped it on my TV room floor. It's still working and seems no worse for the ware. The case is composite instead of metal so no dents or scratches there yet either. It works well and ironically, though I bought it to run my golf simulator, I'm still putting that package together so I haven't used it for that yet.

 

[Junkyard]

My company used to supply us field service technicians with Panasonic Toughbooks. Mine got run through a 25ft long commercial dishwasher once and still worked when it came out the other side. It wasn’t open at the time. We treated them harshly and they help up well. I’m a Mac guy so I had no other PCs to compare it to. Aside from higher prices, they were pretty good.

I have an older Dell Latitude that I use occasionally but since Windows 10 not so much. Anyway, a couple of years ago I was on a site and it was outside, open and on at the other end of the building and the skies opened up. It was a good 15 minutes before I got to it. I took the back off, popped out the battery, HDD, ram and anything else that would come free and put all the pieces in the corner of my office for a week. Put everything back together and you'd never know what happened to it.
Really ironic how it survives that and yet I let another unit slip from my fingers mere inches from a surface and it's game over.

 

[Bunker Snot]

I work in I.T. for a truck and heavy equipment sales/service company and the Panasonic Toughbook's are the only hardened laptops we find that hold up. They are on the expensive side (still less than Dell's last I checked) but seem to hold up fairly well. Note: Screen damage / break is the most common failure and we have not found any product that is able to prevent that issue.

 

[Tee1Up]

Toughbooks

 

[Junkyard]

So the new guy starts on Monday. He gets a brand new Toughbook.

Next month I celebrate my 14th anniversary with the company. I'm still trying to make a regular laptop survive the conditions I put it through.

Seems fair, right? The worst part is I am in charge of the IT decisions