Twinhead Durabook notebooks: Good?

Somebody recently reviewed on (including doing drop-tests). There's a link on Slashdot.

Thanks, Grant, I just read that test and the forum responses. Seems those notebooks are pretty good for someone who needs toughness more than CPU horsepower. Ok, it doesn't live up to the umpteen drops but considering that one single drop off a table is death for most other laptops it looks good. It almost happened to me recently before a presentation at a client. Someone moved a chair and snagged a cable to my laptop. Most conference rooms are poorly wired without an outlet under the table.

If anyone else is interested I found that review here:

As Grant notes, on Christmas Day Slashdot had an article which pointed to a disappointing review on that brand's ruggedness:

If you go to the referenced (original) article, I hope you have AdBlock well tweaked and in full force:

Don't gp feeling like you're the Lone Ranger on that one.

Well, I wouldn't call that disappointing. Probably any normal laptop would have croaked after the first drop.

Mail-ins just don't make any sense to me.

Sounds like someone needs to invent breakaway ethernet cables / power supplies! (Patent not pending)

I'm sure someone has come up with and patented it already...

ttyl,

--buddy

JeffM wrote:

Joerg wrote:

You obviously aren't in the direct-mail business. Suckers lists are valuable.[1] If you're gullible enough to SEND someone your name/stats on a rebate, that makes you a PRIME target. . . [1] Note how many idiots buy email addy lists to spew their spam.

It won't help much. Look at the typical conference table: 5-10 laptops with cables everywhere. A speaker-phone gizmo in the middle that has umpteen satellite mikes, all connected via some more cable. All this has the appearance and adhesiveness of spaghetti after a rolling boil. When someone bumps into a chair usually a whole slew of gear goes sailing.

If there was something that worked it would be in production ;-)

Yabbut, I usually do not mention my email address on there. If it's mandatory all they get is a disposable one. Then there is the do-not-call list and I doubt this would qualify as "prior contact" for the one who bought that list. Actually we never got any calls or junk mail after mail-in rebates.

Secondly, they've already got all that info via the warranty registration anyhow.

The mail-in gives them a very tiny interest advantage but I doubt that it offsets all the minutes some clerk has to spend on each filing.

...

It is in production. Apple laptops have magnetic breakaway power connectors and use 802.11whatever so the ethernet cables are ethereal.

Isn't the breakaway power cord connection for laptops one of Apple's claims to fame?

Cool. I didn't know that, never used an Apple.

Someone already did, at least for power, and started shipping it to the masses: go to and search for "MagSafe". My wife has the MacBook; this feature works extremely well.

Whatever you do: get a notebook build for professional use. There is a reason notebook vendors have sections for business notebooks and consumer crap. The cheap ones just won't work fine (lots of weird behavior, crappy drivers, often need a re-install of the OS).

This one actually is. Not very powerful in terms of CPU or VGA speed but for heavy duty usage with lots of banging around in trucks and cargo holds. Supposedly you can even use it in the rain. That's what really counts in my biz. The two notebooks in use so far over here are actually rather low end, selected from Dell's home & home office section. They do everything I want and fast. Haven't noticed any shortcomings except for their enclosures which are a bit wimpy. But I have seen the expensive business editions and IMHO their enclosures were not better.

My best notebook (early 90's) was a Compaq Contura. Great machine but because it had that dreaded plastics enclosure it developed a progressing crack line all around the perimeter after few 100k miles of flying. Then one day a wee turbulence happened and the battery just fell out of it :-(

Some guy suggested the Panasonic Toughbook. That looks a lot more promising.

I used to work with a Dell 8100 (with a magnesium casing) and it never broke down despite some drops, rides in trunks of taxis with no shock absorbers and about 120k km of flying.

Yes, but 3-6dB higher in price. Usually around $3k-$4k. Also, these things are easier targets for "growing legs".

Well, with a mag case that had to be an expensive one in the first place. Those are good laptops. But also very desired by the more shady figures of society :-(

Some of it depends on where you fly. In the northern parts of North America some pilots are pretty tough guys. They'll get you there but they may occasionally have to nail it to the runway.

For ethernet you could use a very short extension cable, and break the lip off the connector that you inser. The extension cable makes sure the pull always pulls in the right direction, and an RJ45 withhout clip easily pops out.

Power is done by Apple.

Thomas

Ok, guys, I've got it. A Durabook D14RA. Quite impressive. The CPU fan is rather loud and the touchpad buttons are way too small for large fingers. But: It has a serial port which wasn't even listed as a feature. Now that is nice.