For 99% of people an eeepc is more suitable for them, however, these are basically your only option where an Intrinsically safe electrical device must be used (Read: Oil & Gas industry). These guys don't even flinch at a $2.5k price tag with the budgets they have.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsic_safety

They may be rugged but they're never worth the cost.

I work in an industry where these and the larger toughbooks are the ideal target and our laptops are regularly damaged.

But at 4 to 10 times the price the cost cannot be justified, you'd be suprised how much abuse a standard laptop can take and with the advent of SSD's they're becoming even more robust.

In addition a standard laptop with accidental damage cover and worldwide 24Hr replacement is significantly cheaper than a toughbook.

Also they are not indestructable and the usual scenarios where they are damaged (run over by an excavator!) no laptop is going to withstand.

Pity they're running such a girly OS. I mean, Dimdows, seriously!? Linux From Scratch FTW!

Panasonic already made real nice laptops 30 years ago. You had to lift more than 10 kg, though, but you could not break these things. And they ran CP/M (the operating system that was later somehow copied and sold as MS-DOS) on a Zilog Z-80 processor.

BTW it should read kg, not kgs. And it would be nice to get the size of the screen in cm^2 (length times height). Isn't there an Inquirer Guide for the metric impaired?

are built like the proverbial brick shithouses. I have just refurbished 4 Toughbooks for the local constabulary and the wireless cards wont work when the cover on the PCMCIA port is closed cos the whole damn thing is metal and weighs a ton. But you know for nearly $3000 you can get 9 maybe 10 eee's. Does that make them a disposable item?

Even a "Manly" Man would have to take it in the rear to belive that the unfortunately named, c-FU-1 Laptop works any better that a eeePC !!! I wonder, can a "ToughBook" take a bullet ???