Panasonic and Dell are toughing up

JAPANESE ELECTRONICS MAKER Panasonic has drop tested a Toughbook 31 that lived to tell the tale.

So many laptops get a "shock resistant" tick on the side of the box but we've never seen a manufacturer actually demo its claims. So kudos to Panasonic for performing a drop test on its Toughbook in front of a crowd of US hacks.

According to Engadget, Panasonic threw its 13.1-inch laptop off the stage and 20 feet off the side of a US warship. Product demos that fail in a room full of hacks are often huge embarrassments but the sorely abused Toughbook 31 booted right up into Windows XP.

The mag-alloy ToughBook 31 has either an Intel Core i3 or i5 with a 160GB to 250GB shock resistant hard drive plus ATI discrete graphics, although Panasonic didn't say which one.

Panasonic added a touchscreen and fully sealable ports but will be charging a minimum of £2,500 for the least expensive model.

If £2,500 is out of your league, Dell is touting a range of Latitude notebooks with a Strikezone shock absorber. Dell claims a fast response sensor coupled with Strikezone acts as a shock absorber to prevent data loss due to drops.

The Latitude E4310 is an ultra-portable with a 13.3-inch chassis, while the Latitude E5410 is 14.1-inch and the Latitude E5510 is 15.6-inch. The E4310 is priced at a princely £1,029 while the E5410 and E5510 are priced at £409 and £419 respectively.

The Latitudes are out now but Dell neglected to mention if it will be flinging any on the floor to prove they don't break. µ