A Long Drive

Toughbook CF-19

Settling on which ruggedized computer to buy was a long and drawn out decision process. We discovered that the Panasonic Toughbook series were only semi-ruggedized, when compared to the likes of Getac. The Getac-style PCs were extremely heavy and very expensive and the technology was two full generations behind the normal non-rugged versions. So it was back to the original choice of the Toughbook series for economy and performance, plus the fact that they still meet some standards toughness.

The Toughbook is connected to the car via a dual arm RAM laptop mount and serves as a removable navigation system. A Garmin GPS provides the real-time coordinates and the Garmin nRoute software tracks the location on a global map provided by Garmin MapSource. Despite having maps that are more than ten years old the nav system has saved us taking the wrong road. Turn-by-turn directions are not available with this setup.

Shreesh stays connected with the Toughbook even on the road

So far we have not dropped it, spilled water on it, or tested the bullet vibration resistance. The downside is that its strong styling does attract attention, sometimes at the most inconvenient time.