Generic Toughbook knockoff! - Pics inside! - LONG GOOD READ!

So I went to the ASI tech expo over in Itasca last night and I was just sipping some nice Cab minding my own, getting free bags, pens and cookies when I spot what appears to be a CF-31. Naturally I crap my pants and RUN as fast as I could to see it. To much disappointment is was a generic knockoff of the CF-30... So I starting poking at the screen and picking it up and playing with it. It's lighter than the CF-30, has about a 13" widescreen that is also a touchscreen. It is no where NEAR as bright as the CF-30 at full blast.

It has has one hinge, YES ONE! (just like the 18's/19's). It does NOT have a lock on it either! . Now I start looking at all the port covers to find that they are chintzier than the CF-29's (which are pretty damn bad). To say the least it was half the quality of a Toughbook. I now looked very closely as the keyboard and power button. The keyboard was a backlit one very similar to the emissive ones. The power button is on the upper left corner and looks like it would be very easy to get sand beneath it which would make it IMPOSSIBLE to turn on - another terrible flaw. Now I close the lid and start pushing on it to see if it bends... not to bad, it has WAY more give than the CF-30 but nothing like a dull. I wouldn't step on it that's for sure!

Now on to the optical drive, hard drive and battery. The covers that cover these things have a SINGLE latch that no doubt would come loose when dropped. Chintzy is all I could think of to describe those covers... The battery, CD drive and HDD were all easily swappable as well. I looked at the corners and they had about 3/8" of rubber on all the corners as a half assed impact absorber... All 4 corners had little chintzy rings on them as well as to maybe put a strap on it. The handle in the front was covered in thin rubber that moved around WAY TO EASILY when grabbed. The handle was spring loaded which I thought was WAY COOL except for the fact that it would probably just break after a month, God forbid something like sand got in there!

As far as the internals the guy said that they are all running i5's starting with 2GB DDR3 and they run 64GB SSD drives even though that one had a 160GB in it...

Next - I start talking to this guy who knew pretty much NOTHING about this unit (which is funny because the other guy I started talking to said "hold on, this guy here is the EXPERT on the rugged models"). I started asking him about military testing and IP54 and water tests and everything else and he kinda just had a blank stare on his face! USELESS! . I started asking him about pricing and he said "it will cost less than half of a fully rugged Panasonic Toughbook"... I said yeah I would hope so since it is less than half the quality of a CF-30... He just nodded...

Here is the link for the units and when I click on it it has no info: ASI Partner > Solutions > Mobile > Mobile Center - model R13S (They also have the RT10 which is a knockoff of the H1 field unit which I have NO experience with so I didn't get any info on it since I have nothing to compare it to.)

The pics are FULL res as to show detail so no complaining about scrolling!

Rob - disappointed!

http://toughbooktalk.com/public_downloads/Toughbook%20Knockoff/IMG00006-20100610-1816.jpg

http://toughbooktalk.com/public_downloads/Toughbook%20Knockoff/IMG00007-20100610-1816.jpg

http://toughbooktalk.com/public_downloads/Toughbook%20Knockoff/IMG00008-20100610-1821.jpg

http://toughbooktalk.com/public_downloads/Toughbook%20Knockoff/IMG00013-20100610-1959.jpg

 

Funny.... When you click HERE you go to their website... Then click on their link to see it... Only to find NO RECORD FOUND.

They say it's mil-spec... I'm not impressed either...

 

Looks more like crap-spec...

 

Perhaps a new model they were introducing at the show? I have to agree with the assessment so far though, they do not look all that impressive. Nice to look at but short on features/ruggedness.

 

Did they give you a good price on it

 

I hope there not charging an absurd amount of money for that thing.

 

$2100 is what he said...

 

That made me laugh out loud.... Seems there are a lot of posers on ebay that are "crap-spec" too!

 

Yes, but the question is who's Militray established this spec...

 

Itscrapistan. :wink:

 

is that another way to say "pak" up your tent and get out of toughbookland? I'm up to eight now TopCop, did you get up with that guy with the L3L's...Driller

 

Ahh, yes... Itscrapistan... I stayed at their highest rated (2 star) hotel for about 15 minutes... before hightailing it across the border to Ohcrapbaijan and finally catching a plane out of Holycrapmenia. They shot at our plane over Crapgyzstan, but that only ventilated the livestock a little and we made it across the border all the way to Nanjing. There we were able to buy a "Geep" for 150 dollars that ran long enough to get us on a freighter out of Hangzhou... along with 97 container loads of Sonny Memory Sticks and 69 containers of Augen E-Go Netbooks...

mnem
Only in a Geep...

 

Good for poseurs like me that just want a cool looking laptop and take super good care of it haha