Why I got the CF-31

I will tell a story that I think some of you might enjoy.

First off, I think it is clear that toughbooks are made for military people, contractors, oil works, etc...

It seems however that the opinion of the general public is that a CF-31 for example is not a useful laptop for anyone other then those who use it in rugged environments.

Well I disagree.

I use my CF-31 to Work, check email, etc. as well as design work (cicuit boards, 3D modeling, etc.) I also program and do allot of compiling. That is what the i5 has enabled the CF-31 to do.

Well, now you say a dell could have done all of this and more for less then half the cost. Sure sure, you might be right, but let me backtrack a little bit.

I bump my computers allot (stepped on it twice already), and I simply don't believe that modern laptops hold up to time anymore, I give a good one like a thinkpad maybe two years under my abuse.

If this doesn't convince you then listen to the latest story.

This morning I put the laptop into the bookbag as always, and I head outside. My house is on a hill and I take a flight of stairs to get to the ground level, this morning they were iced over and I fell down the stairs, had it not been for the laptop I might well have damaged my back.

I am 6 foot 4 and weigh about 190 pounds, all of that weight was on top of the toughbook when I slammed on the stairs. I was so convinced that any other laptop would have atleast a cracked screen that I knew in my head something must be wrong with my toughbook. So after checking my own injuries I pull out the toughbook to look for broken plastic peaces or dents.

But.... I couldn't find any, nothing. No mattter how long I looked I could not find a sign of this accident happening. At this point I was shocked, and so should you, unless I was unclear about the amount of force with which I slammed onto the stairs.



well these are my thoughts, just wanted to share. To those of you with semi rugged ones and business rugged ones: how do you think the business rugged or semi rugged models would have held up in this situation.

 

Case opened, checked, no damage, everything works! case closed.....Driller

that's why it's called a Toughbook.

 

Yea! I surprised me how well it handled the abuse. You just can't describe how rugged these things are, you must see and experience it yourself.

 

My bag's shoulder strap buckle broke while I was riding on the road & I had forgotten to zip up. The 29 Mk5 slipped out and landed onto the asphalt (bottom case down) and was ran over by 2 vehicles; a sedan and a pickup truck (with rear passenger), I think, before I was able to retrieve it.

Like you, I expected the worst; the bottom was pretty scuffed, tire dirt marks on the top but it survived. It did boot as usual. The touch screen cracked, works but doesn't land where you touch it. Aside from that, all was normal (I don't use the TS much anyway).

Had it been any other lappies, I'm afraid I'd be looking at bits and pieces. Nope, I love my toughbooks and wouldn't have it any other way. Oh, and my home lappie is a 51.

 

Gothed, please read the first post here as I totally agree with you!: http://forum.notebookreview.com/pan...e-thread-against-anything-isnt-toughbook.html

 

Yea I have read that already, entertaining stuff : ).

Now: nobody has commented on how the semi rugged and business rugged models would hold up, as I have no experience with them.

Edit: the CF31 is producing bad habits though. I am catching myself picking up regular laptops by the corner.... I forgot that you can't do that.

 

That'll happen. You'll also find yourself jabbing at the screen with your finger... .

One time a stupid customer brought in an apple macbook pro (like a $1200 laptop) with a shattered screen because he "gently picked it up by the corner of the screen"... $471 later he was up and running again

 

Currently using a CF-T5, business rugged model. Nice light laptop. Magnesium lcd frame, plastic external lid. The chassis is magnesium with plastic memory and HDD covers. The palm rest is plastic. In a fall like your's, if the laptop was in a padded case, I'd give it a 40% chance of survival.

 

The other reason to buy one is reliability and lack of bloated software, both important issues for business people

Besides the hard drive failures that I see all the time in older models they keep on running without issue

 

yea didn't even think about bloatware.

I was satisfied using the "factory restore disk".

I remember when I was a kid we sorted out the "loosers" or "computer illiterate" by a simple metric: did they even consider using the dull CD. Well if they did they must not know computers at all.... now look at me I am using restore disks