Environmentally Unfriendly

Of course a big part of the ToughBook appeal is its ability to function in the most extreme environments, including excessive hot or cold operational exposure. The Heat Shock test will roast a ToughBook at 200 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes, before dropping the temperature down to a teeth chattering -70 degrees. With ToughBooks surviving this kind of test it’s fair to say that in extreme temperature situations, the user will fail before the notebook.





The Combined Environment Test subjects the ToughBooks to temperatures varying from -40 to 150 degrees Celsius, along with humidity ranging from 20 – 95 per cent. To make things more interesting, the platform on which the notebook resides in the chamber will vibrate at rates between 3 and 2,500Hz.





The waterproof nature of ToughBooks is also highly regarded, so the machines have to undertake a fair amount of wet work as part of the testing regime. The water resistance test has a water sprinkler arcing over an operational ToughBook dousing it with water.



The poor old CF-29 that was in the water resistance chamber was being subjected to a full hour of sprinkler treatment – at least it only had about five minutes left!



Meanwhile in another water resistance chamber, four ToughBooks huddled together in a vain attempt to share body heat, and somehow stay warm.