Dell playing rough with new toughbook

 

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By Benny Har-Evan

Posted on 10 Mar 2009 at 15:16

Dell has announced the launch of its first ruggedised laptop, bringing it into competition with market specialist Panasonic.

Dell claims the fully rugged Latitude E6400 XFR is encased in a "ballistic armour" twice the strength of magnesium alloy, which offers the highest drop specification of any machine in its class at 1.2 metres.

It's also able to handle extreme temperatures between -33.88 degrees Celsius and 63 degrees Celsius, and capable of withstanding rain and wind gusts of up 70 miles per hour.

Dell claims the laptop has been tested to meet 13 military standards, which is handy considering that's the market it's aimed at.

Dell is also hoping to sell the E6400 XFR to first responders in emergency situations, and those who work in harsh environments such as oil and gas workers.

The XFR features an Intel Core 2 Duo, 14.1in screen and weighs in at 3.87Kg. It supports up to 8GB of RAM and users can select either a 120GB HDD or 128GB of SSD storage. It runs Windows Vista and has built in support for Wi-Fi, 3G and GPS. What's more, it's scratch resistant - so you won't have to worry about it not looking good after too much use.

The machine starts at £2,679.