Staying Durable With Durabook

Just a handful of years ago, the market for ruggedized notebooks was slim and vendors in the space were few and far between. The costs of the notebooks were astronomical compared to standard notebooks, and there tended to be confusion over the difference between things like "spillproof" and "spill resistant."

What a difference a several-hundred-million-dollar-a-year market will make.

While Panasonic remains the leader in the ruggedized notebook space, others have begun to attack the segment -- including Dell. But GammaTech, Fremont, Calif., has also emerged as a contender with its Durabook lineup. Now the company is shipping the Durabook D14RM, based on Windows 7 64-bit, Intel Core 2 Duo T6500. We looked at a unit to see how it stands up, and GammaTech packed the unit we evaluated with 4 GB of RAM.

Testing it with Primate Labs' Geekbench 2.1 64-bit, it rang up a nice score of 3141 -- indicating its performance for a notebook in its class is top-notch. Using other standard CRNTest Center methodologies, we looked at battery life. Turning off all power-saving utilities and running a video from the hard drive, the D14RM ran for just about four hours. That's also very nice for a notebook in its class.

The fit and finish, with durable plastic and metallic lid, make it nice to the touch with a comfortable, springy keyboard. It was built with four USB 2.0 slots, an Ethernet port, telephone modem and jack, 4-in-1 card reader and a very surprisingly clear, high-res Web cam.

The 14-inch LCD is bright and clear, and fine for both indoor or outdoor use.

Street pricing on the D14RM ranges between $1,820 and $1,850—which is reasonable just given the performance and feel of the unit alone.

But then we tested the ruggedized features to see if they worked as advertised.

Powered off, we dropped it from a height of two feet onto a tile floor. It powered right up with no damage. We then tried the same test with the power on. Again, it continued functioning and no data was lost or corrupted.

GammaTech says the unit is "spill resistant" (as opposed to spillproof), so we took that into account. The spill test involved leaking about an ounce of water directly onto the keyboard with the system powered off. The water drained right out through the bottom of the notebook. Following GammaTech's instructions, the laptop was then dried with a towel and air drier to make sure no moisture remained inside.

While the CRN Test Center lab lacks the proper testing equipment to run a vibration test, we decided on a real-world evaluation. With the D14RM powered up, it was placed in the empty trunk of a car in freezing New York temperatures and driven around for about 30 minutes at varying speeds on sometimes bumpy streets (similar to what a mobile government worker might experience). Again, the notebook continued to function just fine and no data was lost or corrupted.

It should be noted that following every test, the biometric fingerprint sign-on security functioned perfectly and was not affected by the jostling.

GammaTech has delivered a solid, ruggedized notebook at a decent price point using the latest technology from Microsoft and Intel. The price point is attractive and the system itself just feels right. We can recommend the Durabook D14RM for business-rugged engagements where spill resistance, drop resistance and vibration resistance are important, and we believe the manufacturer should have a seat at the table when this type of solution is required.

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