What is 'Rugged'?

It's more than surviving a few splashes of water.

It's more than the ability to deal with a bit of mud.

It's a Design Philosophy, not a marketing statement.

Click on the image to the left to read the headline. It's a message that can be hard to get across  when all you have is a glossy brochure to go by, but now that you're here, let us show you more about the differences between a commercial grade computer that's been 'toughened up, and a truly 'ruggedised' computer (such as ours) that's been engineered from the ground up explicitly to survive in the extremes you encounter in real life in the outdoors.

Pick up any Opentec product and you'll immediately begin to understand the difference between what we classify as "toughened" (or possibly more correctly "rubberised") office grade products, and a truly "ruggedised" portabe product.

Our products haven't simply evolved from some tame desktop ancestors, but have been engineered expressly to survive - and thrive - in the outdoors, come rain, hail or dust storm.

Consider just a few of the refinements that make our products some of the most durable rugged portable computers you can buy:

• Heavy-duty, cast Magnesium Alloy chassis (that look strong because they are)
• External device ports that are isolated from the motherboard (to keep the outside OUTSIDE)
• Fully sealed, water and dustproof keyboards (to deal with more than the ocassional splash)
• Fan-less (passive) cooling systems (because fans - waterproof or not - are just another thing to fail)
• Heavy-duty screen hinging mechanisms (because when hinges break, screens - the most expensive component of the computer - generally fail as well)
• High-brightness daylight readable backlit LCDs (because you simply can't see standard TFT screens properly in full sunlight)
• Sealed, field-swappable drives and battery packs that don't need any special tools to remove (because Murphy's Law says you'll never have a screwdriver with you when you really need one)

Consider these things, and you start to appreciate why the Opentec range is fundamentally different. And fundamentally more 'rugged' because ... well let's face it, sometimes being 'tough' just isn't enough!

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