'Ruggedised' vs 'Rubberised'
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Yes, we agree: it's a bit gimmicky. But the facts speak for themselves. These are not simplky commercial devices that have had a makeover to look 'tough'. These are serious tools, designed to survive in the Geat Outdoors, by being intrinsically more 'rugged'. . |
So, was the ROAM Magazine consumer trial a fair and thorough one, that let's us claim to be one of the most durable products around? Possibly not. So consider customers such as the Royal Australian Navy Hydrographic Office, who have had Opentecs in service since 2002, mapping Australia's coastline and shipping lanes from small open boats at sea for days and weeks at a time; and who have trialled a number of other vendors' products, which have invariably failed due to constant exposure to salt air and rough seas. The reality is that a few rubber port covers and some rubber corner buffers do NOT a rugged computer make! From our custom motherboards (designed to protect components and stop them coming adrift), to the double-sealed ports (featuring not only rubber dust caps, but a second sealed bulkhead, through which sealed connecting cables attach to the motherboard, further protecting it from dust or moisture damage), to the sealed keyboards on our notebook (featuring not only sealed keys that will still work even if covered in mud; and which is totally isolated from the motherboard), Opentecs are NOT commercial devices with a few 'toughened' features added, but are built from the ground up to BE rugged. Encouraged by the exposure gained in the ROAM trial, we exhibited at the Pacific 2008 Expo in Sydney in February 2008, where we parked a 2.4 tonne 4WD on an RPC notebook for four days, where it ran continuously, without fault. Feeling a bit cheeky, we even invited another supplier of 'toughened' computers to let us to park our 2.4 tonne Jeep Wrangler 4WD on one of their notebooks. Not surprisingly, they declined. Compared to the 4WD crush resistance demo, surviving in a simulated sandstorm for 4 days was easy. After all, we'd already demonstrated an RPC's dust resistance at IDEX 2007 for 6 days, where users seemed amazed that, despite being covered in a torrent of sand, the mousepad and touchscreen still worked, the LCD could still easily be seen, and the keypad didn't become clogged with grit and stop working. But because Opentecs have survived in field use between 2000 and 2006 in Australia's red deserts as part of the national defence system, we knew they'd survive this simulation. So ask yourself if the product you're considering really is RUGGEDISED or is just RUBBERISED. Then call us to arrange a test drive of one of our fully ruggedised products. |
