Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team are traveling to CES 2020. Stay tuned for the latest from Las Vegas next week!

Gilbert, driving through Mississippi listens on SuperTalk Mississippi and is calling via the app and asked: “I’m about to retire and go on an extended vacation. I was looking for a good, reliable rugged laptop, so I was looking at the Panasonic Toughbook, the Alienware, as being tough. I don’t know how the reliability is. Also the Acer 2-in-One. Would like to know if you can give me some feedback on those and let me know what you think might be the best ones to go on an extended vacation.”

Gilbert, at the studio we’ve used a Panasonic Toughbook for probably a decade now, we haven’t been kind to it. It’s traveled in the hold of more planes than we can count, packed with hard gear, dragged all over Earth, and it’s still going. Based on our experience and on the fact that we seen them riding in police cars all the time where they probably get bumped around more than most laptops, we don’t think you can go wrong with a Panasonic Toughbook.

As far as we know, Alienware has hardy, heavy computers, but Dell, Alienware’s owner actually makes rugged models of their Latitude series, you may want to have a look at those. They look about the same as a Toughbook, but they’re another option.

One thing we should ask you though is, what kind of traveling will you be doing? 90% of extended travelers do just fine with any regular laptop they can carry around in a backpack, or leave inside an RV. Unless you’ll be camping in remote locations away from civilization and without solid shelter, you can probably just use a regular laptop and get more processing power for your dollar.

Rugged models are heavy, and they are expensive, if you can get away with using a regular model instead, you’ll get more machine for your money.

Most people who go on extended vacations stay within the bounds of civilization, if that’s the case, you don’t really need to bother with anything special. Laptops can take the stresses of most travel.

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