Lightest fully rugged laptop ships

Itronix starts shipping small and light rugged laptop

Itronix is shipping the smallest and lightest fully rugged laptop in the world, the GoBook XR-1. Aimed at people who work in harsh environments, the laptop can be totally immersed for cleaning, but still boasts an up-to-date specification for running demanding applications.

At 3.1kg, the GoBook is nowhere near as compact as commercial ultraportables, but few of these would survive cleaning in a bleach dip, which the GoBook is designed for.

"A medical team will turn up to an incident not knowing what environment they might be facing, so it's fully sealed" said Sandy McCaskie, director of computing technologies at General Dynamics, which acquired Itronix last year. Other markets for the GoBook include service engineers and the military.

A key feature is that the GoBook's ports are sealed internally, so that rain cannot reach the motherboard if a worker opens a port cover to use a USB device, for example. The port covers are designed so workers can open them while wearing gloves and the system has a touch screen for the same reason.

Despite its toughness, the XR-1 runs a 1.83GHz Core Duo processor and can have up to 2GB of memory. Earlier rugged portables tended to be several generations behind the state-of-the art, McCaskie said. It has built-in antennas to support optional WLAN and cellular adapters, and an optional GPS module.

Much of the hardware is upgradable, because target markets for the GoBook tend to need a five-year life cycle, as opposed to 18 months for a typical laptop, according to McCaskie.
The GoBook meets MIL 810F specifications for durability and IP54 standards on water and dust protection. It has a high-contrast 12.1in screen for reading in sunlight, and a built-in handle for carrying. Pricing starts at £2,547.