Robust Laptop?

wet-paint

Right.
Money - up to two grand.
What it's for? Video editing will be its toughest job.
What does it have to stand up to? Mostly very high temperatures, and dust. A lot of dust. Also, it has to be very reliable, because if if dies I won't be able to get it repaired.

I'm planning on going off foreign next summer on a holiday to Afrikakaka for three months. I'll be taking many pictures (in the thousands) and a whole shedload of video footage. Now the lads who went this year, had no bloody electricity, so could only charge their batteries, and they had no laptops, so they couldn't keep on taking footage. So I'll be bringing a solar charger, a laptop to store the footage and maybe edit it. But this is Africa. Mud huts, no running water, or power. Dirt poor. I want the lappie to be good and powerful, but still rugged enough to withstand the **** it gets. Probably a lot of general abuse as well.

Opinions? It shouldn't be some kind of two tonne steel encased lump that can withstand a bomb going off, but preferably a consumer model.

themole

i don't think any general "comsumer" laptop will stand up to that kind of treatment.

i saw one a few years ago in a magazine which came in out of those aluminium briefcases, it was pretty indestructable. i can't remember the brand. i was reviewed in T3 magazine.

i think your only real option is to get a laptop like this.

themole

this slashdot post might be worth looking at:


http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/08/0212209&tid=184&tid=4

LegacyUser

http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/home.asp

maidhc

Its not available until November:
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

Toughbook seems to be your only choice for the moment. Would a 12v/24v adaptor not be useful as well as a solar thing. I presume you will have the use of a 4x4.

wet-paint

I'll be living in, at the top end, a mud hut, and at the bottom end, my tent. So no 4X4. A clapped out Honda 50 will probably be my weapon of choice. But the adaptor is probably a good idea.