If the working conditions in our workplace would not be ideal for using commonly used computers, we need to go for rugged laptops that would sustain the harsh working conditions such as higher range of temperature, shocks and vibrations, dusty surroundings and spillage of water. However, we need to consider some important factors while selecting the most suited rugged laptop for our typical application and degree of harsh conditions.

• Location of use:

It would be important to decide whether the laptop is going to be used indoor or for outdoor applications. In case if the utilization would be outdoor extensively; we would have limited number of brands that offer good quality sturdy laptops for outdoor use such as Motorola and Honeywell.

Size of hands of the operator: People with bigger hands and subsequently bigger fingers or people that need to wear their gloves during the working hours need to choose the suitable size of the laptop as smaller laptops would be tedious for them to use due to small sized keys. Thus the hand size also matters while selecting the rugged laptop.

Type of software required: This would be the personal choice of the operator using the laptop. If the operator might require referring to large sized documents such as maps or engineering drawings, the rugged laptop with touchscreen facilities on tab mode that can be used effectively for zooming and look into details of the drawings in every corner would be perfect.

Industry standards: Users need to follow industry standards while using the rugged laptop so that the data collected from the device would comply with the industrial standards. This is to ensure that even when the operator would not be available, the important information from the laptop can be retrieved. The connectivity and security of the information should not be compromised.

Suitable to support: The rugged laptop chosen for a particular person that would be part of an organization should get the necessary support from their subsequent IT department and the service department easily. The support should be cost-effective, user-friendly and easily available so that the rugged laptop would be maintained and retained deploying the skilled personal available at the organization. This would ensure productivity of the laptop and even the operating person. At the same time, it would save the downtime and expenses that may occur if specialized service from the authorized service center of the brand would be required now and then.

Battery Life: This is an important factor to be considered as it determines the power required to fully charging the rugged laptop, the duration for which the laptop can be used once fully charged and overall power consumption of the rugged laptop.

Considering these various factors, we can choose the best suited rugged laptop for our particular application.