Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost) - Gizmodo Comments

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Bokusatsu_Tenshi — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:19:00 EST

I wonder if they made the LCD screen with the same stuff they made that LCD TV that could withstand some hammering and arrows..

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

smeee — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:15:21 EST

That thing looks like it could be my mini-safe. Jesus, they couldn't have gone with a better color scheme to lose the ugly 90's grey? But its Dell, even their high-end stuff looks tacky.

smeee

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

shiner980 — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:28:12 EST

Looking at the the configuration possiblilities, yes touchscreen is indeed available. I have experience with the Toughbook, and though it can be very slow at times, at least you're guaranteed to not break it, short of trying to put bulletholes through it. I certainly won't need this kind of laptop, but it'll be good for say the Army, or maybe accident prone work areas xD

shiner980

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

racermd — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:13:59 EST

This thing looks like it was lifted from Panasonic's warehouse and got a bunch of Dell stickers. Seriously - there's only so many ways a truly rugged computer can be configured in a compact package, so there's bound to be a similarity in appearance.

The handle isn't anything new, either. The Toughbooks have had them for a number of years.

One cool thing that the Toughbooks offer that this new Dell might not (I haven't RTFA): touchscreen. The Toughbook CF-30 offers a Core 2 Duo, SSD disk, WLAN, WWAN, DVD+/-R, expresscard AND CardBus slots, in addition to the touchscreen. Granted, most of that costs extra, but it's certainly possible to configure it with all that stuff. I know this because I was recently helping the local Sheriff's department replace their aging fleet of CF-28s with the CF-30s.

You'd be surprised just how rugged these things really are. Some of those older CF-28s came back with thick layers of grime all over them. None of them had any screen problems and worked perfectly (if a bit slow due to the older hardware). If I was going into a post-apocalyptic environment, I'd want one.

racermd

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Mandatory_Field — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:09:41 EST

Meh, I might be interested if they'd named it the "Dell Latitude XFR Chuck Norris"

Mandatory_Field

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

nutbastard — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:36:53 EST

@ab3:
lighter than uranium, this alloy is very, very tough:

[en.wikipedia.org]

nutbastard

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

whootowl — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:32:19 EST

Apple should come out with a competing offering, the Macbook Rock.

whootowl

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Triborough — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:15:44 EST

If you guys buy me one I'd be happy to field test its ruggedness. We once broke a laptop's LCD screen when it "negatively impacted" with a subway turnstile.

Triborough

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

ab3 — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:01:02 EST

i wont get any kind of "tough" laptop until they use depleted uranium armor (yes i know with uranium being even denser than lead it would weigh 30 lbs but i dont care I just want to be able to say I have a depleted uranium laptop). Hey maybe if there is still a little U-235 left (the radioactice isotope) then the laptop can be powered off of the beta particles that fly off of it! sigh but only in my dreams....

ab3

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

nutbastard — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:47:04 EST

@Out2gtcha:
NO MORE RHYMING!

nutbastard

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Out2gtcha — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:31:25 EST

@nutbastard:

"Fezig, are there rocks ahead?"

"If there are, we'll all be dead!"

Out2gtcha

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

pizzlepaps — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:29:10 EST

@Nintenboy01: dumbassssss
some people need to not post if they don't understand what sarcasm is

pizzlepaps

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

nutbastard — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:26:23 EST

@mrxcel:
sorry, i was unemployed... in greenland...

nutbastard

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Out2gtcha — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:22:27 EST

@Nintenboy01:
It was a joke on the fact that stupid people are saying does it bl..........

Never mind, my brain hurts.

Out2gtcha

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

ripfire — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:16:44 EST

@sxr71: "That's Magnesium Alloy. Anyone who's taken high school level chemistry will know that Magnesium itself will react with air and burn into a white powder of Magnesium oxide."

Yeah and it would've taken a college level chemistry to realize that it's an alloy.

ripfire

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

domogiz — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:11:07 EST

these types of laptops (rugged/MIL STD grade, shock mounted drive, etc, etc, etc, with a handle) around for a quite a while... what's the big deal with Dell launching them?

domogiz

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

CruJones — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:11:04 EST

That Dell is sexy. If the MacBook Air were a runway model in Madrid, it would be banned from the catwalk.

CruJones

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Nintenboy01 — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:01:43 EST

@Klappstuhl: Please, quit the "Will it blend" stuff. And of course it'll play Doom with the specs it's got. Even Doom 4 probably in the future.

Nintenboy01

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

mrxcel — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:47:26 EST

@nutbastard:
Where have you been? Panasonic Thoughbooks????

mrxcel

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Klappstuhl — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:39:42 EST

Do Want.

But, will it blend, ugh, I mean... play Doom?

Klappstuhl

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Out2gtcha — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:27:30 EST

@nutbastard:

HA!

After laughing at that I will now PRE-apologize for any of my future non-funny, non-original or non-clever comments.

So, basically I'm apologizing for all my comments past, present and future.

Out2gtcha

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

SneakerFiend — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:15:47 EST

Dam i wish this would've been out when i still had my nextel i580. (well when it was still activated)
It would've been the perfect match for miie beloved nextel phone.
I miss it but not too much. T-mobile rocks lolx. :-P

SneakerFiend

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

nutbastard — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:01:40 EST

@firesign:

yeah

nutbastard

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

nutbastard — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:56:00 EST

@MacNewbTube:
yeah, that's what i said here

nutbastard

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

firesign — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:55:59 EST

@ferrdidly: it's not meant to be pretty. it's meant not to die.

@bpatten: nobody has said it because the bit is so fucking old that anybody that still says it should be smacked upside the head with one of these laptops.

firesign

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

mmmiles — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:55:47 EST

@sp00nix:
A laptop is replaceable, but data is not - SSD's are far from indestructible, and every layer of protection they add the better, considering where some of these laptops end up getting deployed.

mmmiles

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

MacNewbTube — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:52:58 EST

@nutbastard

Handle on a laptop... Apple did this ages ago on the OG iBook.

Cue flame war in 5.. 4... 3...

MacNewbTube

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

takeshi — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:48:09 EST

@AngrySicilian:
You could do a lot worse than Dell.

takeshi

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

ferrdidly — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:45:47 EST

ugliest thing ever

ferrdidly

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

nutbastard — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:45:21 EST

@bpatten:
Yeah this place is amazingly populated with original, funny, clever commenters.

wait, what are YOU doing here?

nutbastard

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

sxr71 — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:40:52 EST

That's Magnesium Alloy. Anyone who's taken high school level chemistry will know that Magnesium itself will react with air and burn into a white powder of Magnesium oxide.

sxr71

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

SigmundTheSeaMonster — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:22:38 EST

"Headquarters Located!!!"

SigmundTheSeaMonster

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

bpatten — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:20:13 EST

I can't believe no one has said it yet.

Will it Blend?

bpatten

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Xavoc — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:07:32 EST

@sp00nix: You'd be surprised. A big part of the damage is stress that occurs at impact on the individual parts in the SSD. Chips, solder joints, resistors, diodes.

@nutbastard: After dropping my old cell phone about 20 times over two years, it tended to become more and more flaky with each drop. Sometimes to the point of rebooting itself when attempting to answer a phonecall, yet the display and hinge were fine minus a couple of scratches on the outer screen and case.

Whoops.

The damping material around the drive also serves to help protect it from vibration over time.

Xavoc

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

All_Thumbs — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:05:21 EST

Soon to be seen on the set of Stargate Atlantis?

All_Thumbs

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Buzzed — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:04:30 EST

Awsome

Buzzed

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

SomeoneUKno — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:04:20 EST

Ok, so it can survive SWAT, but what about F.E.A.R?

SomeoneUKno

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

nutbastard — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:01:06 EST

@Xavoc:
yeah id be more worried about cracking the display, or wonking up the hinges.

nutbastard

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Viva La Volvo — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:58:33 EST

@Xavoc: The laptop or cell phone would be destroyed before the SSD would.

Viva La Volvo

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Xavoc — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:54:35 EST

@sp00nix: Just because it doesn't have moving parts does not mean it is not succeptible to shock. Ever drop your cell phone?

Xavoc

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Out2gtcha — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:52:40 EST

@AngrySicilian:
Very true.
But, at least its not an apple.

Out2gtcha

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Viva La Volvo — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:52:21 EST

"64GB Shock Mounted Solid State Drive, 2.5MM [add $509]" whats the point in shock mounting a solid state drive?

Viva La Volvo

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

nucreation — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:50:38 EST

"The Latitude XFR D630 leads major rugged laptop vendors in standard service with Next Business Day On-Site3 service for major components inside the laptop. Competitors require customers to return systems for service. Dell's rugged laptop also allows users to service many components in the field."

I would like to see this followed through with! There are some pretty remote places around where I live!

nucreation

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

gadgetfanatic — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:47:11 EST

I wonder where they do these tests?

gadgetfanatic

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

AngrySicilian — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:47:04 EST

This is great.. if only it wasn't a Dell.

AngrySicilian

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

nutbastard — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:46:45 EST

@Rain-man:
uh, oh yeah! the toilet seat had one!

nutbastard

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Xavoc — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:44:30 EST

@nutbastard: Great, just make it easier for the woman to blugeon me with her lappy.

Xavoc

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Rain-man — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:43:57 EST

@nutbastard: Uh, not the same thing, but remember? [images.google.com]

Rain-man

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy! — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:41:20 EST

@nutbastard: A few laptops of this type have handles. They're just not consumer models.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

jcrockerman — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:41:06 EST

can it handle one handed web browsing ending a money shot??? i didn't think so...

jcrockerman

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

nutbastard — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:35:48 EST

finally a fucking HANDLE on a laptop. it's about time.

nutbastard

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

regnez — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:33:46 EST

That thing looks like a bomb shelter with a computer built-in.

regnez

Dell Latitude XFR D630 Will Stop a Tank Shell (Almost)

Xavoc — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:31:15 EST

I can see it now, I'm going to take a round to the laptop and the damn dreaded mouse drifting up and to the right issue will manifest itself mysteriously.

Xavoc