Rugged Chassis Laptop

Tommy Peanuts · 5 Jan 2013 at 19:24

Hi all,
Friend of mine is looking for a new laptop to use for mainly audio recording / processing and some artwork stuff.

I'm tech savvy enough to spec him something up however, I have no idea today which chassis are rugged enough to handle the odd knock etc.

I've told him to avoid a macbook as price is an issue, but are there are any Win based laptop ranges which are aluminium framed these days ?

Knowing how easily he breaks stuff I wanted something with an aluminium chassis and a SSD as its OS drive. He's not going to need anything more serious than integrated graphics, just a good strong CPU with plenty of RAM and a quality touchpad.

All advice greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Amp34 · 6 Jan 2013 at 16:48

Business laptops is where you should be looking, such as the HP Elitebook or the Dell Vostros, Lattitude and Precision range are the ones that first come to mind.

Tommy Peanuts · 6 Jan 2013 at 19:06

Thanks mate. I seem to remember some of the old Fujitsu lifebooks had something protecting them from liquid spillage so i'll maybe start there.

Amp34 · 6 Jan 2013 at 19:23

I think Lenovo do a number of laptops with spill resistant keyboards as well.

Tommy Peanuts · 6 Jan 2013 at 19:48

Brilliant, thanks. I wasn't aware Lenovo did any

Amp34 · 6 Jan 2013 at 20:46

Not sure why there was a winky face there... Should have been a smiling face!

Agent_Smith357 · 6 Jan 2013 at 23:02

Thinkpad THINKPAD !!! Magnesium chassis still and many other features.

Caged · 7 Jan 2013 at 03:17

Mac laptops aren't pricey for fun, they cost more to buy because they cost more to build. A quality PC laptop won't end up costing the world less, the market is just somewhat skewed by £300 bags of plastic crap.

As mentioned, the HP Elitebooks are good, as are the Dell Latitude range. Dell also do a 'business rugged' version of the Latitude but the name escapes me. If you plan on taking it to war there's the Panasonic Toughbooks as well.