How Tough is Panasonic's Toughbook?

Panasonic claims their Toughbook-30 can withstand almost anything. Well seeing is believing. Forbes decided to test out Panasonic’s claim, and put the Toughbook through rigorous testing to see how it stands up to some serious abuse.

The crew dropped it, drove over it, shot it, even gave it to a tiger and elephant. The result? It survived. Dropping and driving over it did nothing to the laptop, but the bullet made a mark. Actually the .22 made a hole in the screen, but surprisingly the computer screen still functioned like nothing had happened.

Nalin, the white tiger, over at Six Flags in Vallejo, California treated the laptop like a cat toy. She managed to chew off a few keys, but the crew was able to glue and snap them back on…computer still worked.

The Toughbook was also given to an elephant to play with. While it was dropped, thrown and stomped on by the pachyderm, he only managed to put two cracks in the case…purely cosmetic. The laptop still booted up and functioned just fine.

While most of us will never have the need for such a rugged laptop, it’s good to know one is out there if we need one.

[Via Forbes]