You’ve probably heard that the Panasonic Toughbook is designed to take any rough treatment you can dish out. However, if you’ve taken a look at the price, you may not be so certain about buying one.

It’s natural for people to wonder if a computer can really offer performance to justify this kind of price tag. Let’s take a look at the fully rugged line of Toughbooks and see if they’re up to it.

Most of the time, when we talk about natural selection, laptops aren’t involved. But if you were to leave a handful of regular laptops in a harsh environment for a few months, the Toughbook would probably survive.

There are quite a few different models on the market, and they vary in how much they cost and how much they’re built to withstand. A fully rugged Toughbook costs the most, but it’ll hold up to almost anything.

These machines can deal with being dropped from nearly a meter up, being left in the rain, dropped in the dust or covered in mud. The US military uses them, and one Toughbook is even said to have saved the life of its user.

Newer Toughbooks, despite their size and durability, are even quite light and relatively small. They’re not as light as the thinnest new laptops, but at 2.25 kilograms, these new notebooks are very slim for their strength.

Built to be used in extreme environments, fully rugged new Toughbooks use touch screens and styluses, a solid metal catch to secure the lid, and bright screens that can be read in full daylight or in darkness. Housings are magnesium alloy, and screens themselves can be dropped without a scratch.

Some of the newest Toughbooks also offer a release catch below the screen that’ll let you rotate the display for tablet use. This is a great choice for people who want to use theirs as a data logging device, and the custom build option lets you choose software to customize yours to the use you need.

You can get models with regular keys or larger keyboards for gloved typing, and every port or connector is protected from dust and water. Two hinged doors on the right side of the chassis keep the removable battery and hard disk safe.

Enclosed in a shock resistant cage, that hard disk is proof against shocks and vibrations. While you’ll find disk and memory sizes smaller and speeds a little slower than the newest ordinary laptops, most people who really need a Toughbook don’t mind a slower performance if the hardware will last.

Toughbooks also come with integrated wireless, and had it long before other laptops had even dreamed of wireless access. Current models have integrated Bluetooth and wi-fi adapters that work on multiple bandwidths.

Battery life for these machines is longer than many competitors, with many models offering more than seven hours of use on a single charge. You can throw just about anything at a Toughbook.

These little notebooks are a little costly for the average person, but the user who really needs it will find that they’re worth it. If you want portable computing that’ll last, a Panasonic Toughbook is the machine you need.