While we know Dell’s Rugged Extreme Laptops aren’t your overall consumer electronics, they are some interesting pieces of machinery. They are created to withstand the messiest rainstorms, the windiest sandstorms, and the most frigid temperatures. Best way to show all this off, Dell setup a spot in the Minus5 Ice Bar in the Hilton here in New York City. The Minus 5 Ice bar is exactly how it sounds in the name. The seats, tables, all the way down to the cups you drink out of are pure ice. Numbers can get as low as 20 degrees and they make sure you are well suited up. They will don you with a parka, some gloves and a hat.
Inside we were able to check out the Extreme Latitude 12 & 14 models laying on brick ice and working with ease. Any other devices in that temperature, just laying on ice succumb to dying out from the cold. Besides the freezing cold, there were also demos showing it in sand and bottles of water poured all over it(which I partook in). There are even cases where the laptops were dropped and kicked around the room. Just another way of showing you how hard it is to penetrate one of these bad boys.
I did also speak to a owner of Nascar’s JTG Daugherty Racing team and he says they have started to remove their older laptops and having extreme success with these Dell laptops based on the shock proof. Once again these Rugged Extreme models are more for the industry type whether its racing, construction, or going the extreme lifestyle of the military.
Depending how you decide to build your own Rugged model, you can get Windows 8.1, Core i3-i7 chips, and SSD up to 512GB.
The Latitude 12 Rugged Extreme convertible notebook begins at $3,649 and will be available on May
6th. The Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme begins at $3,499 and will be available in mid-May.
