QOTD: How Should We Test Rugged Laptops?

give it to a college kid. im going to college this fall, from what ive heard they take a pretty good beating.

install os x on it

In a dusty or sandy enviroment, in a very dry and a very humid environment, under direct sunlight, in cold and hot temperatures, drop them from table-height, bang them inside a carry case, smash the buttons with your fingers...

Hot and sandy conditions. Many military in the middle east use tough books and such for their computing needs and it would be of great help to see which laptops would hold up the best before making an investment your stuck with for a year.

Well my son tested my laptop with hot chocolate... I think it would be a good start.

Do you remember the Samsonite commercials with the gorilla and the suitcase?

Leave it in the bed of a construction work truck all day.

paintball guns

Tests:
1) put in backpack naked (no books as book is padding). drop it from shoulder height
2) same as #1 but drop it around 10-12 ft high
3) put in backpack naked, bang it against a metal pole like flag pole
4) put in backpack naked, pour small amount of soda on the backpack
5) same as #1 but pour a whole can of soda on the backpack
6) put laptop on stable table, drop a commercial-grade screwdriver directly on top (don't throw, just drop)
7) same as 6) but use commercial-grade hammer
8) do 6 and 7) with laptop open
9) attach the power cord, tie the cord to a truck and drive the truck 10-20 mph for 10 seconds
10) repeat 9) but continue at 25-35mph for another 10 seconds

ultimate test:
11) summon God and have Him break it

gotta have drop testing, and it has to be repeatable. One drop on each side, notation of visual damage. This should be done while the laptop is on. I think a good torture test would be to drop a laptop down the stairs and should ensure that it gets beat from about every angle, though its not entirely repeatable.

As an IT, I can say....
3-4 foot drops of different materials
drops onto corner or edges of wood or metal desks
crammed into desks

I take the notebook on the bus and it always hit some bar or someone kicks softly my handbag...

Give it to Blendtec.

Laptop near water environment - Splash Water while laptop is on. Submerge water in laptop while laptop is off.

Drop Test - 10 drops from 1, 2, or 3 feet high

Drop Test #2 - Drop objects of varying weight on laptop while its open or closed, on both sides of screen and keyboard.

Sand of varying grades (powdered clay to beach sand) and also mud.

Anything else that would be considered accidental damage to laptops but done repeated times to test how "rugged" it is.

Drop it from table height. Drop it while running up and down stairs... let it tumble down etc.

Pour some liquids on it... attach the power cord and drag it around.... those seem like the most natural kinds of things you could do to damage it (or try to damage it).

I use my notebook for astrophotography. It has to be able to stand up to extremes of heat and cold, moisture (in the form of dew), dust, dirt and quite a bit of rough handling. My Toshiba Satellite x205 has held up very well. I've even smooshed a few mosquitoes on it and the screen cleans up very nicely

Let your children play with it.

1. Drop tests, from the hood of a pick up truck.
2. Sand, dirt, mud, on the keyboard, screen, can the dirt get inside? Use a fan to blow some of the dirt around.
3. Put inside a car, while on, and drive on a bunch of rocky, bumpy, roads and see if it still works.
4. WI-FI strength, can they still connect to the construction trailer while looking at things outdoors.
5. How well can you read the screen in sunlight?
6. Battery life? How long to charge? How easy to swap out battery?
7. Can the laptop be used to detonate the charges to blow up the building?

Launching them like clay discs then shooting them down with shotguns.

Leave it in a dusty wood working shop and see how long it runs before it overheats.
Drop it, tip it! Lots.
Leave it in the sun for a week. With the screen open.
Spill coffee on the keyboard. Then clean it using only windex and toilet paper.

As an EMS agency, we use rugged laptops for patient care reports.
1. Drop from stretcher height.
2. Use it in the rain (water exposure in real world use)
3. Expose to cleaning solutions (to wipe away various fluids, etc)
4. Repeated key presses.
5. If it has a touch screen use a stylus on the screen in a up/down or side/side motion (i.e. scrollbars) repeatedly to see about screen wear.

Those are a few I can think of.

As mentioned above, drop tests to start with. After that, you definitely need to test it in the rain, sand, mud, etc. I would also try bending it (i.e. hold the sides tight and press on the middle). It would also be interesting to see if it worked while submerged...

like nearly everyone said above, all those methods would work and cover nearly everything, except solar flare test >

So where to start? Lets see if we can get some of these real-world tests done:
1. free-fall from 1.5m - very crutial test, test it when laptop is close, when is opened and when it falls opened on the side
2. running full benchmarks or games (cpu+gpu) in environment with 35 degrees of celsia for few hours
3. spit caffee over it, let it dry then try to remove it by washing it by water and switch it on
4. test how large hit can screen itself handle - i guess it should handle 1kg object free-falling from 1m height on opened screen
5 apply significant pressure (lets say 30kgs) on the laptop keyboard and try if all keys still properly works
6. run cpu+gpu benchmark in a very dusty enviroment (maybe dirty factory or sawmill) and higher environment temperature for few hours
7. let somebody on bike to roll over the laptop

MIL-STD 901D testing. Be sure to post the video of the explosive barge test.

MIL-STD 810F Methods 501.4, 502.4, 503.4, 504.4, 505.4, 507.4, 510.4.

Those should put be adequate. Although, I doubt you'll be willing to spend the dinero to do it. A truly rugged laptop should be able to pass all of the 810F tests listed as well as 901D. Sadly, none have in my experience.

*sigh* The answer is already in a previous article, from April!
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/lapt [...] 33292.html
Just don't go smashing kids to death.

There should also be a test involving VERY hard closing of the laptop. AS mentioned before, leave it in the bed of a truck, sand, mud, drop tests etc. Sand blasting the screen would also be good.

A couple of good tests. A few for the travelers.....
-Drop from height of an overhead bin on an airplane to the floor.
-Run through x-ray machine several hundred times.
-Drop from x-ray conveyor belt to the floor.
-Leave laptop outside in car on a -30 degree North Dakota night.
-How does the keyboard work if you're wearing gloves.
-Work on laptop as a passenger in a car driven over very rough terrain.
-Screen hinge strength, repetitive open and close
-Spill test of many liquids: hot coffee, sticky slurpee/soda, salt water (or something that will conduct electricity).
-Kid test: key pull-off, fingers on screen, LCD push-test.

How about lend out a couple of laptops to some to say "not so carefull" youths for a week or so and then do a healt check!

put it in the clothes dryer.