Dell Latitude XFR D630 - Company’s First Fully Rugged Laptop

Dell announced yesterday the availability of the Latitude XFR D630, the company’s first fully ruggedized laptop.

The Dell Latitude XFR D630 meets MIL-STD 810F standards from the Department of Defense for products that operate in extreme temperatures, moisture, altitude and more, and can withstand shocks and drops. In addition, a patent-pending thermal management system allows the XFR D630 to deliver “up to four times better graphics performance than the Panasonic CF-30″.

This rugged laptop is based on the Latitude D630 14.1-inch system and shares common images and components with the current line of Latitude notebooks. The XFR is configurable with the Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2GHz and T7500 2.2GHz CPUs, up to 4GB of RAM, a 32GB or 64GB solid state drive, a Combo drive or DVD burner, and various wireless and mobile broadband options. The 14.1″ display is available in 500 nit Outdoor-viewable and 500 nit Outdoor-viewable Touchscreen versions, and is managed by the Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics.

The XFR D630 starts at $3,899.

Almost four grand. That is a steep price for the average user. The magic price tag wanders around the 1500’s range give or take. Mostly take. The Mac air from apple came out at more than 2 grand and people said it was too much. $600 initial price for an iphone. They still bought the beast. There’s a tablet out from Fujitsu that sells in the 2 grand range with similar specs to this laptop. It has an accelerometer so it knows when it drops and immediately stop the hard drive to protect data. That’s one smart computer.

adamcpennington Says: “Almost four grand. That is a steep price for the average user. The magic price tag wanders around the 1500’s range give or take.”

Don’t you realise the Dell XFR D630 is designed to be rugged, and compete in the same marketplace as the Panasonic CF30? It’s silly to compare the XFR D630 with a $1500 ’soho/business’ grade laptop. And why compare the XFR D630 with a Macbook Air?