The $5,600 Tablet 96
An anonymous reader writes "Tablets have come a long way in the past few years, and it has become possible to find a capable device for under $200. But what about the tablets pushing toward the high end of the spectrum? Xplore Technologies sells a line of tablets that top out at $5,600. Who on earth would pay that much? The military, of course. 'The DMSR models both have handles and are encased in tough protective covers. They can be dropped more than 2 meters onto a plywood floor and 1.2 meters onto concrete, and can operate in temperatures between -30 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit (-34 to 60 degrees Celsius). They've been tested to the U.S. military's tough MIL-STD-810G standard for extreme conditions. The tablets run Windows and come with Intel's latest Core i5 or i7 Haswell processors. Solid-state drive options extend to 480GB. ... They display images at 1024 x 768 resolution. That's less than some cheaper Windows tablets, but Xplore claims to offer excellent LCD visibility in sunlight thanks to a display luminescence of 1,300 NITS. The tablets have internal fans but can still run for up to eight-and-a-half hours on a 10-cell battery, Xplore said. They weigh a hefty 2.4 kilograms.'"
Consumers have no clue... (Score:5, Interesting)
I rock a Panasonic Toughbook laptop and a Panasonic Toughbook tablet.
Toughpad FZ-A1 for my android tablet and a toughbook 31 I carry for work more money in tablet and laptop than most of you have every owned in your car. I work in very dusty and dirty environments programming smartbuildings while they are under construction.
The number of people that whine the ,"OMG why did you buy that expensive thing" I then drop it on it's edge from 4 feet and then ask if their Nexus 7 is "the exact same thing" that they drop their on the edge right now. I own a nexus 7 they break if you look at them funny. I can read the screens better in direct sunlight, consumer tablets are unusable out in the direct sun.
Note: panasonic is a lot cheaper than this botique brand, and the Govt uses them on a regular basis.
Re:Not that impressive! (Score:3, Interesting)
Its impressive when a computer does it.
Took a class in computer reliability in the face of all sorts of problems, and the instructor was a bit taken aback when those of us from the DoD started talking about having the computer system take a 50 caliber round. It wasn't a failure mode he was familiar with.