Dell enters rugged notebook market

Dell has launched its first semirugged notebook PC and plans to compete with Hewlett-Packard and Panasonic for customers who need a computer that can cope with abusive vibration, humidity, altitude, and dust.

Dell began selling its Latitude ATG D620 notebook on Tuesday as an "all terrain grade" product that could live up to rough use by construction workers, military and police officers, or ambulance and fire-truck drivers.

The computer has a shock-mounted 80GB hard drive surrounded by rubber so it can protect users' data if dropped off a table. Other rugged features include a spill-resistant keyboard, port covers, and an extra bright 14.1-inch LCD (liquid crystal display).

Dell hopes customers will choose the ATG because of its Core 2 Duo processor from Intel, and it further hopes that IT managers will choose the notebook because it shares common parts with the Latitude D620, said Gregory Dvorak, product manager for Dell's Latitude PCs. Using shared components makes an IT technician's job easier, he said. Both versions of the D620 can share spare parts, from the docking station to batteries, power adapters, optical drives, BIOS and driver software, wireless LAN, and integrated mobile broadband.

One drawback to the design is that the ATG's ultra-bright LCD uses extra battery power. In order to be legible in daylight, the screen uses 500 nits of brightness, far above the 200 nits of a typical corporate notebook, Dvorak said. Each nit equals one candela per square meter.

"If you run it at full brightness, there will be an impact on battery life. That's a tradeoff to meeting that customer requirement," Dvorak said. Aside from turning down the brightness, users can upgrade from a six-cell to nine-cell battery, add a secondary battery in the media slot, or mount the notebook on a vehicle dashboard and plug it into auxiliary power.

Dell is selling the Latitude ATG D620 for $2,499 on its U.S. website with plans to sell it in other countries in coming weeks.