Tough laptops don't come cheap. But that high price tag gets you a machine that won't give in to rain or a dunk in a river; a device that will fall from great heights without a drop in performance; a gadget that will keep going on no matter what you throw at it.

We've seen some of the toughest cameras you can buy, so what's the best you can get when you look for the most durable, ruggedized laptops in the market today?

Dell Latitude E6420 XFR ($3210.50)

Dell has a reputation for making some fantastic laptops and it's carried that over into the rugged market. The Latitude E6420 XFR is 14-inch, fully rugged laptop with a magnesium-alloy body, apparently made of ballistic armor, and is as rugged as they come. And there's a touchscreen variant available too. Unfortunately, the battery life isn't great, but something like BatteryCare can help extend that.

  • Drops: Survives falls up to 6 feet while closed and off. Survives falls up to 3 feet while open and on
  • Resistance: Survives 5.8 inches of rain with 70mph winds, IP-65 Certified Ingress Protection water and dust resistant
  • Temperature: -29 to 63 degrees Celsius while on, -51 to 71 degrees Celsius while off
  • Pressure: Withstands 140 kg of pressure

Specs:

  • 14-inch wide-view LED (1366x768 pixels)
  • 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i7-2640M
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • 128GB SSD
  • NVIDIA 4200M with 512MB DDR3
  • DVD Writer
  • Up to 6 hours of battery life
  • Windows 7 Professional

Panasonic Toughbook 31 ($4039)

Panasonic has been making rugged laptops for over 15 years now and needless to say, they've perfected the art over time. The sixth generation Toughbook 31 is the toughest Panasonic has made so far. It matches the Dell XFR in most rugged tests, comes with a touchscreen and has a better-than-normal battery life to boot.

  • Drops: Survives falls up to 6 feet while closed and off. Survives falls up to 3 feet while open and on
  • Resistance: Survives 6 inches of rain at 70mph winds, IP-65 Certified Ingress Protection water and dust resistant
  • Temperature: -40 to 160 degrees Celsius while off
  • Pressure: Withstands 140 kg of pressure

Specs:

  • 13.1-inch XGA touchscreen LED (1024x768 pixels)
  • 2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-3340M
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • 500GB 7200 rpm shock-mounted HDD
  • Intel HD 4000 Graphics
  • WiFi
  • Bluetooth
  • Webcam
  • User-selectable antenna pass-through (Upper WWAN / Lower Selectable)
  • Up to 13 hours of battery life
  • Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8

Getac V110 ($3299)

What's better than a rugged laptop? A rugged convertible, of course! The Getac V110 is a tough notebook with a swivel screen that can completely flip around and rest on the keyboard to be used in tablet mode. Plus, there's a built-in stylus to get more out of the touchscreen and it matches the Toughbook for battery life!

Want to buy it? The Getac V110 is available from eBay.

  • Drops: Survives falls up to 6 feet while closed and off. Survives falls up to 3 feet while open and on
  • Resistance: IP-65 Certified Ingress Protection water and dust resistant
  • Temperature: -21 to 60 degrees Celsius
  • Pressure: Withstands 140 kg of pressure

Specs:

  • 11.6-inch multitouch TFT LCD (1366x768 pixels)
  • 1.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-4300U / 2.1GHz dual-core Intel Core i7-4600U
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • 128GB/256GB SSD
  • Intel HD 4400 Graphics
  • Up to 13.6 hours of battery life
  • Windows 8 Pro

Laptop Or Case?

All of the laptops we have featured here are all made to be rugged, but you do get rugged covers for some existing notebooks, just like there are tough cases for the iPhone. But would you buy a case for a laptop or prefer a rugged one?