ToughBook anyone?

Sure, but I was thinking more like popular clumsy college kid models. Super form fitting so they aren't much biger

Fully rugged Toughbooks have resistive touchpads so they can work wet and with gloves.

It would be easier to just make your own tough book with gambling and frivolities.

And considering that you're given a free pass to make it as thick and heavy as you want to it should even be easier than designing a regular laptop.

A clamshell would be meh, it wouldn't be of much help if you dropped your laptop from the unfinished roof into a cement mixer while it's opened and running

This may provide hit protection, but won't be viable for waterproofing, temperature protection, depressurisationt, wear, and some other shit. Theses rugged PC usually pass 8-12 mil-std-810 tests. Also their internals are built to absorb shocks with gel mounted components and most components can be bought and remplaced separately.

Tl:Dr it would sell for normies but won't conform to the standards theses PC holds.

Sure they wouldn't pass all the tests but they would be protected considerably.

>it would sell for normies
That's the idea. Could sell even more if they could be made to fit more than one model well.

>it should even be easier than designing a regular laptop.
It isn't. And if you were to actually try to design one you'd see why they don't put very powerful hardware in them.
The main keyword is ventilation. Your laptop can't live without air, and the more rugged you want it to be, the more you end up suffocating your hardware.

You could come up with a perfectly sealed enclosure to keep everything out, but then what happens? Your laptop overheats and shuts down during boot.
Maybe you make a sealed box for the hardware with a liquid cooling solution taking the heat outside the box? Now it's too big and too thick to even be considered a laptop, especially after considering that you'd want to put HEPA filters on your radiator fans, and also come up with a rugged enclosure for that assembly. And that's not to mention that tubes and fittings don't respond well to stress, especially not while the system is running and there's a bit of pressure inside them.

Contrary to what you think, these things aren't easy to design and engineer. There are a lot more vital factors to consider compared to just cramming everything together in as tight a package as possibleto make an ultrabook.

2though4me.
Seriously, it's not like I'll go adventuring with my thinkpad.
All I ask is that it can endure falling from the table and I'm able to switch or upgrade parts if need be. And buying them used makes them cheap.

>made to fit more than one model well.
Different plastic inserts and vent hols that can be punched out. Also include a rubber membrane that snaps across where the keyboard is for those spill-prone kiddies.

>The main keyword is ventilation. Your laptop can't live without air, and the more rugged you want it to be, the more you end up suffocating your hardware.

Their hardware isn't just low spec it's OLD and BAD.
An ultrabook has some computing power to it, and comes with a high quality display that's just pleasant to look at.
A tough book comes with a downclocked ancient i5, DDR3 and 1337*768 TN FOR FUCKS SAKE

Assuming viewing spreadsheets on a construction site or in a trench while being shelled is what the customers do with these laptops a good OLED screen should be a fucking priority.

And maybe a trackball to use with gloves

But average Toughbook display is 1k nits with reflective background and has touch screen both wacom digitizer and resistive or capacitive touch sometimes both.
Also toughbook touchpads work just fine with gloves.

>muh muh muh screen resolution
See: All of these are things that are far more important to the market that Toughbooks exist for than having a 4k screen that you can barely see in daylight.