June/July 2007

There's a new entrant to the increasingly competitive semi-ruggedised laptop computer market - the GoBook VR-2 from General Dynamics Itronix. It's fast, featuring the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7300 at a rating of 2.0 GHz, and it's tough; the company claims it has the highest level of drop protection of any semi-rugged notebook (including a specification of six drops from 30in). The chipset is Intel's 965GM Express.

Among its more notable features is a new design of high-visibility touchscreen, branded DynaVue. In this case a 13.3-in screen is used. The company says its research has shown that display quality and daylight viewability rank among the top three purchase criteria for rugged notebooks. DynaVue is its response.

The new screen technology avoids reliance on adding light to improve visibility, instead using a patent-pending light filtering technology which, Itronix claims, achieves a dramatically improved contrast ratio. Features include rich colour, sharp images and details. DynaVue is also said to optimise the computer's battery life and processor performance.

There are other innovations too. The company claims the VR-2 is only semi-rugged notebook with external antenna connections, and first semi-rugged system to include integrated wireless 802.11n-level Wi-Fi connectivity, in addition to 802.11 a and b. It says the VR-2 is also the only semi-rugged notebook with integrated GPS, and features a quadra-helix antenna for faster and more accurate 'fixes.'

The suggested US list price for a base configuration is £1,998.