Panasonic has long been the market segment leader when it comes to rugged laptops with their toughbook range but they are facing new competition with the announcement by Averatec that they are going to start selling two new semi-rugged laptops.
The Voya 4473 will be a 14.1" standard notebook, while the larger Voya 6494 will have a 15.4" widescreen display. Both will have magnesium alloy outer cases, corner bumpers, and an anti-shock mounted hard drive.
As standard the Voya 4473 has a Intel Core Duo T2080 (1.73GHz) processor, 1BG RAM, DL-DVD curner, 802.11a/b/g wireless, 120GB hard drive, and 4-in-1 media card reader.
No word on if these meet any Department of Defense specs although Averatec describe them as offering "military grade reliability": our troops serving overseas often look for rugged laptops but are put off by the high prices, with the Voya 4473 starting at just $1299 (half the price of a comparable toughbook) it looks like Averatec may end up getting a lot of military business.
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