After tablets became so damn cheap they were the way to go. LOVE having one at work that is just WiFi. Simple to carry and use when I have down time. At home great for using all around the home without picking up a laptop.
Mine also doubles as a big GPS map screen in the truck.
I am tempted to buy a "rugged" Dell laptop for mounting in either my pickup of truck.
I have a bracket that I can insert the tablet into one-handed. It partially blocks one AC vent but it's never been an issue. A laptop would probably fit but I wouldn't want the keyboard in the way. Plus I feel like it looks too LEO.
I am very used to keyboards and strongly prefer them - plus the rugged laptop wi=ould have a touch screen. Also, either the pickup or the truck would be taken over rough dusty roads, and possibly used outside when it is wet.
One thing to consider is a lot of tablets have passive cooling, while many laptops (even rugadized ones) have active cooling (fans). All fans will eventually succumb to dust intrusion, the only question is if they will do that before or after the life of the rest of the machine. If you do go with a laptop I would recommend keeping a can of air on hand in the truck, and give the cooling system a good blow out on a regular basis. Dust intrusion can be a real b*tch.
Oh I am sure they have perfectly good seals to keep dust out of the electronics. That is not the problem. The problem is dust gets into the cooling system and clogs up the air flow and (eventually) ruins the fan. Then you have to take the whole thing apart to replace the fan and clean out the dust clogs.
Damn! That is impressive. I have noticed for a good while the LEO's and Medics coming in with those things but did not pay much attention. Damn things are pricey but that is impressive what they can be put through.
Every couple of months, Woot has a refurbished Dell 7414 rugged laptop on sale for ~$350 - basically the equivalent of my current Lenovo laptop. Newegg has a refurbished 7424 on sale for $850.
www.teslarati.com
No mention of 12VDC or power consumption
Yeah that is what i am waiting for- make it 12v, able to be powered straight off a lithium battery with no need for an inverter. If they can do this and keep the power consumption the same as current, you could power it for days and days with a decent lithium battery set up, and indefinitely off the grid with a decent solar to lithium set up. PS I already have both the solar and Lithium batter set up- ELON bring on the 12v mini dishy!!
I can't speak to the performance/etc. of the business dishes or how/why that would meet the requirements for a given business, as I have no experience with that particular system, but I will say that my systems did a lot better than I thought they would with regards to trees that I have around my house (lots of them, and very tall).
Yup - I got an "eave" mount for a TV antenna, then got the Starlink 8' ground pole mount, and put the SL pole in the eave mount. It is still attached to my house roof after two years - it worked fine that way. It is powered in order to get firmware updates, but the account is paused now so I am not paying for service (if the cell network went down for more than a day or two, I could restart the service within an hour).
