Rugged Laptops—Panasonic Toughbook 19

The Good: Panasonic's Toughbook line has products that range from rugged to semirugged to what it calls "business-rugged" laptops. There's a big difference between business rugged and true MIL-STD-810-compliant computers, but with one look you can easily see the difference between them. The rugged products lack that corporate look.

That's not really an insult. These tough-looking machines have cutting-edge features that you don't find with a lot of rugged laptops. For example, the Toughbook 19 is just 5 pounds and has a touch screen that swivels and folds back on itself, converting from laptop to tablet. It comes with WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS support. Panasonic is the 52-year-old American brand of the Matsushita Electric Factory, which was founded in Japan in 1912.

The Ugly: The Toughbook has a shock-mounted removable hard drive, a moisture- and dust-resistant keyboard, and a magnesium alloy case with a handle. You'll lay any mugger flat with one swing of this puppy.

The Bad: The display is small at 10.4 inches, but it's a daylight readable LCD. Also, the price-it starts at about $3,200-is enough to make any mugger faint.

Rugged Calls—Sanyo SCP-7050 Phone

The Good: What better way to hold a difficult conversation than on a phone tough enough to say anything? This $299 Sanyo phone has built-in GPS and Bluetooth capabilities, a speakerphone and voice dialing. It also supports Sprint's Ready Link push-to-talk, a walkie-talkie-style service.

The Ugly: Its black, antislip rubber casing just screams for a Hello Kitty decal, but its MIL-STD-810F compliance means that the first time you drop your phone off the front porch won't be the last.

The Bad: No camera. And some people aren't fans of Sprint as a carrier.

Next: Rugged Laptops — Dell Lattitude ATG