The Toshiba has hit the floor a couple of times over the years, which is why the toughbook was on the list. The price is within $50 for all these choices.
Yes, the price is in range but as I and others have said said you sacrifice a good deal of computing power for that hardened design.
Your boot time, picture render time and general processing will be much longer.
I haven’t looked at Toughbook in a long time but if you compare processor speed and RAM of the other computers you will see that you are getting a lot less computer for the price.
But if you are worried about drops and other mishaps it may be worth it.
I did look at buying one myself years ago when I spent a lot of time in restaurants and coffee shops with my laptop. But ended up going with another laptop because if I upgraded to a more capable Toughbook that price was just too high.
Another thing I would look at is the Apple refurbished computers on their official website. I have bought all of my Apple computers refurbished. You typically save about 20-30 percent off of new prices.
You get the same one year warranty. I have not been able to see any difference between what I get and new.
I have Apple at home and use Microsoft at work. I will pick Apple over Microsoft every time for my money.
I’m on a ToughBook right now. The CF-19 is heavy, bulky and (most of all) slow! In order to make their laptops water-resistant (don’t let anyone tell you they’re “water-proof”!) they dispensed with a cooling fan. So they use step-down processing to control the heat. In effect, the hotter it gets (and they get HOT!) the slower it goes.
I found the drop test claims were a bit off the mark - I’ve seen two HDD’s die (with total loss of data) in drops of two feet or less. If you do go with one, upgrade the HDD to an SSD. Performance is better and then it will truly be tough.
All in all I’d go with the Dell.