| My Toughbook CF-T8 is pretty close to what you are describing akkat.
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/panasonic-t8 * Sturdy bulky: It's got sturdy and bulky in spades. Not quite as bulky as the police/military grades mind you, but bulky enough. Rather light (3lbs?) and stupid durable. Nice wrist strap. * Hardware switches: No, but I find the keys comfortable enough. * Lots of keyboard buttons: Such as? I miss actual page up and down, but have gotten accustomed to Fn+Up/Dn. I don't miss anything else. * Trackpoint: Yep. * "But" battery: I assume you meant to say big battery. No, but I bought several extras since they were $12 on eBay. I can hibernate, swap, and go all day. I have just about maxed mine out with a 200GB SSD, 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, and Win10. Not a screamer but fast enough for my needs. I am running KiCad, Netbeans, OpenOffice, and Chrome most of the time. I also added a PCMCIA (yes, not CardBus) USB adapter, extra power supplies, and extra units for spare parts. All are super cheap. Total cost is somewhere south of USD $400, and probably closer to $250. (I didn't keep track.) Only real complaints: Not really enough horsepower for standard rez YTube videos (I rarely watch them and when I do I put them on low rez) and the screen is dim in the sun. It's 1024x768 which I know would make many of you scream, but I connect it to an external monitor at home and dual displays, and I'm happy. Am accustomed to working at that rez. Oh, and the speakers are not terribly loud. It's not for everyone. I have low requirements if you couldn't tell :-) |
I used to swear by a trackpoint until one day I could only use a trackpad. Now I don’t want to go back. Grin
And I meant to say that my laptop is not ExpressCard. It is CardBus.