Dell reveals the latest in its Rugged series laptops

Dell has unveiled updates to its Latitude Rugged series at the annual Dell Tech Summit.

The company says the Latitude Rugged PC portfolio is designed and tested to withstand harsh and demanding environments. The Dell Latitude 5430 Rugged is the lightest, most powerful, 5G-capable 14" semi-rugged laptop, and the Dell Latitude 7330 is the industry's smallest 5G-capable 13" fully-rugged laptop.

The Rugged series is ideal for first responders, remote field operators, manufacturers, and generally anyone who works far away from any office environment.

"Our customers say they want a PC that handles today's modern applications, enables them to stay connected, doesn't run out of power easily and stays functional in varying extreme environments," says Dell vice president, Speciality Client Solutions, Tom Tobul.

"Our Latitude Rugged PC portfolio has been doing just that while growing three times the market during the last four quarters. This growth is because we're responding to these customer needs and taking advantage of our supply chain leadership.

"Now, we're taking what we've learned and focusing even more on specific pain points and use cases our customer's experience, such as taking an EMS call in a rural area or dealing with a critical issue at a remote oil rig site," he says.

The new Rugged laptops have been completely re-designed to provide:

• Enhanced field productivity with 11th Gen Intel Core processors, with vPro optional.
• Mission-critical connectivity with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and optional 5G-capability.
• Improved daylight-readable and glove-touch capable screens of up to 1400 nits of brightness for optimal field usability.
• Improved battery run-time to almost 25 hours with dual hot-swappable batteries and Express Charge Boost for up to a 35% charge in 20 minutes for 24x7 field operations.

The 14" Dell Latitude 5430 Rugged starts at 1.97 kg and comes with an optional discrete graphics card. It's drop-tested from up to 3 feet and Ingress Protection IP-53 rated for protection against dust, dirt and water ingress. The 13" Dell Latitude 7330 Rugged Extreme has an optional 1400-nit direct-sunlight viewable and gloved multitouch capable screen. It is drop tested from up to 6 feet and has an IP-65 rating for protection against dust, dirt and water ingress.

Both devices are the first from Dell to ship with Windows 11 preinstalled. The new Rugged laptops also come with Dell Optimizer, a software application that leverages AI and machine learning to optimise performance based on usage.

Dell Latitude Rugged 5430 and 7730 laptops will be globally available for order on 9 December 2021, shipping with Windows 11.