Many occupations need a rough laptop due to their work natural world. They could be architects, engineers or military personnel. In fact, military personnel are the biggest consumers for laptops with shockproof and water resistance feature. The market already has laptops for this consumer group from various companies such as Panasonic’s Tough book, ACI’s Commando to name a few. They cost a lot and are justified for the amount of torture they can withstand. Sahara has one such notebook in its range of laptops. Sahara is a well known brand in India for its value for money deals in computer peripherals. Similarly, this laptop that we have with us today is perfectly priced, but can it withstand the torture levels as other brands in the market? Read on to find out more.
Specifications
Intel” Pentium” M Processor 740 Intel Centrino Mobile Technology 1.73 GHz (2MB L2 cache)
512 MB DDR2 RAM (533 MHz FSB)
35.8 cm (14.1) TFT Non-Glare Type
Intel 915GM Chipset
80 GB Hard drive
Dual Layer DVD-RW Optical Drive
Realtek HD Sound Effect Manager 16 bit AC’97
Two speakers with chamber
WLAN: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG WLAN
External display (VGA) port VGA
USB 2.0 Ports (2)
Headphones/speaker/line-out jack, MIC/Line-in jack
LAN: Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet
Length: 31.5 cm, Width: 26 cm, Height/Thickness: 4 cm, Weight: 2.67 kg
Layout
The Sahara NB55131-CK76 is a sturdy looking laptop. Its body comprises of hard plastic and a few patches of rubberized plastic at the edges. The laptop has a matt finish which is seen throughout the body of the laptop. This finish respects the rough laptop concept not only with regard to looks but also with the features it offers. The laptop has fewer ports as compared to what other regular laptops offer, which is because this laptop isn’t meant especially for multi-media purposes and decision-making presentation.
At the far end of the left side of the laptop has a Kensington Lock followed by an air-vent which really didn’t make much of dissimilarity, the entire left portion below the keypad of the laptop been usually hot. Then there is a very oddly placed power port. Power ports in most laptops are seen at the end of the laptop or behind, while this is almost placed in the center of the left side of the laptop. There is a VGA port, a LAN port and a PC Card slot that completes the layout of the left side.
On the right side there is a Serial port followed by the Dual Layer DVD-RW. There is a slider lock on the DVD-RW panel apart from the Open/Close tray button. This is a switch to prevent the tray from ejecting in case of an accidental hit. Also, there is a Modem port followed by 2 USB 2.0 ports. There are just two USB 2.0 ports for the laptop which could call for problems with regards to the expansion slots just as I mentioned earlier.
The front panel of the laptop has just two audio jacks, one for Headphone/Line-Out and the other for MIC/Line-In. Beside these two audio jacks there’s a volume control wheel which looks very cheap. A little more towards the left on the edge there are three LEDs, they individually light up when power supply is plugged in, when the laptop is working on battery and when the laptop battery is being charged.
Under the lid of the laptop is a 14.1″ inch TFT screen. It is a Non-Glare type and sports a matt finish as well. Towards the top on either side of the screen there are clips to stay the top closed when it is shut. The laptop has an 83 key standard keypad. There are meaning keys only for the very basic jobs. Above the keypad there is a row of LEDs: HDD Activity, Optical Drive Activity, Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock. Next to these LEDs is the Power On switch and a backlit button in the direction of switch On/Off WLAN. The touchpad below the keypad is a little towards the left side. It has four buttons, one for a left and right clicks each. The other two buttons is a UP/DOWN scroll. There are roll areas on the touchpad as well.
Performance
The Sahara CK76 is a great performer, throw it from table height or spill a glass of water purposely and it will withstand it what would otherwise be torture to any other laptop. We dropped the laptop a number of times while the laptop was ON and with applications running in the background and we still didn’t face any problem. We even dropped the laptop when the lid was open and it survived the fall without any problem. That should summarize the shockproof feature of the laptop. We might just upload the video showing the same in a day or two. Watch this space again next week. As for the waterproof feature, we spilt a glass of water on the laptop and all we had to do was tilt the laptop and all the water just drained out. I think that explains well that the laptop is water and shock proof.
This rugged laptop has a 1.73 GHz processor, these days only the low end entry level laptops include this sort of a configuration. Even though this laptop’s concept revolves around ruggedness, it still requires bundling performance under its hood. The performance of this laptop is just average for the configuration and very low for the price. You will be able to work with standard word-processing and a few more applications. This laptop can’t be taxed with demanding games or demanding applications. The video memory is shared from the 512 MB stick and with the Intel 915 GM chipset so it’s never going to work wonders. That said and done, it will do all the basics in whichever environment you literally throw it into.
Battery Life
The battery package along with the laptop is a 9 cell Li-Ion. The battery claims to deliver 5 hours of backup time. The laptop with its low processing power kept the juices of the battery flowing for 4 hours easily. This was an effect under standard test conditions. The battery does a good job and being 9-cell with just that much of processing power it was expected.
Lastly, the purchase of such a laptop depends on the kind of work and the work environment. The Sahara NB55131-CK76 sells for Rs. 46,999 plus taxes that would sum up to around 55K. There are always better options but those are of course at a higher price. This is the cheapest rugged laptop with polite performance in this price range. The price includes a one year carry-in warranty as well. If this isn’t the kind of laptop you are looking for then one of our previous reviewed laptop might be a improved deal in the market as of now.
Specifications
Intel” Pentium” M Processor 740 Intel Centrino Mobile Technology 1.73 GHz (2MB L2 cache)
512 MB DDR2 RAM (533 MHz FSB)
35.8 cm (14.1) TFT Non-Glare Type
Intel 915GM Chipset
80 GB Hard drive
Dual Layer DVD-RW Optical Drive
Realtek HD Sound Effect Manager 16 bit AC’97
Two speakers with chamber
WLAN: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG WLAN
External display (VGA) port VGA
USB 2.0 Ports (2)
Headphones/speaker/line-out jack, MIC/Line-in jack
LAN: Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet
Length: 31.5 cm, Width: 26 cm, Height/Thickness: 4 cm, Weight: 2.67 kg
Layout
The Sahara NB55131-CK76 is a sturdy looking laptop. Its body comprises of hard plastic and a few patches of rubberized plastic at the edges. The laptop has a matt finish which is seen throughout the body of the laptop. This finish respects the rough laptop concept not only with regard to looks but also with the features it offers. The laptop has fewer ports as compared to what other regular laptops offer, which is because this laptop isn’t meant especially for multi-media purposes and decision-making presentation.
At the far end of the left side of the laptop has a Kensington Lock followed by an air-vent which really didn’t make much of dissimilarity, the entire left portion below the keypad of the laptop been usually hot. Then there is a very oddly placed power port. Power ports in most laptops are seen at the end of the laptop or behind, while this is almost placed in the center of the left side of the laptop. There is a VGA port, a LAN port and a PC Card slot that completes the layout of the left side.
On the right side there is a Serial port followed by the Dual Layer DVD-RW. There is a slider lock on the DVD-RW panel apart from the Open/Close tray button. This is a switch to prevent the tray from ejecting in case of an accidental hit. Also, there is a Modem port followed by 2 USB 2.0 ports. There are just two USB 2.0 ports for the laptop which could call for problems with regards to the expansion slots just as I mentioned earlier.
The front panel of the laptop has just two audio jacks, one for Headphone/Line-Out and the other for MIC/Line-In. Beside these two audio jacks there’s a volume control wheel which looks very cheap. A little more towards the left on the edge there are three LEDs, they individually light up when power supply is plugged in, when the laptop is working on battery and when the laptop battery is being charged.
Under the lid of the laptop is a 14.1″ inch TFT screen. It is a Non-Glare type and sports a matt finish as well. Towards the top on either side of the screen there are clips to stay the top closed when it is shut. The laptop has an 83 key standard keypad. There are meaning keys only for the very basic jobs. Above the keypad there is a row of LEDs: HDD Activity, Optical Drive Activity, Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock. Next to these LEDs is the Power On switch and a backlit button in the direction of switch On/Off WLAN. The touchpad below the keypad is a little towards the left side. It has four buttons, one for a left and right clicks each. The other two buttons is a UP/DOWN scroll. There are roll areas on the touchpad as well.
Performance
The Sahara CK76 is a great performer, throw it from table height or spill a glass of water purposely and it will withstand it what would otherwise be torture to any other laptop. We dropped the laptop a number of times while the laptop was ON and with applications running in the background and we still didn’t face any problem. We even dropped the laptop when the lid was open and it survived the fall without any problem. That should summarize the shockproof feature of the laptop. We might just upload the video showing the same in a day or two. Watch this space again next week. As for the waterproof feature, we spilt a glass of water on the laptop and all we had to do was tilt the laptop and all the water just drained out. I think that explains well that the laptop is water and shock proof.
This rugged laptop has a 1.73 GHz processor, these days only the low end entry level laptops include this sort of a configuration. Even though this laptop’s concept revolves around ruggedness, it still requires bundling performance under its hood. The performance of this laptop is just average for the configuration and very low for the price. You will be able to work with standard word-processing and a few more applications. This laptop can’t be taxed with demanding games or demanding applications. The video memory is shared from the 512 MB stick and with the Intel 915 GM chipset so it’s never going to work wonders. That said and done, it will do all the basics in whichever environment you literally throw it into.
Battery Life
The battery package along with the laptop is a 9 cell Li-Ion. The battery claims to deliver 5 hours of backup time. The laptop with its low processing power kept the juices of the battery flowing for 4 hours easily. This was an effect under standard test conditions. The battery does a good job and being 9-cell with just that much of processing power it was expected.
Lastly, the purchase of such a laptop depends on the kind of work and the work environment. The Sahara NB55131-CK76 sells for Rs. 46,999 plus taxes that would sum up to around 55K. There are always better options but those are of course at a higher price. This is the cheapest rugged laptop with polite performance in this price range. The price includes a one year carry-in warranty as well. If this isn’t the kind of laptop you are looking for then one of our previous reviewed laptop might be a improved deal in the market as of now.
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