Review: Otter Product’s Rugged Laptop Case

By Chief Gizmateer
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

The Geeks have reviewed a couple of Otterbox products including the Waterproof PDA Case and the Waterproof Nano and Mini iPod Cases. Otterbox sent us a pre-production model of their new Laptop Case. In the past, I’ve tested the Otterbox products at the pool, the shower, the tub and sink… well, this time I pitted the Otterbox product against the Cartecay River in the north Georgia mountains.

So, for a review of Otter Products there are three areas I check. First, does the case actually support devices that the product information claims? Second, how durable and rugged is the case? Finally, is the case waterproof?

The laptop case model the Geeks received to review claim that a 15″ widescreen laptop will fit in the case. Using a Dell Latitude D820 (which is a 15″ widescreen laptop) and moving the “bumpers” to the extremes inside the case, I was able to confirm that the laptop does in fact fit in the case. The laptop case even closes! Otter Products also claims that you can use your laptop while the laptop is in the case. This sentence and most of the review has been written while the laptop is seated in the case. While the laptop is usable, the case hurts your arms as they lay across the case. As far as being able to access parts of the laptop while seated in the case, I was unable to open my DVD-writer as it hit one of the “bumpers” but I was able to access the smartcard and PCMCIA slots on the left side of the laptop. The back of the laptop is accessible via the back port but there is no way to plug in a VGA monitor or use the IR port.

Read on to see how the Otterbox Rugged Laptop Case performed.

Source: Gizmos for Geeks