Question Need a Lightweight waterproof laptop

Blacksky

Standard Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2013
Messages
69
Reaction score
1
Points
38
Hi guys, I am a writer with no car and I need to find myself a cheap waterproof laptop for typing. Because I only need it for professional writing it doesn't have to be new or powerful, but it does have to have a full-sized keyboard and be something I can carry home. It would also help a lot if it had a long battery life, but not necessary.

The only programs it needs to be able to run are Open Office and my music player.

Thanks in advance, guys!
 
Last edited:
Cheap is IMHO going to be just about impossible for a laptop that is lightweight (depends on what you call lightweight though) and with a long battery life (again depends on what you call long life). As for waterproof, well I doubt it unless spending a lot of money. All of these features are the things you are only likely to find on high end laptops rather than entry level.
I have the Sony Vaio Pro 13. It is around 1Kg in weight and has a rated 8 hour battery life, but is not waterproof. This is far from cheap though as it cost me around £1,000 so adding waterproof to the list is going to bump up the price again.

You may find something suitable second hand, but that will be pure luck.

Mark.
 
Full waterproofing (IP_5 and above) is a pretty niche feature on a laptop and generally only found on expensive and niche rugged models. Is that what you need or is something more modest acceptable? Drainage channels under the keyboard to deal with drink spills are much more common for example.
 
Unfortunately, I'm very, very clumsy with drinks, but having a pot of tea is the only way I can really type. I've already busted two laptops by spilling drinks on the table and not noticing, as well as having several near misses where I spilt tea on the keyboard and had to give up typing until it dried out, so unfortunately it has to be pretty waterproof. My current laptop is very waterproof, but it is very bulky.

I know this is an expensive feature, and that few lightweight laptops have it, but I don't mind if the laptop itself is a really old windows XP or Vista one as long as I can carry it and it has a nice keyboard for typing. A battery life of four or five hours would also be fine.
 
Ok, I think maybe I should forget about cheap. If it helps, I can narrow it down to just the most important three:

Lightweight
Waterproof
Comfortable-size keyboard.

Can anyone help? It doesn't need to be modern or powerful as I really just need it for typing and nothing else.
 
I don't think any lightweight laptops have it, only rugged models. You might be better of with a setup that means you can quickly replace a broken laptop as it's likely to be cheaper buying cheap laptops even if you kill one every six months.

I did have a quick look around but the lightest thing I could see that would likely have a full sized keyboard was Dell's Latitude 14 Rugged. While it would have been a mid-range weight by the standards of XP-era laptops it's among the heavier laptops about today at 2.95kg. Even that's not fully waterproof but it does claim IP52 rather than just spill-proof.

Dell do a Latitude 12 Rugged Extreme that's slightly lighter (2.75kg) but I don't know if the keyboard would be a full sized one and as it's fully rugged it's also 50% more expensive.

Alternatively, you could swap the table for one with holes in so much less of the fluid reaches the laptop.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom