Economical semi-rugged notebook with near desktop performance
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

Twinhead is a large, experienced Taiwanese notebook manufacturer that has been supplying a number of major US companies and resellers with rugged and semi-rugged notebook computers since 1989. Twinhead has a subsidiary in Fremont, California and is now also selling its products directly (hence the trendy new "Durabook" name). The Twinhead Durabook N1400 is roughly the same size and weight as the formidable Toughbook CF-73, has an attractive magnesium case, a 14.1-inch display, a powerful (but power-hungry) 2.6GHz mobile Pentium 4, excellent connectivity including S-Video, Firewire, three USB 2.0 ports, and a built-in 802.11b wireless LAN module. Yet, the N1400 offers impressive ruggedness specs. Other N14xx versions have different processors (AND Athlon, Intel Centrino) and slightly different specs.