~Toughbooktalk~

Scored an S10 on our favorite auction site. It is light and fast, just what I need for travelling. Slightly bigger than a netbook, doesn't have the handstrap and bottom bulge of a C1, and doesn't have the thick display lid the later T/W series. Sort of a Goldilocks size, not too large or too small. I got a W8 a while back when they were being dumped for around $400 but when it arrived I was disappointed the display was much thicker than I imagined, taking too much space to slide into my travelling backpack alongside my employer's Dell as a 2nd personal unit. But the S10 top is not much more than 1/4" thick, thinner than any Toughbook I've tried (and that's most of them, see my tagline).

Dropped in a Kingston 64GB SSD for now and loaded Win 7 Pro 64-bit from a CF-53 image. With 4 GB memory on a Core i5-2520 @ 2.5 GHz it boots in 14-15 seconds. Pretty snappy. 3 pounds including a DVD with 12 hour battery life!

Think I might write a review on this S10 after it goes travelling with me, if anyone's interested.

Sounds good, I haven't played with that one yet. A few months back I got a T7 and a W8. Still doing some testing on the T7 as the SSD in windows index score shows 7.7 not 5.8 like other toughbooks I have. I downloaded crystal disk mark but I couldn't get it to run. Keeps trying to open it with firefox, all other programs work fine. I have tried several tricks and I hasn't swapped back. I will get back on trying to get that straight this time home.

Right on Ken. Sounds like a nice unit. It will be interesting to read your review if you do one.

If things go good, I will have one next month. CF-S10CDHEDM is the unit I am looking at. Basically brand new, private sale, under a grand.

One question Ken. How did the black coating (paint) on the lid appear for wear, scratches, etc? Thinking I might have to get a sleeve for mine.

mklym wrote:How did the black coating (paint) on the lid appear for wear, scratches, etc? Thinking I might have to get a sleeve for mine.

Probably a good idea. It's black semi-gloss paint, not very scratch resistant like the baked-on finish of the fully rugged models. Mine has some scuffs and scrapes on the top, not too bad but definitely not new looking. The rest does look like new. Same silver finish (alloy and plastic) as the previous T and W series.

Another thing I noticed, it does not have a port for an external mini-dock. I bought one for my W8 but never used it so it's not a negative for me, but someone who switches from on-the-go to in-the-office alot might miss that. But there are good USB universal docks out there if you really need one.

Thanks for the feedback. That is sort of what I figured after looking at the unit. I will get a sleeve for it, maybe even check into some of the new Pelican cases.

Ya, I noticed that as well. Bit of a disappointment as I am going to use it hooked to my 27" ASUS LED monitor, as well as on the go. Will have to look at what is available in the USB docks.

mklym wrote:I am going to use it hooked to my 27" ASUS LED monitor . . .

It does have both HDMI and VGA video outputs, so you'e OK there. Just need a USB hub for external keyboard, mouse, printer, and external HDD. (Might get a little traffic jam trying to use all those at the same time )

With all of that it sounds like mini dock time if that model supports that.

So how has the past week been w/your CF-S10?

Have not used it much except to upgrade the SSD to a used Intel 330 160GB. Already had a CF-53 that I really like for around the house, so the S10 may not get much use until my next trip out of town.

Picked up an old W2 the other day and was noticing how similar they are in size and function. May have to include direct comparison to W2 and C1 as part of the review.

Okay, no worries, I was only curious. A side by side comparison would be cool.