We beat up a rugged EDU Chromebook and then dropped it off the roof [VIDEO]

Ruggedized Chromebooks are nothing new at this point. We’ve seen these classroom-ready devices in all sorts of shapes, forms and sizes over the years. And we’ve also taken the claims that manufacturers make about them at face value the entire time, too. To be fair, I always assumed the claims about the ability to survive water, 4-foot drops and a bit of stress on the chassis were all legit for all of these rugged Chromebooks. But then again, we’ve never really tested it out, either. So, we thought it was time to do just that and then some.

Putting ruggedness to the test

For our initial tests, we wanted to prove that the advertised claims actually stand up to some pretty intense handling. In a controlled setting, we tested the strength of the HP Chromebook 11 MK EE G9’s (ugh, Chromebook names) anchored key caps, the ability for the device to resist a full cup of water (nearly 12 ounces), the ability of the hinge to absorb incredibly rough handling, and finally the Chromebook’s ability to withstand some pretty nasty 4-foot drops onto hardwood.

All of these characteristics are listed on HP’s official spec sheet for this particular Chromebook, so we stayed completely within bounds of what the manufacturer claims it can withstand. The latter parts of our testing strays far outside those boundaries, but we’ll get to that afterwards. For these initial tests, we really wanted to take HP (and all other EDU Chromebook makers for that matter) up on their assertions that these rugged Chromebooks can handle a beating.

The rugged Chromebook passed with flying colors

And handle a beating it did! Sure, I was able to pry off a key cap with a butter knife, but attempting to do so with just my hands felt nearly impossible. The ridiculous amount of water spilled directly on the keyboard and trackpad, the holding of the device by the corner of the display, and the multiple drops from around 4-feet had no ill effect on the device whatsoever.

Our qualification for passing each test was the ability for the Chromebook to still compute afterwards, and with each one, the device kept plugging away just fine. Apart from the missing key cap, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell that we put it through some serious stress.

So that concluded our initial tests with some very impressive results. At the end of the day, you can feel quite confident that these rugged Chromebooks are capable of withstanding ridiculous amounts of abuse and are able to keep functioning just fine in the aftermath. I expected the water or the drops to pose a problem, but I was very impressed by the ability of this Chromebook to take a beating and just keep getting back up off the mat.

Taking it to the next level

For the next part of the video, we really wanted to get a specific point across: though rugged Chromebooks can take a serious beating, they are not indestructible. The drop-ready and spill-resistant chassis can only take so much, and we wanted to put that to the test.

So, in an effort to prove this out, we took to the roof of a nearby apartment building, a solid 2.5 stories off the ground, and dropped the Chromebook on the asphalt from the top. It was a little nerve-wracking and a lot of fun, but the end result was a technically broken Chromebook.

I say ‘technically’ because to our complete surprise, nearly all of the chassis was still intact after the huge fall. The display cracked and we couldn’t get the display output to function any more, so the Chromebook was definitely unusable after this test. Still, we lost no more keys, we had very little breakage in the chassis, and there’s a chance that a replaced screen might have brought life back to the device.

And then we did it again. At this point, the device was toast, so we went for one more drop to see if we could get the huge explosion of plastic we were expecting. But this Chromebook wasn’t ready to fall apart, and most of it stayed together and held up even upon another 2.5-story drop. This time around, parts of the base and lid did separate, but it was far less destructive than you would expect.

While it goes to show you these Chromebooks aren’t invincible, it does show just how crazy-rugged they actually are. If you are buying one of these for a school or for a student, keep that in mind. Sure, you should still treat it like a laptop and be careful with it whenever possible. But you can also take a bit of a breath, relax, and know that these rugged Chromebooks are ready to take on the worst treatment and live to tell about it.