CTL

There's a ton of activity around Chromebooks for education at the moment thanks to a push by Google and partners, and toughness is trendy. CTL's been in the institutional Chromebook market for a while, though, and it's keeping up with the times with its "X" models -- variations on its standard models that incorporate a pressure-resistant cover that doubles as a whiteboard.

The latest in the lineup is the J5X, which throws just about everything current into a package that starts at $290 (I'm not sure if the company sells in the UK or Australia, but that price converts directly to about £230 and AU$385). It's a rugged convertible -- it has a 360-degree hinge so it can function as a tablet, presentation panel or plain-old touchscreen Chromebook -- with a cover that can withstand up to 300 pounds of pressure and a write-on wipe-off skin. It's rated for drops up to almost 2.5 ft/76 cm and keyboard flooding to up to about 11.2 oz/331 ml. And if you do successfully manage to damage it, it's covered by a 1-year accidental damage warranty.

Other specs include:

11.6-inch 1,366 x 768-pixel 16:9 IPS display with 5 touch points

Intel Braswell N3060 processor (bursts to 2.48 GHz)

4GB LPDDR3 RAM

32GB storage standard

Chrome OS

Combo audio jack

3 USB 3.0 ports

HDMI connector

microSD slot

HD webcam

Up to 10 hours of battery life

Serviceable battery

If you're in the education biz, you may qualify for CTL's "buy and try" discount program. If you just like the idea of a whiteboard on your laptop, you can roll your own with a magnetic dry erase sheet. Since everything's solid-state these days, you don't have to worry about wiping your hard drive with it.