Police1’s Spotlight articles introduce the products and services of a valued sponsor in their own words. This article shines a spotlight on Durabook, a company with headquarters in Fremont, California. Its signature products, Durabook R10 fully-rugged tablet and S14I semi-rugged laptop, assist law enforcement agencies improve workflows and make things easier, helping you protect and serve the public while keeping data and people safe in real time.
Where did your company name originate from?
The Durabook name reflects exactly what our devices are built to do: remain durable and dependable in the real world. From patrol vehicles and roadside stops to command posts and outdoor scenes, law enforcement operates in environments where consumer-grade devices fail. Durabook rugged devices are designed to withstand those conditions and keep working when officers need them most.
What was the inspiration behind starting your company?
Durabook is the core rugged computing brand of Twinhead International Corporation, a publicly listed Taiwan-based company with more than 40 years of experience in computing hardware.
Twinhead began supplying computing devices to demanding industries in 1984 and introduced its first military-grade rugged laptop in 2000. The Durabook brand followed in 2002, created specifically to address environments where reliability, longevity and consistency matter more than form factor trends.
Today, Durabook supports organizations worldwide, including U.S. military branches, law enforcement and public safety agencies, and field-based industries such as utilities, energy, logistics, healthcare and transportation.
What is your signature product and how does it work?
Our signature solutions for law enforcement are the R10 fully rugged tablet and the S14I semi-rugged laptop, together supporting the full mobile workflow from the patrol vehicle to the field and back to the station.
The R10 is designed for on-scene and curbside operations. Officers rely on it during traffic stops, crash investigations, outdoor incidents and mobile command situations where mobility and durability are essential. The tablet features a bright, outdoor-readable display that remains visible in direct sunlight, along with glove and wet-touch modes that support real-world conditions. Hot-swappable batteries enable uninterrupted use during extended shifts and unplanned incidents. Optional expansion modules and integrated readers allow agencies to access CAD and RMS, scan IDs, capture photos and connect with body-worn or in-car camera systems without slowing operational tempo. As a flexible 2-in-1 solution, the R10 also supports a detachable keyboard, allowing officers to quickly switch between tablet mobility in the field and laptop-style productivity for report writing and data entry.
The S14I serves as the primary in-vehicle mobile workstation and is FirstNet Ready, supporting reliable connectivity for law enforcement operations that depend on priority communications. Built for patrol, supervision and investigative work, the S14I delivers the performance needed for CAD, mapping, report writing and evidence review. Its large, bright display remains readable in full daylight, under scene lighting and during nighttime operations – supporting accurate data entry and situational awareness throughout a shift. Designed to withstand vibration, bumps and environmental exposure common to vehicle-based use, the S14I balances rugged durability with portability. Agencies can configure removable storage for data security and select from a wide range of native ports to support vehicle docks, antennas and legacy peripherals – reducing reliance on adapters and ensuring seamless integration with existing fleet technology.
Why do you believe your products are essential to the police community?
Every minute matters in public safety, so uptime, visibility and connectivity are critical. Our devices are designed to stay on through long operations with batteries that can be swapped in seconds. Displays remain readable outdoors and in harsh lighting so officers tap accurately the first time. Modern cellular, Wi Fi, GPS and a rich set of ports help maintain reliable links to CAD and RMS whether an officer is on foot, in the vehicle or inside a building. For sensitive data, agencies can use removable solid state drives and modern authentication to protect case files and evidence. All of this is backed by a three-year warranty that helps departments control lifecycle costs and keep more units in service.
What has been the biggest challenge your company has faced?
One of the biggest challenges has been managing supply chain volatility and cost pressures, including tariffs, while maintaining predictable availability and long-term support for law enforcement agencies.
Durabook addressed this by strengthening forecasting and maintaining regular production schedules, allowing us to offer short lead times – typically 3–5 business days for in-stock systems and 4–6 weeks for custom configurations. We continue to manage lifecycle costs carefully to ensure agencies receive consistent pricing, dependable repairs and long-term product support throughout the life of their devices.
What makes your company unique?
Durabook is unique. We are solely focused on rugged mobile hardware solutions – rugged laptops and tablets. We have all resources focusing on laptops and tablets, best to fulfill the needs of those procuring these devices. Durabook also owns its own manufacturing facilities to fabricate its rugged computers, allowing it to be a more responsive partner for its resellers and customers.
What makes us unique can be combined as follows:
- 40+ years’ experience in the manufacturing of personal computers and peripherals.
- 20+ years in developing ruggedized solutions for heavy-use environments.
- Strong in-house R&D team and system design capabilities and dedication to drive innovation.
- Having completed development and production facilities.
- Customization capability to meet in-field performance.
- Purpose-built solutions for unique requirements.
What do your customers like best about you and your products?
Our clients are constantly excited to know that they are reaching an actual person. Our customer service response time is immediate and quick. Customers also say that we are easy to work with. They love that our quotes are line itemized out like a menu and they are not billed for unnecessary items.
What is the most rewarding part of serving the first responder community?
Most importantly, providing an affordable and accurately specified device to serve a purpose for those in service to the community and the government; allowing their services to be done with ease to save lives are the most rewarding parts. Also, Durabook’s rugged computers are more affordable and we can be sensitive to the budget constraints faced by many agencies. This allows more agencies to implement mobile computing technology reliably.
Is there any fun fact or trivia that you’d like to share about your company?
You can see in our company video that Durabook is a globally diverse organization, with team members from multiple cultures working together across regions. That diversity brings broader perspective into product design, customer support and how we serve agencies worldwide.
What’s next for your company? Any upcoming new projects or initiatives?
As a manufacturer of rugged laptops and tablets for public safety, our role is to ensure field-ready devices can reliably support the next generation of operational software, including AI-enabled applications. Public safety technology is increasingly moving processing out of centralized data centers and onto edge devices, where real-time performance and offline capability are critical. Devices like the R10 tablet and S14I laptop are engineered to provide the compute headroom, thermal design and power management required to run on-device assistants, computer vision and speech applications directly in the field.
Our roadmap is centered on secure, dependable edge computing. We continue to invest in processors, accelerators and system architectures that support fast local inference while preserving data ownership through removable storage, strong authentication and modern encryption. We design our devices to integrate cleanly with existing CAD and RMS ecosystems, allowing agencies to adopt advanced capabilities without disrupting established workflows.
Built-in support for human review, auditability and transparent system behavior reflects our belief that trust, reliability and accountability are as essential as performance in public safety environments. Our goal is straightforward: deliver rugged, mission-ready devices that help law enforcement officers and agencies act faster, stay focused in the field,and protect sensitive information from curbside operations to the station.