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ThinkPad T or W series, if Panasonic still makes Toughbooks you could consider those.

Toughbooks - they used to be quite expensive - anyway, a Toughbook would be an overkill (as I don't plan on going Desert Storming or something).

Thinkpads: a 14" i3 with 4GB of RAM is $829.99 in my neck of the woods (yeah, the joys of buying computers in Canada...) Way too expensive.

Oh, I missed the "few hundred dollars" requirement. That's far more constraining than your toughness wish.