I avoid loyalty to any particular brand, but Pelican makes incredibly durable cases that are unrivaled by anything I (and many anecdotal others) have seen. If you really need to protect something, they are worth the money.
In my experience, things that leave pelican cases in smoking ruins were unable to destroy zero halliburton products. I was sufficiently impressed that I switched luggage brands.
Zero halliburton camera cases that can be used for this project start at about 400$ a small Pelican camera case is 50-60$....
Zero halliburton makes very nice (looking) primarily aluminum cases but they are not waterproof (IIRC ZH makes no waterproof luggage unlike Samsonite for example).
If you are designing your DYI rugged laptop around a ZH attache case you might as well buy a Panasonic ToughBook it would probably be cheaper than the case.
So I really don't know what james bond style activities you perform that left a Pelican case a smoking rubble but you don't want to compare a designer brand that sells Iphone cases for 100$ and laptop messenger bags for 300$ to a tool company like Pelican.
If you're worried about water, pelican tests their cases to be IP57, IP66, or IP67 rated. I don't see anything about that kind of testing on the zero halliburton site. Also my gut worry is that aluminimum cases w/ metal framed closures would have a tendency to accumulate damage and leak over time more easily than the plastic Pelican cases.
Works fine on my HP Stream 11 with Mint Xfce in Chrome with uMatrix blocking everything except zerohaliburton.com. Scrolling isn't super smooth, but more than usable.
At some point in the past (maybe when they were purchased by ACE?), Zero Halliburton decided to decrease the maximum stress their joints were designed to handle. These days, it's very easy to break a ZH case compared to a pelican, especially when open. Most ZH bags aren't watertight either.
ZH is aesthetically superior to Pelican in my opinion, but I trust pelican more to keep my gear safe and dry.
I've got a 3rd-hand Halliburton case from the 60s(?) and love it. The main issue is that it really freaks out flight attendants on international flights, because everyone knows that you put bombs in aluminum briefcases.
Yes they are the iconic "spy attaches" from TV and movies.
They are also very iconic of the luxury early trans atlantic and early jet age era of air travel.
Halliburton used to make some really good luggage today I don't really know, I'm all for buying good luggage it's one of the reasons that I buy samsonite they last for years and even decades but 1200$ on a suitcase is beyond what I would ever be willing to spend especially considering that there are better and cheaper options out there.
