There is provided a housing for a rugged handheld device, which includes: a main housing including: a main circuit board space sealed from an exterior environment, for supporting a main circuit board; and a compartment space for supporting a removable compartment for holding a device component for operation of the handheld device, such as a docking connector board, a display assembly, a keyboard assembly, where the compartment space is sealed from the external environment by a removable compartment cover for sealing the compartment space from the exterior environment, independently from the sealing of the main circuit board space and/or the device component placed into the compartment space.