Panasonic has been making fully rugged U.S. military standard 810F notebooks for a number of years, catering to those that need to take their computer into some of the most extreme environments in the world. Recently, Panasonic introduced the fully rugged Toughbook CF-30. It features a 13.3″ XGA anti-glare and anti-reflective coating screen rated at 500 Nit (candelas per square meter, which measures brightness) and an industry first and only 1000 Nit touchscreen version, both sporting a 1.66GHz L2400 Low Voltage Core Duo processor, 512MB RAM, and 80GB HDD. The entire chassis with exception to the keyboard, and screen is made from magnesium alloy and comes with fully sealed keyboard, ports and hard drive making it ready for any conditions it faces regardless if its indoors, outdoors, snow, rain, dust… you get the idea. However, the downside to all this added protection is its bulkiness and hefty weight of 8 pounds. Read the rest of this entry »

The Panasonic ToughBook T4 notebook computer is part of the semi-rugged line of Toughbooks; the line that includes the W4 recently reviewed by this site. The T4 is a fraternal twin of the W4 — the more business-oriented twin. With a 12.1″ 4:3 aspect screen (as opposed to the W4’s widescreen), no disc drive, and a claimed battery life of 9+ hours, the Panasonic Toughbook T4 is aimed squarely at serious business use. Let’s see if it delivers. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently had an opportunity to test a Panasonic ToughBook W4 laptop, the latest ultraportable laptop that is a part of the acclaimed Panasonic ToughBook Series.  Panasonic produces an array of innovative and unique laptops geared towards the business user.  The ToughBook series is divided into two classes:  rugged and semi-rugged.  The W4 is part of their semi-rugged laptop series.  These semi-rugged laptops are built to withstand the drops and bumps that the mobile business person may endure. Read the rest of this entry »

The Panasonic Toughbook W2 isn’t terribly new, but they have recently added a flash of color to the lineup with the new eLite series. The lids now come in scratch resistant black, red, silver and white, but you wouldn’t know it from Panasonic’s website which doesn’t promote these new flavors in the least. The W2 is still strong though, the full magnesium alloy case makes the W2 the most durable ultra portable on the market. Toss in the shock mounted hard drive and a weight of only 2.8 pounds, the W2 is quite popular amongst business travelers all over the world. Read the rest of this entry »