While all those little pansy laptops have been getting busy with
Core 2 Duo for quite a while,
Panasonic is just now dropping a Core Duo processor into their flagship
ToughBooks, but they're still looking pretty dang Tough, so we'll go easy on the teasing. Both laptops sport "record breaking" brightness, with 550 nits in the CF-19 and 1,000 nits in the CF-30, supposedly the brightest LCD ever to be stuffed into a laptop, so neither laptop should be much trouble to read outdoors. The new CF-19 (pictured) follows up the Pentium M CF-18 with a 1.06GHz U2400 Core Duo processor, 80GB HDD, 512MB of RAM (with room for a handy 4GB total), a 10.4-inch XGA touchscreen in regular or Tablet PC configuration, EV-DO or HSDPA WWAN, Bluetooth 2.0, a/b/g WiFi and an optional GPS and fingerprint scanner. They've stuck with the same form factor, which measures 1.9-inches thick and weighs 5 pounds, though the standard battery life has been bumped up to 7 hours. The CF-30 (pictured after the break) matches its swivel-screen sibling quite well, though the luxury of a 13.3-inch XGA touchscreen, 1.66GHz L2400 Core Duo processor and slot for extra battery or disc drive will really cost you in the size department: the laptop measures 2.8-inches thick and weighs 8.2 pounds, while "only" managing 6 hours of battery. Of course, the main point of these things is their magnesium alloy cases, sealed keyboards and ports, and shock mounted screens and hard drives which makes them quite drop-kick ready, and jacks the price to $4,700 for the CF-30 and $4,200 for the CF-20. Both laptops should be out this December.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ROFLROFFLES @ Oct 16th 2006 6:28PM
I know it's supposed to be "tough" but that is totally overpriced.
David @ Oct 16th 2006 6:32PM
Ha! If it really is drop-kick ready, I wouldn't dare do it for fear of hurting my foot.
Paul @ Oct 16th 2006 7:03PM
We use the CF-29's at work... for the money it's a piece of crap.
Gr1zz @ Oct 16th 2006 7:04PM
I kinda wish i had a gaming version of this, but i doubt the market would be large enough to be profitable.
Hmmm....
HughJass @ Oct 16th 2006 7:40PM
Must the pictures be so large? I'm at 1280x1024 and they still aren't at their full size. Good thing I'm not on my Treo.
Brian @ Oct 16th 2006 7:49PM
The extra battery life will be nice... we use these things for SATCOM, and it's always nice when you aren't having to hand-charge a bunch of batteries...
boynamedsue @ Oct 16th 2006 7:56PM
these things suck. You don't feel like you're on a laptop as much as you feel you're on piece of camping equipment.
maybe thats the point, but i don't see any situation i could be in where my laptop has to be 'rugged' i can see having a sturdy protective case, but thats it.
khadden @ Oct 21st 2007 4:37PM
True about the sturdy case. And with the price of titanium and carbon fiber these days you would think you could get a high-end notebook (like a Dell XPS) with titanium edges and carbon fiber surfaces for under $2K. But that'll never happen in this industry.
Richard Lai @ Oct 16th 2006 8:08PM
Toughbook, tough price... At least you can kill someone with this brick without damaging it. ;)
Raider @ Oct 16th 2006 8:35PM
Nukes not included.
Martianman @ Oct 17th 2006 11:22AM
I support these computers in the Public Safety sector - specifically in police and fire vehicles. While they are expensive, we find that they are about the only laptop that we have tried that can put up with the extreme environments that they are faced with. These laptops work extremely well for us. Toughbooks really aren't made for the normal user, but are designed for actual use in the field. We have Toughbook tablets and notebooks in use 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with very little problems.
alex @ Oct 18th 2006 9:02AM
Lots of people discussing laptops with built-in EVDO hardware over at our EVDO FORUMS -- http://www.EVDOforums.com !
The EVDO EXPERTS are at http://www.EVDOinfo.com !
Nikhil Soni @ Apr 26th 2007 9:09AM
Dear Sir,
I have some quaries about EVDO & HPDPA
1) How does it works in Panasonic CF-19 & CF-30 Series
2) It is worked by 3G technologies also can it work in india???????
3) If it is possible please give me full details of both with it photograph
Blathering1 @ Jan 19th 2007 4:35PM
Got it-- the Toughbook Advantage sheet-- check out the Panasonic vs the Lenovo vs the Dell!
Vastly different-- of course they should be since they cost twice as much--- but then what does a unit failing cost?
http://www.usatcorp.com/products/USAT%20Panasonic%20Toughbook%20Advantage.pdf
Blathering1 @ Jan 19th 2007 4:36PM
The Toughbook 30 is a very solid machine, respectable performance, rugged as hell, getting a bit heavy (the 19 is much much better weight wise) with a superb battery life—and a second battery option. I have demo'd one of these units from USAT Corp. and it feels very solid. Is it as fast as my Toughbook 74? No but my 74 also doesn't like to swim and hates being kicked!
If you want to look at advanced, the demo USAT lent me for a few weeks had internal 1x-EVDO Sprint wireless. You couldn't even see it was there! and you can have GPS and WLAN in it at the same time.
FWIW-- this company USAT, at www.usatcorp.com let me use a demo of the Toughbook 30 to see if the unit would work for me. No one else seems to do this-- and it is the only way to really evaluate performance. Specs are just a tiny piece of the picture!
I am waiting on the embedded EVDO Rev a modules which just started shipping this month according to my rep at USAT.
If you have the need for absolute reliability-- these cannot be topped. Check out Panasonic's stats in the their "toughbook advantage" sheet-- these units blow the screens off most laptops in terms of failure rates. I will look for a link to this doc...
Blathering1 @ Jan 19th 2007 4:39PM
Go it-- the Toughbook Advantage sheet is here:
Check out Panasonic vs Lenovo vs dell!
But then the units cost twice as much as one of these-- then again what does failure cost?
http://www.usatcorp.com/products/USAT%20Panasonic%20Toughbook%20Advantage.pdf
Meistro @ Apr 3rd 2007 9:40AM
I have the CF-19. $3,900 shipped. Steep, very steep! I tell ya though, for what this thing has been through the last 2 months, I would have spent that replacing the std. laptop. My favorite episode was the time it fell down 20 or so steel steps on a jobsite. I thought for sure it was toast. Half way down, picking up momentum, smacked the concrete floor after skipping the last 3 steps. 2 workers onsite happened to witness the drama and you could see the sadness as they stood there, "hope there was nothing important on there" one said. My stomach dropped until I powered it on. My main selling point to my company was it would outlast my other laptops, which by the way cost as much as this one with added repairs throughout the last year, plus not having it while its out at the repair facility. I purchased the additional 3 year protection for $300. 100 a year and in any event of damage, it gets fixed at no cost to me. No matter what!! I had to use this service already once. I dropped it while it was powered on and the hard drive didn't like that. Blue Screen. I called Panasonic on a Sunday, very nice folks by the way. On Tues I had a box arrive with a prepaid FedEx label. On Friday, I recieved it back. I was only down a week. Don't drop these while their powered on. The HD is definitly the weakest link on these. Somebody design a solid state 80GB HD!!!
Andrew @ Oct 12th 2007 12:32AM
Yes I know that dreaded line - "I hope nothing important was on there"
And since I work in the tech support area for a hospital, I find myself saying that a lot. Then again our users are supposed to keep their personal data on their private folders on our server, which is backed up daily, so I often say it with a smirk ;-)
cuddlyknife @ Feb 19th 2008 1:58AM
thank god we invented cities where we can herd all the drones together who think a new coloured ipod is worth a comment let alone a second glance and 40 year old men who play with X stations
now all we need is the manufacturers of this mass produced crap to resrict launch days to weekends or bank holdays and lif eould be joyous (or invent crop dusters that only work on those with mock-hican hair cuts)
*sigh* just think of the agonising death throes :0))
Ky @ May 19th 2008 7:10PM
I have had numerous CF-18's and given them all a hard life they are very tough but I now have a CF-30 and after dropping it once from approx 2 feet it no longer works, not very tough at all really is it.