TOUGHBOOK CF-Y5 IS THE NEWEST ENTRY IN BUSINESS LAPTOP FOR PANASONIC - REVIEW

The Toughbook CF-Y5 is Panasonic's newest launch into the business rugged-notebook market where businesses may not mind investing a little bit more for something that will last and worth spending.

Design
The primary things we notice in this notebook is its weight. Including the power supply unit the laptop weighs just about 1.95kg, which is superb for a 14.1 inch LCD based laptop with a build in DVD writer. The CF-Y5 is also splash-resistant and Panasonic just stamps authority with this kind of feature laded onto the system. The laptop can also be dropped from an elevation of 30cm, although this isn't spectacular by any sense where in most cases notebook falls are likely to be from a desk more than double the height specified.

Performance
At the notebook's heart lies a low-voltage Core Duo L2400 processor pumping at 1.66GHz with 2MB L2 memory cache. Although this dual core chip may appear obsolete next to Core 2 Duo processors with 4MB memory cache, low-voltage Core 2 Duo chips have just recently started to appear public so it's no shock to see the CF-Y5 shipping with this CPU. Performance is ample for the majority of system tasks. The laptop scored a real disappointing score of 2,547 in PCmark05.
Despite its tough-guy gestures, the CF-Y5 is a very attractive laptop. As on the CF W5, the circular mouse pad is small but it performs really well. The 14.1 inch LCD screen has a native resolution of 1,400x1, 050 pixels giving a bigger desktop real-estate for documents. Unlike the CF-W5 and other tough books the backlight bleed, which results in an apparent gradient of color near the foot of a screen, is barely seen on this model.

The screen is powered by Intel GMA950 graphics chip set that dynamically propels with up to 224MB of system memory. The abounding 512MB of DDR2 553MHz Ram is parsimonious and we'd prefer 2GB at this price range; an upgrade to at minimum1GB is definitely recommended. A 60GB shock resistant hard disk drive is also added, while just a single slot is provided for PC card and SD cards.

The keyboard is inspiring for a notebook of this size. An in built 3G HSDPA slot for mobile broadband can be included, but the price then hikes to a heart-jabbing £2,260.

Overall
Panasonic CF-Y5 seems to be a costly effort. The pricing is too high; we would have loved to see the notebook be facilitated more for this demanding price. With decent display, and very minimal gaming features possible, this leaves very little to be admired about.

Pros
+ Design
+ Less weight of jusT 1.95kg
+ Inspiring Keyboard

Cons
- Too pricey
- 512 MB Ram never a great performance statement
- Least connectivity options

Value For Money

Our Rating