PANASONIC ANNOUNCES TOUGHBOOK W8 PREMIUM EDITION

Panasonic has just announced an updated Premium Edition of its W8 Toughbook notebook in Japan. The major difference of this Premium Edition from the original is the introduction of an Intel X-25M 80GB Solid State Drive which offers 250MB/s reading speed and 70MB/s writing speed. The standard edition had a 120GB HDD.

This new addition of SSD makes the Panasonic W8 Toughbook Premium Edition 15 grams lighter and faster than the original edition that came with a HDD. This Premium Edition is encased in a high strength aluminum shell and comes in three colors, black, silver and an eye-popping pink.

The Panasonic W8 Primium Edition is packed with Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300 processor, up to 4GB of RAM and includes Bluetooth and WiFi.

As Panasonic has not given any other information on the specifications of its new Toughbook, we have to assume that it is similar to the standard edition in all other aspects. The W8 Premium Edition will be released in Japan on March 27th and will be priced at about $3,400. The release date for other markets is not yet known.

PANASONIC TOUGHBOOK TOUGHENS UP

For those whose daily work includes ducking under sniper fire, traveling to Iraq and dropping your notebook on a daily basis than you've probably been interested in the Panasonic Toughbook for a long time.

PANASONIC TOUGHBOOK Y7 REVIEW

The much awaited update to Y5, the Panasonic Toughbook Y7 is a on-the-move notebook which lets executives accomplish tasks easily while on the go.

Design
Widely known for being light weight, this notebook from Panasonic weighed only 3.7 pounds, much lighter than it actually looked. The design is trademark Panasonic rough-and-tumble one, which provides it with a sturdy base. The screen is a 14.1 inch with a maximum resolution of 1440x1050 which is decent enough for most of your productivity tasks. The anti-glare feature has been added to the screen which makes it an excellent view even in bright light. However, the effective anti-glare reduced the color vibrancy and richness. The connectivity includes 2 USB ports, SD memory card reader, Ethernet, headphone/MIC, VGA and Modem. The keyboard has been effectively designed to support quick touch typing and the spacious design would definitely make it a favorite amongst many.

Performance
Powered by the 1.6Ghz Intel Core-2-Duo L7500, 2GB RAM, 80 GB hard drive, the specifications of the notebook failed to make a mark, especially after the high price of $2,500+ . The overall performance was good, with the laptop able to multi-task with ease amongst various applications like media player, Document editor, Browser etc. The low 3DMark score of 1,040 is a clear indication of the systems incapability of giving good gaming or graphical performance. As per an ultraportable, the results were decent, but not something which should be given out for $2,000+.

Overall
The Panasonic Toughbook Y7 is a decent notebook with exceptional endurance and strength. The battery life is also great at nearly 6 hours at power saver, another example of its endurance. But apart from the positives, there is nothing which should justify the high price tag, not even the good portability.

Pros
+ Super portable and light weight
+ Long battery life

Cons
- High price
- Poor graphics

Value For Money

Our Rating

RUGGED SERIES NOTEBOOKS UPGRADED- PANASONIC

Panasonic today upgraded its rugged series notebook, the Toughbook 19 Convertible Tablet PC. This is the next generation Toughbook rechristened as 19F joins hands with existing flagship Series of Toughbook the 30F laptop with the power loaded Core 2 Duo processor and expanded memory.

Tough book 19 also features an optional in-built camera to be used in inspection and confrontation records applications for which the convertible tablet has been widely deployed in military and commercial applications. These MIL SPEC-certified laptops sports all new magnesium alloy cases, and an all sealed keyboards and ports, hard drive heaters, elastic internal connectors and shock-mounting’ that combine to deliver the highest levels of reliability.

The Toughbook-19 convertible tablet pc and the Toughbook-30 laptop include an anti-glare, anti-reflective sunlight viewable screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a mobile WWAN design, loaded with backlit keyboard, GPS wireless and many more options.
The Toughbook-19F is launched now for $3,199. The Toughbook-19 with inbuilt camera will be made available from May 2008 with an anticipated street price of $3,699.

PANASONIC TOUGHBOOK R7 REVIEW

The Panasonic Toughbook R7 is not the regular kind of notebook you can take home at Best Buy. It’s a Japanese model imported all the way in to the US market and it’s pretty exclusive in that it’s even more portable than an ultra-portable at present like the Apple MacBook Air. Is it worth the entire claim? Check that out.

Design
The R7 is designed solely to offer an amazing battery life while still being capable for day-to-day works, unlike the regular handheld PC or any similar ones. It’s being offered in eleven different colors and enormous configurations are made available.

Though Panasonic doesn’t offer any guarantees regarding the R7’s ability to withstand specific intense testing, it does take claim that an R7 in its test lab was strong enough to withstand 110lbs. and even an 11.8” drop. The hard drive is also shock-mounted to help it behave rugged at times of a head-on crash in case the laptop is dropped.

Performance
Despite its tinny, tiny footprint the R7 is actually packs in a decent punch of power for a laptop of this size. It’s loaded with a Centrino, and hence it has an Intel chipset CPU and even wireless connectivity. The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo processor at clocking speed of 1.2GHz, and it’s the low-voltage mod that sips very little battery juice. It comes with a memory launch of 1GB of RAM, 80211.G wireless and a 160GB hard drive.

As a mega-portable laptop, the R7 does give away some expandability options to the gods of portability. The biggest drawback of them all is that it lacks an optical drive, which is very much a common for laptops of this size. However, it does offer the luxury of two USB ports, VGA-out, Gigabit Ethernet and it even has an expansion slot. Not only can you get more hard disk space, but you can also get an R7 with a bigger capacity hard drive, an even slightly faster CPU and Vista Business instead of the present XP Pro (though we wouldn’t recommend it unless you plan to get upgraded to 2GB of RAM).

The only thing that hindered us when using it for common tasks was the keyboard and the irritating fact that it is really small. A lot of the keys are much smaller than usual, which is to be anticipated, but it makes typing a real difficult task.

Conclusion
The Toughbook R7 is certainly a distinctive laptop in that it combines 2 characteristics portability and ruggedness. We really admire how light and portable it is, and boosted with its 5-plus hours of battery life are just simply great. This is the kind of laptop you could afford to carry with you all day and never need to plug in and stay beside for frequent charging.

Pros
+ Extremely portable
+ Exuberant battery life
+ Amazing 11 color options

Cons
- Expensive to the extremes
- Keyboard is too little to be comfy

Value For Money

Our Rating

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

PANASONIC CF-W7 REVIEW

Notebooks are famous throughout the globe, whereas toughbooks are gaining more and more appreciation from many sides. It is the sleek and compact look that gives the toughbooks a higher degree of attention. Panasonic laptops generally targets constructions workers, but are soon becoming popular among young chaps. The latest Panasonic Toughbook CF-W7 will be available in the market by end of February at around £1,500, which is highly intended on business people

Design
The case itself speaks for the design and the quality. The big display hinge along with the battery is the dominant feature in the design. The look is very decent and the speakers that are present on the either side below the screen are indeed different and they look decent. The Toughbook CF-W7 tips the scales at a Kylie-esque 1.2Kg. After you open a lid you'll find a comfortable Qwerty keyboard that is spill resistant. The mouse is far smaller than one you'd get on any ordinarly laptops, so you need to use more finger strokes than you may actually use on laptops with larger trackpad surfaces. The DVD rewriter drive is accessible to the right side of the mouse, and is a rather bizarre flip-up model, which is reminiscent of a car bonnet.

Performance
The Panasonic CF-W7 is as sluggish as weekday morning full rush hour traffic. Its low-end CPU and the questionable RAM space may hep it stutter to an underwhelming PCMark05 of 908 in total. 3DMark06 returned a score of 112 that is more analytic of an asthmatic than any usual laptop. The outcome of such slow processing power is long battery life. The CF-W7 kept gulping away for about 308 minutes in our BatteryEater test that is actually over five hours. With extremely restrained usage and least screen brightness, we would estimate this laptop could last for couple of hours more.

Conclusion
Panasonic Toughbook CF-W7 is a great and packed in device for household, family and small office purposes.

Pros
+ Attractive Design
+ Sturdy

Cons
- Expensive
- Poor performance quality

Value For Money

Our Rating

PANASONIC TOUGHBOOK Y2

The notebook revolution in thin arena is what people call the introduction of Panasonic Toughbook Y2 as. Panasonic is a silent player. Every time it comes with a Toughbook, with tough features for the competitors and light features for those who use it. The best part of this notebook is the exceptionally great battery life. The battery runs up to five full hours. The thinnest and the lightest - all these names can be made completely owned by these series of notebooks from the vision progressing company. The design says about them being very progressive in outlook and appearance. The optical drive location is exceptionally good.

The features that do not cater the needs of receiving appreciation are a few. The RAM is limited to 512MB leading to unease of memory storage. The plug is a three-prong AC plug and the system has no FireWire port. Apart from these, the laptop lacks DVD option to write. But it is to be noted that this notebook is worth its cost with a solid performance and exceptional battery life. With the Intel Pentium M 1.3 GHz processor and Low-Voltage (LV) technology and 400 MHz Data bus speed, the system is all set to rock the light computers.

PANASONIC TOUGHBOOK CF-W5 – PERSISTENT IN QUALITY

We are very casual when it comes to some precious things that we love. Majestically we throw our notebooks when we feel tired or sometimes to show off that we are very casual with costly products. But the aftermath of the throws, especially with regards to notebooks are they lose the important data on hard disk and so on. But with Panasonic’s ToughBook versions, there are no problems. ToughBook CF-W5 helps you to get a stylish look, casual moves and a stronger protection. The other special features of this notebook are mentioned below. It is ultraportable with the lesser weight of 1.3 kg. The resolution of the screen in a 12.1inch screen is of 1,024 x 768 pixels.

Vibrant colors that serve as a delight to the viewers along with the wide screen for this ultra mobile version of Panasonic serves best in the keypad also. KeyPad is very trendy and it is round. ToughBook W series are all round in their keypads, which exhibit higher sense of stylishness. Other internal ingredients that make this a good notebook, encompass an Intel Core Solo U1400 ultra low voltage CPU running at 1.2GHz and 512MB of RAM. A Centrino branded machine with an Intel 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi adapter inside also means there is good Internet wireless connectivity. Bluetooth is absent in this device. Battery life is very impressive with this CF-W5 Tough Book lasting for six hours and 41 minutes.

PANASONIC CREATES 9.5MM BLU-RAY DRIVE

Panasonic is proud of their new accomplishment – the 9.5mm Blu-ray drive that is thinner and lighter than most models out on the market. They have stated that these new drives will be shipped all across the world and will be available for laptops everywhere.