Panasonic’s range of Business Ruggedized Toughbook Series, as its name aptly describes, focuses on the protection of the components of a laptop which get damaged most frequently. The company, after a lot of research, focused on the protection of the hard disk, keyboard and the display for its main range of business series laptops and in turn, came up with the Business Ruggedized Toughbook series.
This series has a serious upgrade in regards to the previous series in the department of ruggedness. Experts have tested it out from drop heights of 76cms successfully, anything beyond that might prove to be fatal for the display and the hard disk though.
Furthermore, this range of laptops features a special feature where the keyboards don’t get affected due to spillage of liquids (liquids till a certain range of viscosity). Consequently, it has the ability to drain up to 200 ml of any type of liquid spilt upon it. For this purpose, it has uniquely designed built-in drainage channels which help to keep the electronics inside completely intact and dry.
Additionally, its build features a unique optimal pressure distribution system which enables it to endure pressure levels of up to 100kg/f. The advantages of this build don’t just stop there as it helps to prevent major shocks and vibration to the whole metal chassis as well as the LCD display and the hard disk inside. For more security, the whole build is encased in a magnesium cover along with 4 additional shock absorbent pads.
The range is also uniquely designed as 2 in 1 laptop series and hence, the screens can be detached and can be used as tablets, with their own separate battery unit, as well.
The range features 3 products;
- The Panasonic Business Rugged CF-MX4 notebook.
- Toughbook CF-SX4
- Toughbook CF-SZ6
Panasonic Business Rugged CF-MX4
This high spec-ed 2 in 1 device, being the flagship of the range, features some pretty impressive features and is probably one of the best in its class. With a durable and sleek design, it is a perfect device for people always on the run.
Some of the impressive features that make it a steal are;
- It comes preloaded with official licensed Windows 10 Pro, along with Microsoft Office complete user pack, and on request, can be downgraded to Windows 7 Pro.
- Weighs a mere 1.14 kgs and is only 21mm thick making it the perfect travel device.
- Comes with a stylus attached to its side for handwritten notes
- 13 hours of battery life featuring a user replaceable battery.
- The CPU is Intel’s Core™ i5-5300U vPro™ Processor which has the ability to turbo boost one of its processing cores up to 2.9GHz
- The device features a 4 GB RAM but fails on the hard disk department as that is covered only by a Solid State Drive (SSD) of a 256 GB memory capacity.
- Its screen is a 12.5” Full-HD IPS display with a resolution of 1920X1080 capable of displaying impeccable image. The screen also doubles up as a multi-touch capacitive display.
- The sides of the laptops contain different ports; LAN, HDMI, VGA, 2 USB 3.0 ports, headphone jack and an SD card
- The tablet, additionally, can be used to place voice and data calls over both WiFi and 4G LTE networks
- Each unit comes with a 3 year standard warranty period; however, pressure and shock resistive functions aren’t covered in the warranty agreement.
Panasonic Toughbook CF-SX4
Moving on to the mid-range devices in the range, the CF-SX4 offers multi-functionality as it also contains an optical disk drive, designed keeping in mind the requirements of professionals in search of reliable lightweight all-in-one portable devices. This device doesn’t fail to impress either, even though it lacks the 2-in-1 functionality of the flagship CF-MX4 and contains some incredible features such as:
- A moderately and economically lasting battery life of up to 9 hours, depending upon the level of brightness and system settings.
- Similar to the CF-MX4, it comes preloaded with official licensed Windows 10 Pro, along with Microsoft Office complete user pack, and on request, can be downgraded to Windows 7 Pro
- The screen is a 12.1” HD display with a resolution of 1600×900 but lacks the capacitive multi-touch feature.
- An HD 1080p webcam along with a microphone is built on to the screen.
- The CPU is Intel’s Core™ i5-5300 vPro™ with speeds of 2.3GHz and one of its cores can be turbo boosted to 2.9 GHz.
- The Laptop contains a 4 GB DDR3 generation ram with additional ram slots and a 500 GB hard disk drive.
- It is famed to be a very portable device, weighing only a mere 1.19 kgs.
- The sides of the laptop contain different ports such as the LAN, VGA, HDMI, 2 USB 3.) ports and an SD card reader along with headphone jack ports and an optical disk drive.
Panasonic Toughbook CF-SZ6
Panasonic describes the design of this device (which comes in two variants of ram; a 4 GB DDR3 variant and an 8 GB DDR3 variant) as suitable for light robust mobility. The screen is designed with the state of the art bonnet design structure, using magnesium which helps in further increase of the durability of the chassis and hence, protects the motherboard from knocks, shocks, and scratches commonly faced by users who travel frequently. This particular laptop is integrated with another series, along with the Toughbook series, known as the Panasonic Let’s Note series which offers a variety of other portable laptops and hence, this particular design is definitely one of a kind. Furthermore, the following features make it more desirable for regular travelers;
- It is a very portable device weighing in at only 850 grams.
- Contains a powerful Core i5-7300U Processor capable of running at speeds of 2.6 GHz and can be turbo boosted to up to 3.5 GHz.
- The lower 4 GB ram variant consists of a 500 GB hard disk drive. However, the higher 8 GB ram variant only contains a 256 GB SSD as storage memory.
- The display is 12.1” WUXGA display with a resolution of 1920x 1200.
- The sides of the device contain 3 USB 3.0 ports along with LAN, VGA and HDMI ports. Additionally, it contains an SD card reader and headphone ports on the sides.
- The 4 GB variant boasts of a battery life of 12 hours on economy power saving mode and the 8 GB variant boasts of a battery life of up to 14.5 hours on the same mode.
The Toughbook series is a one-stop solution for all those who work on the go and are looking for a multi-purpose device for the same. With the 76 cm drop test reading along with the anti-liquid spillage keyboards, this unique range of laptops cannot be ruled out of the list of the major competitors of the modern day portable devices.
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