TOKYO: Toughbook is the brand of semi-rugged laptops by Panasonic; it was first introduced in 1996. The company received a great deal of criticism for its Toughbook 53 laptop for its unnecessarily heavy weight. Toughbook 53 was launched way back in May 2011. It took Panasonic almost 4 years to come up with the next installation of its Toughbook, but it has come out now and has come out in style.
Toughbook 54 will come in four models as per customer requirements- Performance, Lite, Gloved Multi Touch and Prime models. Panasonic is claiming that Toughbook 54 is the lightest and thinnest semi-rugged laptop that has ever come into the market. Its portability has increased because of its light weight but not at the cost of its reliability. It is still reliable for mobile workers in demanding market areas like insurance, construction, public safety and field service etc.
The device has got a built-in handle to carry the laptop. Panasonic claims that it was tested by an independent third party who verified that it can survive falls upto 3 feet. The model has got a spill resilient keyboard, hinges, touchpad and display. All the models will have 5th Generation Intel Core i5-5300U vPro processor. Gloved Multi Touch and Performance models will have 14 inch IPS full HD display while remaining two models will have HD displays of same size. The OS in the laptop will be Windows 8.1 Pro Update. Those who enjoy working on Windows 7 Pro can also obtain it via the downgrade rights from Windows 8.1 Pro.
The Performance Model can have 8-16 GB of RAM as per customer’s choice. All the other variants offer a choice of 4-16 GB of RAM. The models will have a 500 GB HDD with heaters to ensure operation in cold environment. The customer can also ask for an additional 128 GB SSD, 256 GB SSD and 1TB HDD (with heaters) if they wish to. The Prime and Multi Gloved Touch models provide a battery life of 11 hours with additional 7 hours with optional media bay second battery. The Lite model offers upto 8 hours of continuous usage. For full list of specifications, please refer the press release by Panasonic .
The device comes with a 3 year warranty. The price of the basic model is $1499 but the price will vary as per the customer’s desired configuration.
