Panasonic has announced the latest upgrade to the Toughbook 19, called the Toughbook 20.
If your idea of mobile is the local coffee house, then all you really care about is faster, thinner and lighter (and maybe that it has a cool cover to put your stickers on). The Panasonic Toughbook is for those guys in the pickup truck commercials with voiceovers by Sam Houston or Denis Leary. In fact, the Toughbook marketing photos suggest that if you wear a safety vest or hardhat, then the Toughbook is your kind of 2-in-1 laptop/tablet combination.
Don’t be fooled by the name — the Toughbook 20 does not have a 20-inch screen. It’s just a model number. Instead, it has a 10.1-inch screen, which is fully detachable from a laptop-style keyboard. The Toughbook 20 meets the MIL-STD-461F standard, the MIL-STD810G standard, and the IP65 standard, which basically is a way of saying that it is waterproof, dust proof, resists electromagnetic interference, and will survive drops, shock, vibration and extreme temperatures. It accomplishes this thanks to a magnesium alloy case, locking port covers, and coolest of all, a heater for the Solid State Drive (SSD) so it can work at low pressure and low temperatures. It also has a built-in handle that doubles as a kick stand, because while you can drop it, that doesn’t mean that you want to.
The Toughbook 20 allows for differing form factors. The tablet/monitor is fully detachable for use as a stand-alone tablet. The handle works as a kickstand for a traditional laptop setup, and it can be completely folded over into a monitor on one side / keyboard on the other, configuration. You can even use the handle to hang it on a wall if you need to.
Of course, using a laptop in “tough” environments is about more than just surviving bumping and splashing. The screen is sunlight-viewable for outdoor use, and it has a multi-touch display that works even if you are wearing gloves. To make sure you don’t run out of power out in the middle of nowhere, it has an option for dual batteries that are hot-swappable, so you only run out of juice when you run out of batteries.
On the technical side, it weighs 3.9 lbs, with the detached tablet weighing 2.1 lbs standalone. It comes standard with an Intel Core m5-6Y57 vPro Processor, 8 GB RAM, a 128 GB SSD (upgradeable to 256 GB or 512 GB), a 2MP webcam, optional 8MP rear camera, and a variety of ports including USB, HDMI, VGA, SDXC and Ethernet. It has built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and optional 4G LTE, or dedicated GPS.
The Toughbook 20 comes with Windows 10 Pro, although it does have the option to downgrade to Windows 7, if you prefer.
The Panasonic Toughbook 20 is scheduled for availability in February 2016, with an estimated street price starting at $3,099 including a three-year limited warranty.
