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Panasonic Toughbook W2 Review
Anonymous Howard writes "For those of you who haven't heard about Panasonic's Toughbook W2, this hard to find laptop not only looks awesome but packs a serious punch for its size. Weighing in at 2.8 pounds with a 12.1" screen, this P4-M 900 Centrino based laptop is impressive. The drawback is its max memory support is only 512MB. However I think the laptop is absolutely gorgeous. Does anyone have any experience with one of these? Designtechnica gave it a 7 in their review. I tend to believe that 512MB of ram is a pretty limiting factor however."
Spcifications:
CPU
Ultra Low Voltage Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 900MHz
1MB on-die L2 cache
STORAGE & MEMORY
256MB SDRAM (DDR) standard, expandable to 512MB (PC-2100 memory is required)
40GB HDD
Combo Drive (DVD-ROM*/CD-RW**) standard
DISPLAY
12.1" 1024 x 768 XGA anti-glare TFT Active Matrix Color LCD
External video support up to 1600 x 1200 at 16 million colors
Intel(R) 855GM integrated video controller max. 64MB (UMA) VRAM
AUDIO
SigmaTelTM STAC9753 AC-97 v.2.1 Compliant
Integrated speaker
Convenient keyboard volume controls (Fn+F5/F6 keys)
EXPANSION SLOTS
PC Card Type I or II x1
Secure Digital (SD) Memory / Multimedia Card
KEYBOARD & INPUT
85-key with dedicated Windows(R) key
Electrostatic touchpad with vertical scrolling support
WIRLESS LAN
Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2100 network connection 802.11b
INTERFACE
Network Interface Card
-Integrated 10/100 ethernet
Modem
-Integrated 56Kbps
External Video
-D-sub 15 pin
USB 2.0 (x2)
-4 pin
Headphones/Speaker
-Mini-jack Stereo
Microphone/Line In
-Mini-jack Mono
POWER SUPPLY
Lithium Ion battery pack (7.4V, 6600mAh)
Battery operation: up to 4 hours***
Battery charging time: approximately 4.5 hours***
AC Adapter: AC 100V-240V 50/60Hz, Auto-sensing/switching worldwide power supply
Pop-up on-screen battery status reporting
POWER MANAGEMENT
Suspend/Resume Function, Hibernation, Standby, ACPI BIOS
SOFTWARE
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Professional (Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 2000 Professional also available)
Setup, Diagnostics, On-line Reference Manual, Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) Reader
SECURITY FEATURES
Password Security: Supervisor, User, Coffee Break
Integrated Kensington Lock Slot
WARRANTY
3 year limited warranty, parts & labor
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT
1.2"/1.6"(H) x 8.3"(D) x 10.6" (W)
2.8 lbs., including battery
ACCESSORIES
Lithium Ion Battery Pack CF-VZSU27U
Battery Charger CF-VCBRT1U
AC Adapter CF-AA1623AM
256MB Memory Card CF-BAT0256U
External USB Floppy Drive
Powerbooks may not be as tough as ToughBooks, but you might be really surprised by how durable they are. Read the story of this poor powerbook ... it survived getting run over by a truck. Hehe =D
There's a nice list of non-windows x86 laptop vendors at mcelrath.org/laptops.html
Don't pay the windows tax (or the Apple tax for that matter).
I settled on a Sager 4060 from PCTorque. It's heavier than the toughbook but all its included devices are well supported under linux and it's got a lot of nice features for the price.
Got my Panny W2 on August 3rd, this is the best laptop I've ever had. It's the right mixture of horsepower, display, connectivity, and battery life. I do truly get 5 hours out of it, it's got a nice keyboard (with only a few quirks; particularly the arrow keys and tilde) and since the addition of the PCS Vision 1xRTT card .. totally connected.
Don't be confused by the Toughbook name; it's got a shockmounted HDD, motherboard, and display, but it's goal is mobility, not toughness.
I bought mine from Kevin Fawl at Bizco (www.toughonline.com) -- I'd buy another one if I needed another laptop tomorrow.
Even making movies music seems unlikely.
Movies I can almost agree with. Audio recording, on the other hand, seems like a good application for a notebook computer. A laptop is quieter than a desktop computer, largely because its power supply is usually external and passively cooled, and its processor can usually be set to slow down and run under passive cooling (i.e. no fan). This leaves only a hard disk as a noise source, but with 512 MB of RAM, assuming the machine's desktop environment takes 1/4 of that, the machine can still record over half an hour straight of 16 bit stereo 48 kHz linear PCM audio without spinning up the disk. Real-time FLAC encoding may double that.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Everything else is just another laptop.
Excellent guide.
If you want mobility check out Sharp UW32e ets/PC -UM32W.PDF
http://www.sharpsystems.com/products/datash
I'm not sure what the big deal is. The Panasonic doesn't seem significantly different from the Sharp UW32 minus the built in combo drive. I bought the Sharp UW32 a a few months ago for only $1200 and it is sweet!
Its almost as light as the Panasonic (only 3.0 lbs), just as fast with same memory and HD size standard. Although it has external cdrom, it has built in wilress, USB (2), firewire and even a compact flash slot! The exterior styling is the same cool metallic.
Whats best about the sharp is the depth. Its less than an inch thick (.77"). Unlike the VAIO though the keys on the keyboard have a great tactile feel because the whole keyboard pops up slightly when the lid is opened.
And its only around $1300 or $1400 and available in the US. I've even seen it at Circuit City.
Dunno how many of you are familiar with the Averatec notebooks, personally I think it looks a lot better than the Panasonic reviewed here. It's also considerably cheaper and specs are similar, but spec-wise, it ultimately wins out over the Panasonic.
3 08 10/516090/Default.asp (For the link shy.)
For starters, the Averatec 3150H comes with the Athlon Mobile 1600+ CPU, can have up to 640MB PC2100 mem (I know it's not THAT much more than 512MB, but it's still more), been using the battery pretty often and it's not hard to get about 4 hours of use out of it... even with most of the power saving features turned off.
As far as anything else goes, the specs aside from what I mentioned above, are almost exactly the same. Paying more than $2000 for any laptop, even if it looks pretty, is just insane... especially if it only has a 12" screen. I got mine for $850 after rebate at Staples. AFAIK, they're still a regular stock item.
Other differences:
A: Has 30GB
P: has 40GB
A: Has 3x USB2
P: Has 2x USB2
A: Has Athlon XPM 1600+ (Approx 1.4Ghz)
P: Has Pentium4 Centrino 900Mhz
A: Doesn't have any mem stick slots
P: has SD/MMC reader slot.
A: Model 3150P has Wifi built in, dunno how much it costs, but it's still cheaper than the panasonic.
A: Touchpad has two scrolling buttons instead of a wheel. Verrryyyy handy.
A: Approx 2lbs heavier. Big deal.
A: Linux installs beautifully. All standard components.
P: Er... well...uhm...
Both notebooks are made out of lightweight magnesium alloy.
Not getting paid, just a VERY satisfied user. I've been looking for a long time and I've always known there were MUCH better smaller notebooks out there for under 1K.
Staples has the Averatec notebooks on spotlight on their site. Look here.
http://www003.staples.com/Products/SpotLights/0