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."

Comments

Memory Limit?

[westyvw]

512 Megs a limiting factor? Really? On a notebook I would think that would be more the sufficient. Unlike a desktop computer, a notebook is less likely to be left on as long or to be used in a multitasking fashion. Even making movies music seems unlikely.

I am using a 1 gighz notebook right now with 512 megs or ram. I browse the web, do some music decompression (shn -> wav or vice versa) and cd burning, some light web work, and maybe some office apps.

I am using Linux and KDE and I am have never even hit 256 megs in use at any time.

seems to be slow already, so here are the specs:

[RTPMatt]

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

The memory isn't the bottleneck.

[AntiOrganic]

Face it, you're not going to be rendering in Maya, encoding DVDs to XviD/OGM or editing 60,000x20,000 pixel images in Photoshop on a 900 MHz CPU; Unreal Tournament 2003 isn't going to suck up all that memory running at 12 FPS on the integrated Intel graphics. And given the screen size, your ability to multitask is limited, since only so much will fit at once, so unless you feel like leaving open 70 minimized windows for some reason, that won't be an issue either.

With some services disabled, Windows XP will run fine on 96 MB of memory and Linux/BSD will do with the same or less depending on your WM du jour. I can't see why this much memory would be needed on a machine designed with productivity and groupware in mind. The default 256MB should be plenty.

Re:uh

[YahoKa]

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

The "Toughbook" name has been diluted

[Animats]

Panasonic makes two real Toughbooks, the Toughbook 28 and the Toughbook 34. Those have the dust/dirt sealed case, keyboard, screen, and connectors. The Toughbook 28 has passed MIL-STD-810F ruggedization standards.

Everything else is just another laptop.