Panasonic Cranks Out New Toughbooks

Panasonic is offering up three new Toughbook notebooks - an ultraportable, a tablet, and a desktop replacement - with long battery life and strong wireless features.

Panasonic today announced three new additions to its semi-rugged Business Mobile series of Toughbook portable computers, the ultraportable CF-W5, the table PC CF-T5, and the desktop replacement CY-F5. All three Toughbooks feature magnesium alloy cases, shock-mounted drives, and flexible internal connectors: all are engineered to withstand one-foot drops and the hard drives are rated to survive 30-inch falls. (Yes, that means you shouldn’t play Frisbee with them.) In addition, all three models feature a new “wireless ready” design which enabled users to install hig-speed data service offerings from major wireles carriers, and optional EV-DO (Sprint, Verizon) or UMTS/HSDPA (Cingular) radio modems are available.

The Toughbook W5 ultraportable offers a 12.1-inch 1,024 by 768 pixel LCD screen, an integrated DVD/CD-RW drive, 60 GB hrd drive, an 1.2 GHz Intel Core Solo processor, a battery life of up to eight hours, and a total weight of just 3.1 pounds. Toughbook T5 tablet also boasts huge battery life—10 hours!—with a 12.1-inch touchscreen, 60 GB hard drive, 1.2 Ghz Core Solo processor, and a slick little hand strap. The Toughbook Y5 offers a 14.1-inch display (1,400 by 1050 pixels) and craps out after a mere six hours on its battery, but the Core Duo processor, “spill-through” liquid-protected keyboard, DVD/CD-RW drive, integrated 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, and 3.5 pound weight class might make up for it. According to Panasonic, the three systems will all ship with Windows XP Pro and 512 MB of RAM standard (although all support upgrades to 1.5 GB of RAM).

The T5 and W5 will be available in October for a “wireless ready” price of $1,899; the Y5 will ship in December for a suggested retail price of $2,199.