THOUGHBOOK

THOUGHBOOK

Toughbook

Toughbook is a trademarked brand name owned by Panasonic Corporation and refers to its line of rugged computers. The Toughbook, introduced in 1997, is designed to withstand vibration, drops, spills, extreme temperature, and other rough handling. Toughbooks are used in a wide variety of industries, including construction, defense, emergency services, government, healthcare, law enforcement, manufacturing, oil & gas and telecom/utilities.

Design

All Toughbook models have a magnesium alloy case. Many current models have liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels designed specifically for visibility during daylight use. Other design elements include a shock-mountedhard drive and, on many models, a moisture and dust-resistant LCD, keyboard and touchpad.

Panasonic markets the Toughbook series in several configurations ranging from business and "semi-rugged" to "fully rugged" in both laptop and tablet personal computer configurations, and in several specialty designs with numerous customizable add-on features.

Panasonic's fully rugged Toughbooks originally had no cooling fan and instead dissipated heat "evenly" through the chassis. Having no fan ensures a better seal against dust and moisture. Further, a lack of a cooling fan can lead to longer battery life, quieter operation, and fewer moving parts.^[8] However, this means Panasonic must design additional proprietary solutions at additional costs. To reduce heat and power consumption, many laptops come with lower voltage Intel processors and have numerous automatic power management functions. Some newer models do incorporate a cooling fan in what Panasonic calls a "hybrid cooling system" in order to compensate for the additional heat generated by newer and more advanced processor chips.^[9]

Some models, such as the lightweight W8, are U.S. versions of thin and light consumer laptops sold in Japan under the Let's Note name. The Toughbook PDRC (Permanent Display Removable Computer) has a 1250 nits, 12.1" touchscreen. This unit permanently mounts, usually to a vehicle’s dashboard, and connects to a removable computer mounted elsewhere in the vehicle.

Besides laptops, the Toughbook branded range includes the CF-P1 (PDA) and the CF-P2 (GSM mobile telephone).