Anyone with Panasonic Toughbook experience

[airmotive]

I am looking at picking one up to subsidize my work-supplied Dell.
My old Thinkpad is on its last legs and the Dell my employer gives us to use is heavy, delicate, and no administrative rights which makes it of little use other than an email station. (Since we just got Blackberrys, that issue is solved).

Basically, I need something that can travel the world stuffed in a backpack, as light as possible because I do a lot of field work, which the Toughbook seems ideal for. I take a lot of photos which I need to edit and add into field reports. Perhaps some light video editing and stills capture as well.

Anyone have hands-on experience with the Toughbooks?

[Lone_Wolfe]

Some.

Toughbooks are not especially light, but the can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'...

[GixxerSixxer]

The Toughbooks I use at work aren't light. They are ruggedized so they are tough. They can be dropped, kicked, tossed, etc. The screen and keyboard are the weakest parts. The work ones I use at work have a few with missing keys and dead pixels, and they mostly stay on a bench in the lab hooked up to a machine. They will get used for customer support/training with the military and that's when they get abused.

If you want a small light laptop then look at the Asus EEE 1000, $500-580. It has a full-size keyboard with a 10.2" screen. There is a 40g solid state Linux version that can have XP installed onto, or you could get the 80g hard drive model. The solid state will have a faster boot up time and take more travel abuse. The HD will suck a bit more power but it's got double the memory and it's cheaper.

Neither EEE 1000 comes with an optical drive. That's the big detractor. However, it's not that hard to use a desktop to burn a CD as an iso to a SD card or USB drive. Not having the optical drive is a moot point. One can easily find read only USB CD/DVD drives for under $50.

Asus also makes the EEE 700 series and 900 series. The 700 series has a 7.5" inch screen and the 900 has a 9" screen. The keyboard is smaller on those models and takes some getting used to. The 700 series has too small of a screen for my liking.

I own a EEE 900 and my fiance has a EEE 1000. I've put a touch-screen into my EEE and we're waiting for a touch-screen kit to come out for the EEE 1000.

[Geko45]

I've been using a CF-M34 for years and have loved it. It's getting a little long in the tooth though and I've been considering upgrading to a CF-19. The CF-19 is ideal if you're looking for something highly compact and has features up the wazoo. Bluetooth, 802.11g Wi-Fi, SD card reader, touch screen and (optionally) built-in GPS and/or WAN connectivity. They can also be upgraded to a full 4 gigs of RAM, a nice extra if you dock your laptop and use it as your primary machine (like I do). On top of all that, they are virtually indestructible. I've dropped my CF-M34 from four feet high and all it got was a scratch on the corner. I highly recommend them.

[devildog2067]

Just get another Thinkpad. IMHO the Toughbook is too much laptop for almost anyone. We had them in the Marine Corps (I was a Javelin gunner) and they were brilliant in that application, we ran one over with a red rooster (by accident) once and it still worked fine.

However, you pay for that level of bomb-proof. As a business/professional user of laptops for the last 6-7 years all the Thinkpads I've had I've been able to beat the crap out of and they work just fine. X-series Thinkpad in a neoprene sleeve will probably be fine for you.

Honestly, every time I see a Toughbook in a police cruiser (they're in every Skokie car I've ever seen, I think Evanston too) I get a little annoyed. Toughbooks are meant to get tossed around, not bolted to a shock-absorbing mount. Waste of money IMHO.

[H&K .45 AUTO]

I've had a Toughbook laptop mounted in my patrol car for a few years now and aside from network problems (Not the fault of the computer), it's been great. The thing gets banged around occasionally when I accidentally hit it with my ticketbook holder, clipboard, AR, etc.

It certainly isn't light though, but it will take some abuse. I'd give them my endorsement for hard use.

[jbutenhoff]

They dont only make those rugged suitcase looking ones. They have ones with aluminum or other metal lightweight cases that are great.

I had to service one before and that thing weighed almost nothing, big price tag though!

[CW Mock]

Just get another Thinkpad. IMHO the Toughbook is too much laptop for almost anyone. We had them in the Marine Corps (I was a Javelin gunner) and they were brilliant in that application, we ran one over with a red rooster (by accident) once and it still worked fine.

However, you pay for that level of bomb-proof. As a business/professional user of laptops for the last 6-7 years all the Thinkpads I've had I've been able to beat the crap out of and they work just fine. X-series Thinkpad in a neoprene sleeve will probably be fine for you.

Honestly, every time I see a Toughbook in a police cruiser (they're in every Skokie car I've ever seen, I think Evanston too) I get a little annoyed. Toughbooks are meant to get tossed around, not bolted to a shock-absorbing mount. Waste of money IMHO.

We have them in our cars, on those shock absorbing mounts, and they still get beat all to hell and break down. I think its probably constant use, crossing medians and curbs, and all the vibrations. Non-rugged laptops die pretty quick - that's why we have the Toughbooks.

That said, I had a CF-27, and it was pretty good - just old and slow. The new CF-30s are nice, have decent specs, and are very tough. But, they are insanely expensive for what they are.

[Rexzilla]

I have a Panasonic CF-51 Duo Core. They are overbuilt laptops. This is a ruggedized version. They have the hard drive encased is some sort of shock proof material. My company uses Panasonics and only issue them for the field work. The great thing about them is the three year warranty which is standard.
They don't have cutting edge tech in them. What they offer is a stable rugged platform for everyday stuff. They have a low failure rate. One thing I don't like is the small return key, otherwise the keyboard is fine. The battery life is a high point and seems to run almost eight hours if you are not doing heavy media activity.
The W series Panasonics are lighter and not really toughbooks per se. The CF series are semi-rugged. Then there are the Toughbooks which look like they came out of a sci-fi movie like "Starship Troopers".

http://panasonic.net/pavc/toughbook/?sa_campaign=internal_ads/PCSC/toughbook.com/global&cm_sp=Toughbook%20Site%20Promotions-_-Right%20Hand%20Promo-_-Panasonic%20Global%20Promo

[airmotive]

Just get another Thinkpad. IMHO the Toughbook is too much laptop for almost anyone. We had them in the Marine Corps (I was a Javelin gunner) and they were brilliant in that application, we ran one over with a red rooster (by accident) once and it still worked fine.

However, you pay for that level of bomb-proof. As a business/professional user of laptops for the last 6-7 years all the Thinkpads I've had I've been able to beat the crap out of and they work just fine. X-series Thinkpad in a neoprene sleeve will probably be fine for you.

Honestly, every time I see a Toughbook in a police cruiser (they're in every Skokie car I've ever seen, I think Evanston too) I get a little annoyed. Toughbooks are meant to get tossed around, not bolted to a shock-absorbing mount. Waste of money IMHO.

Thinkpad's abuse in the last 4 years:
2 broken screens.
1 destroyed keyboard.
2 harddrives.
2 heatsink/fans.
Case has too many cracks to count, as does the lid.
I am surprised the rain, sand and mud hasn't gotten to it...but that's mainly because I don't pull it out of its case under those conditions. Which sort of negates the hassle of lugging the damn thing out into the field!

[chadster1]

I use a Dell Latitude D620 in my tooltruck. I have the 3 year gold tech support. If something breaks, they send a tech to me and fix it on the spot. Snap-on recently changed to Dell from Panasonic for the required computers for all of the dealers.

[zackwatt]

I've been carrying my Thinkpad around in my backpack for three years now. I have it in a Swiss Gear backpack. It lives in there. I really don't treat it delicately, but I don't throw it out a second story window either. I Thinkpad is tough enough for most people. For the price of one Toughbook, you could get two or three Thinkpads. Honestly, a Toughbook is a briefcase with a computer in it. Those things are hefty. Get a Thinkpad and don't look back.

[Historian]

We have them in our cars, on those shock absorbing mounts, and they still get beat all to hell and break down. I think its probably constant use, crossing medians and curbs, and all the vibrations. Non-rugged laptops die pretty quick - that's why we have the Toughbooks.

That said, I had a CF-27, and it was pretty good - just old and slow. The new CF-30s are nice, have decent specs, and are very tough. But, they are insanely expensive for what they are.

Yeah the problem is there's not much between your standard lap top and a Toughbook for your kind of need. Not to mention the Toughbook is smaller than your average laptop.

Being a former road officer myself...I know you guys beat the crap out of just about anything and everything you guys deal with. The Toughbook is what you need.

[Roadkill_751]

Where I work at, we had a knucklehead deputy drive into a flooded street and drowned his patrol car. When the other Deputies pulled up he was standing on top of his car. :rofl:

He fried the new digital 800MHZ radio. The Panasonic Tough Book was drowned too. We took it to our IT guy who washed the mud out of it and then let it dry. After a few weeks the IT guy booted it up and now uses in his office. Yes, it still has the red clay stains on it. I can attest that this machine is very tough. As always YMMV.

[kerbie18]

I'm typing this messge right now on a Toughbook. It's a good, reliable computer and it is VERY tough. Mine has a sealed rubber keyboard, and rubber o-rings, so it's pretty close to being waterproof. I'm pretty sure I could use this thing to beat someone to death and it would still boot up when I'm finished.

The one downside is that it is NOT light. In fact, it probably weighs double the amount of a normal laptop. The extra weight comes from all the armor this thing has.