The laptop has a flip-over design but not the friendliest price

Dec 12, 2012 16:07 GMT  ·  By

The idea of a rugged ultrabook might sound strange, since these laptops have a hard enough time being thin even without the extra protection, but Panasonic managed to make one anyway.

Meet the Toughbook CF-AX2, with its 11.6-inch 10-finger multitouch HD display (1366 x 768 pixels), standard ultrabook specs and a 360-degree Flip-Over hinge design that lets the product become a tablet when needed.

Based on the Intel Core i5-3427U Ultra Low Voltage CPU (1.8 GHz), it runs Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system (not that any other would make sense at this point).

Panasonic promises that the laptop can shrug off drops of up to 76 cm (2.5 feet) and most knocks and scrapes.

Overall, not bad for a 1.15-kilogram device (2.5 pounds) with a thickness of 18 mm (0.70 inches).

Sales will begin next month (January 2013), for £1,331 / $2,148 / €1,647.