14 DAY TRIAL // The British army reportedly took a couple of Panasonic ToughBooks on a scientific expedition in the extreme cold regions of the Antarctica. Remember that we’ve already reported on the new versions of Panasonic’s ToughBooks here.
Generally speaking, Panasonic’s products are built with very high quality and reliability standards, as are many of the other “Made in Japan” electronics.
We’ve talked about Fujitsu’s Lifebook and Biblo notebooks and also about Toshiba’s DynaBook Series.
Back in the days of the Centrino notebooks, Panasonic’s ToughBooks were built like tanks and most of the ToughBook family members were actually convertible tablets.
We were a little disappointed with Panasonic’s revision of ToughBook’s resistance and protection specifications.
From a notebook that was certified to withstand being ran over by a car, Panasonic now only guarantees the notebook will work only if dropped from a height lower than 70 centimeters and especially when not in full operation, but shut down.
Editor's Note :
So if I happen to be using the notebook and (being 1.86 meters tall) holding it at a height of around 120 centimeters and I drop it, there is no guarantee that it would still be in working order.
We were disappointed with Panasonic’s reduction in ToughBook “toughness,” but it seems that the 24 members of the British Army expedition were quite thrilled with its performance and reliability.
On the other hand, the models in question were different, but usualy the ToughBook moniker comes with a certain image.
“One minute we were in the hot, air conditioned yacht cabin and the next out in -15 degree freezing temperatures,” said Stuart Fletcher, leader of Red Team 1.
The models put to the test were Panasonic ToughBook CF-31 and CF-19 and “they stood up to everything – the cold, the wet, being dropped - we simply couldn’t break them,” Fletcher then added.
