Panasonic Toughbook CF-F9 review

Once the going gets challenging, the professional businessman will get a Panasonic Toughbook laptop. And by performing so, he'll guarantee that none of his precious data is probably to get ruined in transit, that battery life might be prolonged nicely outside of the norm and Net connectivity might be effortlessly taken care of.

New title, identical toughness
Unsurprisingly, the CF-F9 is surely an update of Panasonic's Toughbook CF-F8 that's been carried out using the aim of ensuring the a few tenets over continue to be in the centre of its design. To begin with you could think nothing at all has modified - you still have a very textured matt black lid using a sturdy silver magnesium alloy scenario that is certainly able to withstanding a distributed stress of as much as 100kgf (which is 100kg, accelerated in the compelled of gravity). Panasonic has also retained the incredibly practical - and chic - built-in carrying take care of, which does away with the need for a separate bag for transportation.

You'd usually anticipate a rugged machine like this to weigh substantially more than your regular notebook however the CF-F8 was just 1660g . The CF-F9 manages to cut back this nevertheless further, to an astonishing 1620g, making it the lightest 14.1in notebook available on the market. The base layout can be precisely the same as its predecessor, which has a large circular touchpad inside the centre plus a flip-up DVD Tremendous Multi Generate towards the proper, leaving a square hand-resting location to your left.

The keyboard is full-size (minus a number pad) and cream-coloured, in the much favoured chiclet design. The keys respond swiftly and firmly. On the list of positive aspects from the Touchbook safety program will be the fact that a complete 200ml glass of liquid might be poured more than the laptop's keyboard and touchpad devoid of harmful the electrics, as the water drains absent via pre-cut channels. The whole notebook is additionally shockproof from a height of up to 76m and the difficult drive (which has been expanded in the CF-F8's 250GB to 320GB) has also been packed inside of specific shock-absorbing pads.

Nicely linked
The CF-F9 has several of the common notebook connections, including three USB two.0 ports and VGA, plus headphone and microphone jacks, however there is certainly only a single SD/SDHC memory card reader, instead than a 5-in-1.

Yet another notable absence is surely an HDMI exhibit port - however you do have a very Pc Card expansion slot along with a Mini Port Replicator, LAN and Modem. The 14.1in color LCD show has become beefed up from the earlier model's 1280x800 resolution to 1440 x 900, hence delivering much better defined and brighter images.

Under the hood
The processor overall performance has also improved markedly, with all the CF-F8's Intel Core two Duo SP9400 changed with an Intel Core i5-520M clocked at 2.4GHz, paired with 2GB DDR3 SDRAM. Multi-tasking is as a result comparatively painless.

The integrated Intel GMA High definition graphics, however, only has 256MB of memory - sufficient to produce films and presentations appear very good, but not sufficient to operate anything at all a lot more than basic video games. Sound, too, is certainly practically nothing to publish property about, being classically tinny - perhaps some surround sound subsequent time chaps?

Keeps on working
There are no disappointments, nevertheless, when it comes to the battery daily life. This has become prolonged from six hours to 7, and Panasonic's proprietary Energy Management method encourages ecological-minded energy use. Sustaining on the web connection is yet another pillar in the Touchbook assortment, why has led towards the present wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity has long been enhanced by Gobi 2000 cell broadband technological innovation, so sending these critical documents by way of e-mail need to in no way be a difficulty...

Panasonic - Toughbook CF-F9 functions - Verdict

The Toughbook CF-F9 has certainly made considerable enhancements in ruggedness, CPU performance, battery existence and connectivity about its predecessor = although some might discover the hefty cost tag off-putting inside the experience of significantly less rugged rivals. For anyone who will need this level of toughness, though, there is certainly truly nothing to match it.