Toughbook is a trademarked brand name owned by Panasonic Corporation and refers to its line of rugged computers. The Toughbook is designed to withstand vibration, drops, spills, extreme temperature, and other rough handling.
While originally marketed to military, law enforcement and heavy industrial users, Panasonic has expanded marketing towards a wider audience in recent years.[1]
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According to Panasonic, over 500 tests and quality checks are performed during production and all units are subjected to a factory burn-in period.[2][3]
Several independent tests have been conducted to determine the resistance of Toughbooks to external forces.[4][5] Toughbooks have also inadvertently served as bulletproof vests.[6]
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-mounted hard 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 and some semi-rugged laptops have no cooling fan and instead dissipate 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.[7] 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 models, such as the lightweight W8, are US versions of thin and light consumer laptops sold in Japan under the Let's Note name. The Toughbook PDRC (Permanent Display Removable Computer) has an extraordinarily bright 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).