The Panasonic Toughbook F9 is a rugged laptop that the company says is the worlds lightest in it’s 14 inch size weighing 3.6 pounds.

The rugged Toughbook F9 has a 14 inch screen that has a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels. The screen has a wide aspect. An Intel Core i5-520M 2.93GHz processor runs inside and for storage it has a 320GB hard drive. For communications, mobile broadband is optional with the Qualcomm Gobi2000.

Battery life is about 7 hours on a full charge depending on what you use it for ie – if you browse on a 3G connection then you will probably not get the full 7 hours of usage out of it.

“Mobile workforces need the type of desktop-class performance offered by Intel’s Core i5 processors to maximize productivity,” said Kyp Walls, director of product management, Panasonic Solutions Company. “But performance is useless if your laptop can’t survive the bumps, drops and spills experienced by highly mobile professionals. The Toughbook F9 marries a high performance Intel processor with industry-leading light weight, long battery life, mobile connectivity and unrivalled reliability to deliver a best-in-class mobile computing solution.”

On to the rugged side of the laptop, the Toughbook F9 has been designed to handle a 30 inch drop (ie, fall off a table) and survive without problems. In testing the laptop was dropped 26 times to every face and corner on to hard surfaces and managed to stay working.
Panasonic Toughbook F9: Select Features and Specifications

* Genuine Windows 7® (with XP downgrade option)
* Intel® Core™ i5-520M vPro™ Processor (2.4 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.93 GHz)
* 320GB shock-mounted, flex-connect, removable HDD
* 2GB RAM (DDR3-1066MHz), expandable to 6GB
* 14.1” widescreen (1440 x 900) WXGA+ LCD with LED backlighting
* Anti-glare screen treatment
* DVD Super MULTI Drive with Dual Layer Support
* Up to 7 hour battery life
* 3.6lbs
* Business-rugged
30” operating drop (to base only)
26 sides 12” drop (non-operating)
220 lb pressurized vibration
Magnesium alloy case
Spill-resistant keyboard (protects against 7 ounces spills)
* Embedded Connectivity
Optional integrated WWAN / Gobi2000™ mobile broadband
Optional WiMAX
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6200 802.11a/b/g/n
Bluetooth® v2.1 + EDR (class 1)
* Optional Integrated Security Features:
Fingerprint reader
SmartCard reader
* 9.9?(L) x 12.8?(W) x 1.0?/1.9?(H) front/rear

The Panasonic rugged Toughbook F9 goes on sale next month with a price tag starting at $2899.

Tags : Laptop, Panasonic Toughbook F9, Qualcomm Gobi2000, rugged laptop, wide aspect