Roughly a month after announcing the new 7 series Toughbook notebooks in Japan, Panasonic officially released the new "business-rugged" Toughbooks here in the United States. While the new 7 series wasn't designed to handle the same environments as the Toughbooks used by the US military, the 7 series was real-world tested to withstand the drops, bumps and spills faced by "truly mobile professionals" while maintaining ultraportable and thin-and-light standards.
The ultraportable W7, the tablet alternative T7, and the thin-and-light Y7 feature Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 802.11 wireless, Bluetooth 2.0 and optional high-performance built-in 3G mobile broadband solutions from AT&T, Sprint or Verizon Wireless (EV-DO Rev. A). Like all Toughbook notebooks, the business-rugged 7 series notebooks are drop- and spill-resistant, have strong magnesium alloy cases and chassis, shock-mounted hard drives and LCDs, and internal flexible connectors for additional protection.
The Panasonic Toughbook Y7 is available now at an estimated street price of $2,449.00. The mobile broadband-ready Panasonic Toughbook W7 and Toughbook T7 will be available in December, 2007 at an estimated street price of $2,099. All Toughbook notebooks can be purchased from authorized Panasonic Toughbook resellers nationwide. Please visit www.panasonic.com/toughbook for more information.
We had an opportunity to spend some time with all three of these new Toughbooks at a special press event last night. Although the 7-series isn't built for deployment in a warzone it's safe to say that Panasonic has three winners on their hands. If you're shopping for a business notebook in the $2,000+ price range you'll be hard pressed to find more durable, full-featured notebooks than these. Full specifications for the Toughbook T7 Tablet are listed below:
Panasonic Toughbook T7
- Intel Core 2 Duo Processor ULV U7500, 1.06GHz
- 1GB DDR2-533 SDRAM standard, expandable to 2GB
- 80GB HDD, shock-mounted
- 12.1" 1024 x 768 XGA anti-glare TFT active matrix color LCD with touchscreen
- TPM Security Chip v1.2
- Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AG 802.11a/b/g
- Genuine Windows Vista Business (with XP downgrade option)
- Display Image Rotation software
- Dimensions: 1.5"/2.3" (H) x 10.7" (W) x 8.5" (D) (including hand strap)
- Ergonomic hand strap
- Weight: 3.3 lbs
- Battery life: 5-9 hours
- Mini Dock Box Replicator (accessory)
- Wireless on-off switch (WWAN, WLAN, Bluetooth)
- Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR
- Optional integrated WWAN / mobile broadband (EV-DO or HSDPA)
