Get rough with Panasonic’s new hybrid Toughbook – CNET

Panasonic

We put our devices, especially laptops, through a lot, asking them to survive spills, bumps, knocks, dust and even falls. Your standard clamshell or hybrid can survive some minor brushes with death, if you're lucky, but for more extreme situations there's a specialized category of PCs we call "rugged." The long-time leader in this space is Panasonic, and the company has sold its rugged Toughbook laptops since 1996.

The latest Toughbook, introduced at the MWC 2017 show, is the Toughbook CF-33, which is a detachable hybrid that boasts a number of firsts. Panasonic says it's the world's first rugged hybrid laptop with a 3:2 aspect ratio display. Most laptops have 16:9 displays, the same as an HDTV, but a few, including Microsoft's Surface line, have 3:2 displays.

The 6.1-pound (2.77 kg) CF-33 is available as a tablet-plus-keyboard combo, or just as a standalone tablet. Its 12-inch, 2,160x1,440-pixel touchscreen works with gloves on or even in the rain. A pair of hot-swappable batteries means you can keep it running, as long as you have extra batteries and a charging dock.

Windows 10 Pro is the default OS, but like many professional laptops, a Windows 7 downgrade option is also available. While ports are quickly vanishing from consumer laptops and hybrids, the CF-33 has USB 3.0, HDMI, Ethernet, microSD-XC and audio ports on its tablet half. The keyboard dock adds two more USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, and even serial and VGA ports. In true Toughbook style, the ports are all covered by waterproof doors.

A rugged laptop like the Toughbook CF-33 probably isn't for you -- Panasonic says it's targeted at "police, emergency services, government agencies, defense, field service workers, maintenance and service technicians," so it's overkill if you're just worried about coffee spills.

But if you're looking for an extreme hybrid for your extreme lifestyle, the Toughbook CF-33 will be available in the UK in the second quarter of 2017, starting at 2,630 for the full hybrid, or 2,210 for the standalone tablet. Prices and availability in other regions wasn't available yet, but that works out to $3,300/$2,775 or AU$4,270/AU$3,200.

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Get rough with Panasonic's new hybrid Toughbook - CNET