Although the rugged notebooks are aimed at specific target auditory and are not very popular, the latest member with sturdy construction from the Panasonic’s rugged Toughbook laptop family, comes with a lots of extras that can be found in current generation “normal” notebooks, like Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors, USB 3.0 ports and even 4G LTE modem.
The new 14-inch machine, called Toughbook 53 features magnesium alloy case with handle, measuring 341mm x 48-55mm x 281mm and weighting 2.65 kg, designed to survive from heights of up to 30 inches. It can be equipped with TFT LED-backlit (1366 x 768) display or sunlight viewable touchscreen with same resolution, Intel Core i3-2310M (2.1GHz) or Core i5-2520M vPro(2.5GHz) processors, up to 8GB of RAM, and a shock-mounted flex-connect HDD with quick-release or SSD storage. Standard connectivity is also there, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, plus an optional Gobi2000 3G mobile broadband (LTE 4G mobile broadband later in the summer).
The Toughbook 53 also has spill-resistant keyboard, bigger touchpad, 1.3 megapixel webcam and fingerprint, and SmartCard readers. Mentioned USB 3.0 ports too, VGA, HDMI and an SDXC slot.
The Toughbook 53 with Core i5 model will ship in June for $1,899, the touchscreen version comes July for $2,449, while the model boosted by Core i3 CPU will ship in August at $1,599.
