Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 short note
The Toughbook line continues to impress with the CF-19, a machine that begs to be used and abused in a rough-and-tumble environment. Its daylight-readable touchscreen is the standout feature, along with its bevy of tucked-away slots and ports. At almost $4,300, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill, spill-a-little-coffee-on-it semi-rugged notebook. It’s a fully ruggedized computer that’s designed to perform in the field.
A quick look at the five-pound CF-19 reveals that it is made for tough environments. The industrial-design magnesium-alloy top panel with black hard rubber bumpers looks like it yearns for a dusty, dirty factory or warehouse floor. All of the ports on the back and sides are protected behind hinged plastic doors. An ingeniously placed clasp on the front panel can clamp down the screen in either Tablet or notebook mode and can be hidden out of the way when not needed. On the spine of the notebook is a handy nylon carrying strap, but it doesn’t seem nearly as sturdy as the CF-19 itself and tends to block access to the connection ports on the back panel.
Inside, the hard drive and display are both shock-mounted. Panasonic claims that the system has passed many of the MIL-STD-810F durability tests, including the drop, vibration, water resistance (spray), dust, and humidity tests.
The 10.4-inch screen on the CF-19 may be small by current notebook standards but is typical for rugged Tablets. An extremely fine pixel density enables the screen to support XGA native resolution, or 123 pixels per inch-more than 50 percent greater than a typical screen. As a result, text appeared a bit small, but photos looked extremely sharp. This display held up extremely well in sunlight; we were able to view it outdoors with only a slight loss in contrast. The screen looked fine when rotated, but there was a very noticeable color and brightness shift when tilted up or down. Worse, when we switched to portrait mode to use the CF-19 as a Tablet, the disparity in brightness along the vertical axis became horizontal, making the screen very difficult to read.
The touchscreen on our test unit worked fairly well. Panasonic sells a version of the CF-19 that is compatible with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition ($128 extra) and as a result requires a special stylus. But our version responded to simple touch. Using a plastic stylus, our finger, and even a gloved finger all worked well. We were disappointed, however, that the onscreen keyboard was much too small to be used with anything other than the stylus.
If you don’t like using the virtual keyboard, there is always the real one in notebook mode. Unfortunately, the system’s small footprint means the keyboard is also tiny. The keys are spaced at just over 17mm (2mm fewer than is standard). Also, the typical inverted-T arrow keys are now laid out in a backward L arrangement, and the tab key is barely the size of a pea. Despite the water-resistant design, the keys felt good, but the small size and unorthodox layout make touch typing difficult. If it helps, you can get a backlit keyboard for $335.
Inside is a 1.6-GHz Intel Core Duo processor and an 80GB hard drive. As with many rugged systems, the CF-19 offers a wealth of wireless connectivity options. Our unit came with Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11a/b/g transceivers, and you can add EV-DO and HSDPA WWAN adapters, as well as GPS. On our tests, Wi-Fi throughput was very good at 17.6 Mbps at 15 feet and 16.8 Mbps at 50 feet.
The CF-19 did quite well on our performance tests, too. The MobileMark 2005 score of 190 is about what we expected: midway between the averages for an ultraportable and a thin-and-light notebook. The 3DMark03 score of 1,087 means this system is better suited for real war games than those of the electronic variety. Where the CF-19 really stands out is in battery endurance. On our productivity tests, it lasted 6 hours and 19 minutes with wireless off, more than an hour longer than the average ultraportable.
Panasonic backs the system with a relatively generous three-year limited warranty with lifetime technical support, which is available 24/7. Although it involves making some compromises, the Toughbook CF-19 is a good rugged solution for workers who need both a touchscreen and long endurance.
Add comment March 25th, 2007
