Building on the success of its elegant business notebook CF-W2, Panasonic has launched its new Toughbook CF-W4 in the Middle East. The beautifully designed, high-quality magnesium casing on this model now boasts reduced weight combined with increased robustness, to resist up to 100 kilos of pressure. The notebook is designed particularly to protect the 12.1-inch screen, the most common weak point for mobile computers.
The screen’s flexible mounting also contributes to its special resistance, allowing it to yield to pressure, along with an additional buffer zone integrated into the LCD frame. The motherboard also has a “floating” construction, yielding to strong pressure without causing damage.
Despite its extreme resilience, the new Toughbook CF-W4 weighs only 1290 grams, including battery. The minimal weight makes them ideal companions for sales people, business travellers and frequent flyers, who have to cut down baggage volume and weight but still need reliable protection for their notebook. Being a semi-ruggedized Toughbook, the CF-W4 can even survive falls from a height of 30 cm. The new models feature four times thicker cushioning material than their predecessors, to provide an extra 50 per cent shock absorption.
“The growing mobile workforce in the Middle East and the increased travelling required by modern day jobs, make the Toughbook CF-W4 ideally suited for executives in the region. Not only is this notebook tougher, it also offers excellent performance and comes with a range of user-friendly features,” said Ono Asahiko, General Manager, System Solutions Department, Panasonic.
The interior of the designer notebooks has also been upgraded. An Intel Pentium M processor 753 with a faster 1.2-gigahertz clock speed guarantees fast operation. Energy-saving Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) technology and high-performance Panasonic batteries ensure a significantly increased battery life: the CF-W4 is operable for up to 6.5 hours without interruption, on the basis of “Battery Mark 4.01” (Minimum screen brightness). The reflection-free Active Matrix TFT colour screen is also brighter. The CF-W4’s screen boasts up to 240 cd. This is not achieved by intensifying the LCD backlight, but on the basis of a “diffusing sheet” that distributes light efficiently and evenly.
Intel Centrino mobile technology, supporting all normal WLAN IEEE 802.11 a/b/g standards, enables wireless data transfer rates of up to 54 megabit/s. A brand new feature means the WLAN function can be turned on and off simply using a switch on the hardware side. The standard versions have a 512 MB RAM user memory – extendable up to 1024 MB – and a 40-gigabyte hard drive, which can be changed quickly and easily by unscrewing the casing.
The reinforced PC-card slot and an additional SD-card slot, protected against breakage, can be used to connect external hard drives and read memory cards directly, for example from digital cameras. Like its predecessor, the Toughbook CF-W4 has a Combo drive, which reads both DVD-R and CD-R/W. The drive is elegantly integrated into the notebook’s front hand rest as an open-top drive for enhanced handling. It can now be used in the narrowest of spaces, for example during flights, as there is no need for complicated sideways opening maneuvers.
The Toughbook is traditionally constructed without ventilators, preventing dust and dirt particles from getting inside the appliance. The processor heat is simply discharged via the casing using the “Heat Pipe System”. This system makes the notebooks less susceptible to damage, and has the added benefit of guaranteeing low-sound operation.
Further, the Toughbook CF-W4 can be fitted with an optional Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip. This system-linked interior security component clearly identifies and authenticates the notebook in corporate networks and enables secure data encoding, among other functions.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., (MEI) best known for its Panasonic brand, is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronics products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company posted consolidated sales of US$81.44 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005. For more information, visit the Matsushita web site at http://www.panasonic.co.jp/global/top.html. Panasonic Gulf FZE (PGF) is MEI’s first subsidiary company in the Middle East, followed by Panasonic Marketing Middle East FZE (PMM), which is the regional marketing headquarters of MEI for operations in the Middle East and African countries.
