Panasonic ToughBook 74
Panasonic has come out with a laptop to suit the needs of all those people that do not understand the need to handle a laptop carefully. Well! You never have to worry again. Panasonic ToughBook 74 is a rugged laptop that has been designed to withstand the abuses wielded out by its owners. It is larger than the ToughBook W4. Magnesium-alloy casing gives it the durability that is required for such a laptop.
The features that make this laptop rugged and tough are the casing, a hard drive that is shock-mounted, a keyboard that is spill-resistant, an outdoor screen (which is readable outdoors), and WWAN connectivity. It is ideal for businessmen who travel a lot, taking their computing tasks with them wherever they go.
The Panasonic Toughbook 74 has a metallic black and silver look that makes it look attractive. It weighs 6 pounds and has a 13.3 inch display with a touch screen. For easier navigation, it comes with a stylus. Although, being a traditional laptop, it does not afford the same comfort as tablets do; it’s still quite comfortable touching the screen. The screen has a resolution of 1024x768. The best part of this tough laptop is that the screen does not fade in bright daylight like it happens with the other laptops. It is readable even late in the afternoons under the sun.
The keyboard of Toughbook 74 is very wide and comfortable to use. The keys are firm and sturdier than many laptops. This tough laptop has a track pad that is pretty decent, and although, the mouse buttons are smaller, affords enough comfort to work with. There is an additional savvy feature that adds to the convenience, which is the handle in the front of the laptop itself (not talking about the laptop bag). Below the handle, there is a switch for the wireless radio. There is no other laptop with a handle to the laptop itself and this is a great feature, which will appeal to many people.
The Panasonic Toughbook 74 is called a Toughbook for a reason. It has the capability to withstand drops from heights or ability to tolerate hot liquids being spilled onto the keyboard. It runs fine through it all, unfazed by the abuse.
The Toughbook 74 comes with two USB 2.0 ports, the serial ports, and VGA ports. It also has jacks for the regular headphone and microphone, and has TPE II PC card, ExpressCard54 slot, and a smart card reader that is optional.
Looking at the Networking facilities available, it has a Gigabit Ethernet and a modem of 56Kbps. The option of Bluetooth is also available. It also has a WWAN radio that allows you to connect to the subscription based cellular data network. (You will have to get the subscription before you can use this feature).
The Panasonic Toughbook 74 runs on OS Windows XP professional. This laptop costs $2999 for the configuration of a 1.8GHz Core Duo processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB hard drive, and an Intel graphics card that is integrated. The biggest advantage of this laptop is the battery life, which is very high and much more than offered in many other laptops. It has a huge 7 hour 18 minutes of battery life.
Panasonic made sure that the Toughbook 74 has a warranty to match their long lasting laptop. It has a three-year warranty, which is rarely seen with other laptops, that give a one year warrantee. It also provides free shipping charges for repairs, in the sense Panasonic takes care of the shipping and handling costs. This in itself is an amazing service being provided by Panasonic and one that is going to draw many a customer to them. There is a 24/7 technical support and their website includes all the advice for troubleshooting, driver downloads, as well as the email contact option to their technical team.
Overall, the Panasonic Toughbook 74 comes with certain features like being a tough laptop physically, an exceptionally long battery life, three-year warranty, and free shipping for repairs. This should appeal to the section of customers that look for value for their money and who are frequently traveling.