Panasonic Launches New Toughbook 40, Its Most Durable Laptop

The iconic Japanese brand’s Toughbook 40 mixes durability with adaptability as the company further positions itself as a leader in the niche rugged laptop market.

Panasonic has announced its new Toughbook 40, a rugged laptop that is a full pound lighter than its predecessor while utilizing eight modular areas to give users up to 70 different hardware configurations.

The clamshell laptop also gives Japan-based tech brand Panasonic its best rating yet for toughness and is tested for up to six-foot drops. The extreme construction means it can handle anything mother nature throws its way – making it perfect for first responders, law enforcement, utilities workers, military and other physically demanding users. The 14-inch machine takes advantage of a modular design to allow quick addition of accessories like a DVD reader, a fingerprint sensor, a smart card reader, extra RAM, hard drive swaps, and much more.

Advanced modularity was first introduced on the Toughbook 55 and proved popular.

Michael Cayes, vice president of business development at Mooring Tech, an Atlanta, Ga.-based Toughbook reseller, said his customers have been pining for a new Toughbook model. “This release is exciting because our customers have been demanding a traditional full rugged Toughbook for five years,” he said. “The modular design solves the historical and annoying issue of locking yourself into a configuration.”

For the past couple of years, Panasonic was focused on evolving its offerings to include rugged tablets and a more modern 2-in-1 style laptop. Cayes said his clients wanted to see a return to form with a new clamshell offering. “They just love the idea of that traditional design and didn’t want to see it phased out,” he said.

In an interview with CRN, Panasonic’s Craig Jackowski, general manager of product management, said the new laptop is the best Panasonic has ever produced. “In the Toughbook world, it’s all about the overall solution,” he said, adding that the channel has been a huge part of the company’s success in the rugged space. “Our business doesn’t go anywhere without our partners.”

Jackowski said Panasonic wanted to focus on “extreme” characteristics of the new device – extreme use, extreme environments, and extreme specifications. The Toughbook 40 ships loaded with an Intel 11th Gen vPro processor, packing plenty of punch for any applications. He said the computer is built to stand up to years of abuse – so modularity was an important feature. “Over that extended period of time, our customers have a device that can change as their business changes or as their work needs change,” he said.

Cayes said customers have already started reaching out to secure Toughbook 40 units. “The Toughbook market is very niche, and this is exactly what those customers wanted,” he said.

Panasonic has added the best available connectivity options as well, with multiple cellular and connectivity options, including a 4G or 5G modem and speeds up to 5.5 GBps. “The Toughbook team is laser-focued on supporting the mission-critical jobs of our customers who work in the most extreme environments and the new Toughbook 40 provides them with the perfect balance of performance, modularity, durability and innovation,” Jackowski said in a statement.

Features and Pricing:

• 14’’FHD touchscreen,1200 nit display

•Rugged certifications include 6’ Drop, MIL-STD-810H, MIL-STD-461H, C1D2, IP66

•Eight modular user-replaceable locations including four expansion (xPAK) areas, as well as the battery, memory, storage and keyboard

•11thGen Intel® CoreTMi5 or i7 Processor (with Intel vPro® Technology)

•Optional AMD dedicated graphics*or Intel Iris® Xe Graphics

•512GB-2TB NVMe main storage (quick-release and user-replaceable)

•16-64GB DDR4 RAM(user-replaceable)

•USB-A and USB-C ports including Thunderbolt™ 4 port supporting 40Gbpsdata transferspeeds, power delivery and daisy chaining up to five monitors

•Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1

•Choice of 4G modem (supports 4G LTE, LTE-A and up to 2 Gbps)or 5G modem* (supports 4G LTE/LTE-A, 5G Sub6/C-band/mmWave and up to5.5Gbps)

•4G and 5G connectivity optionssupportFirstNet® (band 14),CBRS Private LTE (band 48)anddual SIM (physical + eSIM)

•5MP infrared webcamwith privacy cover

•Tetra array microphones and 95db loud speakers

•36 hours of battery life (MobileMark 2014) with optional second battery

•Secure Wipe option to easily and securely wipe the entire contents in less than ten seconds

MSRP: $4,899 (available to purchase late spring)

For more information, check out the company’s product page.