Panasonic Toughbook W4
Review
Boom! Bang! Ruff! Those are the sounds your laptop hears when its being shuffled, thrown, and shaken around in its little air-tight bag. You will never know what happened until you power it on to only discover a blank screen.
Frequent travelers face the possibility of their laptop malfunctioning, so it's vital that it can withstand the bumps & grinds inherent in everyday travel. Panasonic introduced a solution with their Toughbook laptop series, designed to handle the rugged lifestyle that seems to be more prevalent than ever for busy travelers. The ToughBook W4 is Panasonic's newest model in the Toughbook series, incorporating a 12.1-inch XGA LCD, a battery efficient Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, and 512MB on board memory (upgradeable to 1GB) to sufficiently handle most office applications.
Built for road warriors, the ultra-portable Toughtbook W4 weighs a mere 2.8 pounds, is wrapped around a magnesium alloy case for added durability, and a battery life advertised to last over 6 hours. Unlike the Lenovo X60/X41 which excludes a built-in optical drive, the Toughbook W4 has a built-in DVD/CD-RW optical drive yet still retains a thin-and-light profile, much like the Sony TX. While the W4 lacks some of the features that the Sony TX and Lenovo X-Series posess, this machine still has everything needed to be productive.
Of course, a laptop built for people on the go has to also look good too, right? The Toughbook W4 is available in a variety of colors, including Galaxy Black, Merlot, Glacier White, or Steel Gray to add style for the road.
Design
Portability
Mobility is in, especially for people who travel frequently where every ounce matters. Classified as an ultra-portable, the Panasonic Toughbook W4 is small, lightweight, and compact just like the Sony VAIO TX we reviewed earlier. The only notable difference is the Toughbook has an obviously thicker LCD lid crafted of magnesium alloy, but when toting it around you will not notice a difference in weight between the two laptops.
Measuring 10.6-inches wide, 8.3-inches long and only 1-inch thick at the front section extending to 1.8-inches thick towards the back, the ultra compact notebook is made to slip inside virtually any carry case or backpack. For a perfect fit, it's recommended to use a carrying case made to compliment its size, such as the Samsonite L25 Ultra Portabl e case. At 2.8 pounds with the standard battery, the Toughbook W4 is intended to accompany you everywhere you go, best suited for heavy travelers such as students and business professionals.
The Toughbook W4 compared to the Lenovo ThinkPad T60 15-inch laptop.
Case and Design
As the Toughbook name implies, the W4 is made to withstand the bumps & grinds that are inherent in everyday travel. The W4's casing is composed of magnesium alloy, which is more durable and stronger than the more standard ABS plastic found in the majority of laptops. Characterized as semi-rugged, it combines durability in a light weight form factor. This is not to be confused with the full-rugged Toughbook laptops that are designed to withstand extreme amounts of abuse, but are more bulky.
The outer top lid has a very rugged look, as the Panasonic emblem sits between two bulging blocks extending outwards. This adds a thick layer on the LCD panel for added stiffness. Compare that to the razor thin panel found on the Sony VAIO TX, which is comprised of carbon fiber and feel more flimsy than the Toughbook.
Don't mess with me!
Besides appearing very heavy-duty the Toughbook W4 is aesthetically pleasing, as it maintains a very simple color scheme of mostly gray with the keyboard coated in white. Panasonic does offer a variety of colors for the top external lid, including white, black, and red if you want to spice up the W4.
Magnesium Alloy chassis adds endurance and good looks.
On the front section of the W4 you will find the power switch that illuminates green when the computer is powered on, the wireless LAN switch & indicator, Economy Mode, and the battery indicators.
Keyboard
The white 83-key keyboard contains all the essential keys, notably the Windows and Ctrl keys at the bottom left of the keyboard; compared to the ThinkPad X41 which does not have the Windows key. The PgDn, PgUp cursor keys are also present but require users to press the function (Fn) key, similar to the embedded numeric keypad on most laptops. Panasonic managed squeeze in a Home/End standalone key, using the Fn key for End. The Caps Lock, Shift, Alt, Tab, Backspace, and Enter keys are small compared to the VAIO TX, so there is a greater likelihood that you might miss them. Despite this difference, the Toughbook W4's keyboard appears quite similar to the VAIO TX, especially having the majority of the keys similar in size. Unlike the Fujitsu P7010 where most of the keys are very tiny measuring about .5-inch wide, making it difficult to hit at times, the majority of the keys on the Toughbook W4 are close in size (.75-inch wide) to the keys found in a full-sized keyboard (Logitech diNovo keys measures .80-inches wide). Only the top row keys (ESC, function keys) are slightly smaller than the rest.
Like most laptop keyboards, there are function (Fn) keys used in conjunction with the F keys to alter the screen brightness, toggle audio volume, put the computer to sleep and switch to an external monitor when connected. When toggling one of these function keys, such as the screen brightness for example, it will activate an on-screen brightness indicator. This helps you identify exactly which brightness settings you want to select. The on-screen indicator applies to other function access buttons as well, including the volume adjustment and battery status. With plenty of room above the keyboard, we would like to see Panasonic incorporate more hot keys for quicker access.
Compact notebook, compact keyboard (Enlarge Image)
Due to the notebook's diminutive size, the 10-inch compact keyboard takes a little practice getting accustomed to (compare this to the Acer TravelMate 8104 keyboard, which is 11-inches wide), as its only 90% of a full-sized keyboard. As I've mentioned earlier, most of the keys are similar in size to the keys of a typical full-sized keyboards which is quite impressive. After typing on this keyboard for some time now, I can type fairly quickly and accurately; and somewhat more comfortable than the keyboard on the VAIO TX. This layout is still rather cramped, making it uncomfortable at times to type, especially for long periods of time. Keep in mind this is normal for an ultraportable machine.
The keys feel moderately stiff when depressing them, but not as stiff as Fujitsu's LifeBook P7010 or the Sony VAIO TX. Key travel length is actually quite comfortable, similar to the LifeBook's 2mm travel distance. Noise generation is minimal when typing, but more audible than the key stroke exhibited from the VAIO TX. Below the palm rest is where the optical drive is stationed.
Touch pad
One of the many unique design elements on this laptop is its touchpad, which is round opposed to the default horizontal shape on most laptops. The touchpad measures 1.8-inches wide and 1.8-inches in length and forms a circle, offering sufficient surface area to allow comfortably gliding of one's finger. The grey flush surface is clean and smooth, sensitive to touch and responds accurately to movement. As with most touch pads, it also allows for tapping to execute an action if you prefer not to use the click buttons.
Since the touchpad is a rounded form, the edge of the surface area has a function to scroll vertically. This allows you to scroll in applications like Internet Explorer when sliding your finger in the appropriate direction. Surrounding the touchpad's surface area is a chrome ring that contains status indicators (i.e. hard drive access, num-lock) and two click-buttons that exhibit minimal noise when clicking.
Design Continued
Connectivity Options
For such a compact laptop, the ToughBook W4 is equipped with a vast array of connectivity options, but still falls behind the robust connectivity options found on the Fujitsu LifeBook P7010 (i.e. S-Video and FireWire). For users who prefer to connect their laptop to an external monitor, television or projector, the W4 supplies VGA output but omits DVI and S-Video.
Front
On the front panel, you will find the power switch & indicator, wireless LAN switch & indicator, ECO (Economy Mode) indicator and battery indicator. The integrated wireless LAN can be activated or deactivated by toggling the Wireless On/Off switch. The headphone/microphone jacks are stationed on front of the computer, allowing for quick and easy access. To the far right is the switch to turn off the optical drive and open the drive's lid.
The LCD panel includes a latch mechanism to secure the display when shut. When shut, the screen hovers slightly over the keyboard and palm rest area, reinforced by two rubber pads to prevent the screen from touching the keyboard and wrist area.
Rear
Nothing to report on the rear side of the computer, just the battery stationed here.
The battery pack doesn't protrude from the rear.
Left Side
On the left-side: power-in, VGA out, port replicator connector, Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card slot, and the PC Card slot.
Right Side
On the right side: two (2) USB 2.0 ports, security lock, LAN and modem port that are protected by plastic covers to prevent dust or debris from filtering through while the notebook is in transit - which is strange since the USB 2.0 port (along with the other ports) are left out in the open.
Heat and Noise
Silent, dead silent. This ultraportable operates at near silent level. Why? The Toughbook incorporates a passive cooling system, meaning there are no internal fans! In fact, there isn't a single air vent on this machine, yet it manages to operate a cool temps. Heat build up on this laptop is minimal. The system becomes slightly warm during heavy loads, but never comes close to reaching uncomfortable levels. Only the bottom section becomes lukewarm. In fact, this notebook is comparable to the Fujitsu LifeBook P7000 and the Sony VAIO TX as being one of the coolest running laptops I've tested. On top of that, the W4 is by far the quietest notebook we've tested to date!
Upgrading and Expansion
Upgrading components of the Toughbook W4 is simple, thanks to the easily accessible memory compartment located on the bottom side of the machine, only requiring a standard Philips screwdriver. Fortunately you can upgrade the memory and hard drive in the W4, where as the VAIO TX only allows you to access the memory. The Wi-Fi mini-PCI adapter is more of a challenge, as it does not offer an easily accessible compartment. Like the Fujitsu LifeBook P7010 laptop, the ToughBook uses the rare and more expensive micro-DIMM (172-pin) memory sticks; compared to the Sony VAIO TX which uses a standard SO-DIMM memory module. Inside the ToughBook W4 came a pre-soldered (non-removable) 512MB PC-3200 DDR2 SO-DIMM module, leaving one empty slot to upgrade.
There is an optional port replicator available to add more functionality and connectivity options for $199.00.
Features
Processor/Chipset/RAM
Using the fundamental components of a modern Centrino notebook, the VAIO TX is powered by the battery efficient Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) 753 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz and the Intel 915GMS chipset. The Intel 915GMS Express chipset is part of the 'Sonoma' platform. This platform supports a number of features including DDR2 memory and an integrated graphics solution (GMA 900). The Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage processor uses a front side bus of 400 MHz and has a thermal design power (TDP) of just 5 watts, one can expect this to be a highly battery efficient processor.
As with all Pentium M processors, the 753 supports Enhanced Intel Speedstep where the CPU adjusts its speed dynamically based on system usage. Unlike the processors that run on 533 MHz front side bus, the Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage 753 clocks down to 600 MHz, instead of 800 MHz due to the lower front side bus speed. Even with the processor clocked at 600 MHz, it is still fast enough to watch DVDs or do general-purpose computing (Web browsing, Word processing) with respectable performance; although it does struggle when I tried to edit photos with Adobe Photoshop.
Intel's Ultra Low Voltage Pentium M processors are identical in architecture, features, and overall performance to that of Low Voltage and regular Pentium M chips. They have the same amount of cache memory, run on a 400MHz FSB, and all in all offer the same performance as other Pentium M's. The difference comes when the chips are manufactured and tested by Intel. When a processor rolls off the line, it is tested and labeled using a method known as 'speed binning.' In this process a chip is tested as to how fast it can operate and under what voltages. Chips that can run at lower voltages are binned for Low Voltage and Ultra Low Voltage applications, just like chips that can run at 1.6GHz but not 2.0GHz are binned for their maximum stable speed. The Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Pentium M 753 runs at a mere 0.94 V at 1.2GHz. This is less voltage than a 400MHz FSB Dothan uses at full speed! And low power doesn't mean low performance: if you were to clock a regular Pentium M at 1.2GHz it would perform the same as our ULV Pentium M.
As stated in the preceding section, our Toughbook W4 comes with one 512MB DDR2 PC3200 (400MHz) micro-DIMM RAM already soldered onto the motherboard, leaving only 1 slot for you to upgrade for a maximum of 1GB. The reason for this is to minimize power consumption and maximize space.
GPU
As part of the Intel 915GMS chipset package, it includes an integrated graphics accelerator to power the video of the Toughbook W4 computer. Key features include DirectX 9 hardware acceleration support, Pixel Shader 2.0, 133-320MHz core clock, 4 pixels pipes and 128MB dynamically shared memory (8MB minimum, 128 maximum).
The Intel GMA 900 graphics utilizes shared memory architecture, meaning the system memory (RAM) is shared with the graphics card. Since shared memory is dynamic, it will be allocated for graphics usage based on application demand. Once the application is closed, the memory that was allocated for graphics usage is then released and made available for system use. During general use, the graphics memory uses 8MB of system memory and can barrow up to 128MB during graphic intensive demand. As a result, the system may slow down when heavy graphics from an application are in demand. These limitations will make it difficult if not impossible to play most modern games. But the W4 was not intended for 3D intensive tasks or gaming in the first place.
Users purchasing a notebook now should consider compatibility for Windows Vista. Any GPU will work with Windows Vista, but to take full advantage of all the eye candy offered in Vista you need a minimum level of graphics performance. Those looking for the full Vista experience should choose ATI's Radeon Xpress200 integrated GPU, Intel's GMA950, ATI's Mobility Radeon X-series, NVIDIA's GeForce Go 6-series, or higher level GPU's. Graphics cards like ATI's Mobility Radeon 9000 series or NVIDIA's GeForce Go 5-series probably won't offer full Vista support, and Intel's GMA900 and Extreme2 IGP's definitely won't. Just keep this in mind for current and future purchases!
Display
Panasonic omitted the use of a glossy-type display in lieu of a matte 12.1-inch anti-glare XGA LCD panel. While it's not as impressive as Sony's XBRITE technology, the W4's screen is still sufficiently bright and colorful. In addition, Panasonic uses a standard aspect ration screen opposed to a widescreen panel like found in the VAIO TX and LifeBook P7000 series.
In 2D desktop use, it provides sufficient brightness and contrast, with colors appearing a bit faded and not nearly as vibrant as displays with a glossy screen. Text is sharp and legible, thanks to the native resolution of 1024 x 768. The response rate is fast enough to keep up with movies without significant 'ghosting.' In addition, scrolling through a webpage full of text does not exhibit much motion blur.
However viewing angles are below average; viewing the screen from a slight side angle (horizontally or vertically) causes little distortion of the colors and brightness, but viewing the screen from above causes noticeable distortion. When watching DVD movies, video quality is smooth and color rendering was fine. If you prefer, the W4 can be connected to an external monitor at up to 2048 x 1536!
Sound
The on-board stereo speaker is positioned above the keyboard. That's speaker as in singular. That's right, there is only one speaker making it a monaural speaker sound system!
One speaker stationed on the right side above the keyboard
Features Continued
WiFi
As part of the 'Sonoma' trio, the W4 is equipped with the Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG card, which can connect to 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networks. As mentioned earlier in the design section of the review, the W4 includes a switch to turn on or off the Wireless LAN located on the front panel, which helps conserve battery when WiFi is not needed. The only wireless format missing here is Bluetooth, which is becoming overwhelmingly popular.
In regards to wireless performance, signal strength and download speeds were excellent overall. Our tests mainly consisted of connecting to a home and office 802.11b/g wireless network with no difficulty to speak of. Signal strength was reported between 'very good' to 'excellent' while using the laptop in my home and business network, even when being about 30 to 40 feet away from the wireless base station.
Optical Drive - Pop Up
One of the major striking designs found on this computer is the optical drive's unique pop-up lid design. As I mentioned in the preceding section, the drive is built below the palm rest area. Slide the open switch located on the front panel of the laptop to eject the lid. The Matshita DVD/CDRW optical drive gives this ultra-portable even more functionality. It's capable of burning CD-R/RW discs only. The drive operates rather loud in comparison to other drives, but manages to load discs fairly quickly. As with all laptops we review, I burned an audio disc with no problems to report.
To conserve battery life, the optical drive can be shut off with the on/off switch located on the front panel of the computer.
The supported disc formats and burning capabilities of the optical drive are as follow:
Write/Read: CD-R Write (24x MAX); CD-RW Write (10x MAX); DVD Read (8x MAX); CD Read (24x MAX)
Hard Drive
Our model came installed with a Toshiba 40GB (MK4025GASL) 2.5-inch hard disk drive with a low 2MB data buffer cache and a slow 4200RPM rotational speed. Unlike the VAIO TX and the Fujitsu LifeBook P7010, the hard drive is user-upgradeable so you can opt for a faster performing hard drive. Incorporating a rugged magnesium alloy shell wouldn't be complete without a shock-mounted hard drive. The drive comes with a nice cushion material to hold the drive in place to prevent shifting when the laptop is in transit.
The drive is virtually silent when operating, more so in idle mode but seeking is noticeable as it makes a crunching-like noise. The 40GB of storage space is contiguous and comes formatted with NTFS.
Battery - Long Lasting
Evidently, this ultra-portable contains several low power consuming components, which equals to highly efficient battery life. The capacity of the standard lithium ion battery is rated at a reasonable 58 Wh (7800 mAh), making the Fujitsu P7010's standard battery rated at 49.6 Whr (4800 mAh) seem puny. This is equal to the battery capacity included in the Sony VAIO TX. To further prolong battery life, Panasonic loaded its trademark Economy Mode (ECO) utility.
If you need more battery life, you can purchase an additional battery from Panasonic for $189.
AC Adapter
The AC Adapter is a commonly overlooked part of a notebook's features, even though it is the most important part! The included AC adapter measures 3.6-inches long, 1.8-inches wide, and 1.1' thick, making it one the smallest AC adapter we've used on a laptop. The AC adapter is extremely light and can easily slip in a carrying case or backpack pocket. Fortunately, it comes with a Velcro strap to organize the lengthy power cables.
Compact, lightweight and extremely portable.
Software
Panasonic included a vast array of software applications to streamline your computing experience and more importantly, omitting any unnecessary software that basically clutters your operating system. The Panasonic original software is comprised of: Touch pad utility, WinDVD, B's Recorder, Optical Disc Drive Power Saving Utility, Economy Mode (ECO), and battery recalibration utility.
Setup Method
The Panasonic ToughBook W4 was set to run at full performance by setting the power scheme set to 'Home/Office Desk' with the AC plugged in, meaning that the CPU will not underclock while running the tests. For the battery performance test, the power scheme was set to 'Portable/Laptop'. This activates SpeedStep technology, which lowers CPU speed when not needed, thus increasing battery life. Screen brightness and audio were both set to 50% and Wi-Fi was turned on while Bluetooth was turned off. Each test was repeated 3 times to ensure accuracy. Before each test was run, the laptop was rebooted and its hard drive defragmented.
Bapco SYSmark2004SE is popular benchmark suite consists of two different performance scenarios and generates an overall score by taking the geometric mean of the individual scores.
- Internet Content Creation: In this scenario, the content creator creates a product related website targeting a broadband and narrowband audience. The user first renders a 3D model to a bitmap, while preparing web pages using a web site publishing tool. The user opens a video editing package, creates a movie from several raw input movie cuts and sound cuts and starts exporting it. While waiting on this operation, the user imports the rendered image into an image-processing package; modifies it and saves the results. Back in the 3D modeling software, the user modifies a 3D model and exports it to a vector-graphics format. Once the movie is assembled, the user edits it and creates special effects using one of the modified images as input. The user extracts content from an archive. Meanwhile, he uses an animation creation tool to open the exported 3D vector graphics file. He modifies it by including other pictures and optimizes it for faster animation. The final movie with the special effects is then compressed in a format that can be broadcast over broadband Internet. The web site is given the final touches and the system is scanned for viruses.
- Office Productivity: In this scenario, the office productivity user creates a marketing presentation and supporting documents for a new product. The user receives email containing a collection of documents in a compressed file. The user reviews his email and updates his calendar while a virus checking software scans the system. The corporate web site is viewed and the user begins creating the collateral documents. The user also accesses a database and runs some queries. A collection of documents are compressed. The queries' results are imported into a spreadsheet and used to generate graphical charts. The user then transcribes a document.. The user edits and adds elements to a slide show template. Finally, the user looks at the results of his work (both the slide show and the portable document) in an Internet browser.
The Panasonic ToughBook W4 was set to run at full performance by setting the power scheme set to 'Home/Office Desk' with the AC plugged in, meaning that the CPU will not underclock while running the tests. For the battery performance test, the power scheme was set to 'Portable/Laptop'. This activates SpeedStep technology, which lowers CPU speed when not needed, thus increasing battery life. Screen brightness and audio were both set to 50% and Wi-Fi was turned on while Bluetooth was turned off. Each test was repeated 3 times to ensure accuracy. Before each test was run, the laptop was rebooted and its hard drive defragmented.
Bapco SYSmark2004SE is popular benchmark suite consists of two different performance scenarios and generates an overall score by taking the geometric mean of the individual scores.
- Internet Content Creation: In this scenario, the content creator creates a product related website targeting a broadband and narrowband audience. The user first renders a 3D model to a bitmap, while preparing web pages using a web site publishing tool. The user opens a video editing package, creates a movie from several raw input movie cuts and sound cuts and starts exporting it. While waiting on this operation, the user imports the rendered image into an image-processing package; modifies it and saves the results. Back in the 3D modeling software, the user modifies a 3D model and exports it to a vector-graphics format. Once the movie is assembled, the user edits it and creates special effects using one of the modified images as input. The user extracts content from an archive. Meanwhile, he uses an animation creation tool to open the exported 3D vector graphics file. He modifies it by including other pictures and optimizes it for faster animation. The final movie with the special effects is then compressed in a format that can be broadcast over broadband Internet. The web site is given the final touches and the system is scanned for viruses.
- Office Productivity: In this scenario, the office productivity user creates a marketing presentation and supporting documents for a new product. The user receives email containing a collection of documents in a compressed file. The user reviews his email and updates his calendar while a virus checking software scans the system. The corporate web site is viewed and the user begins creating the collateral documents. The user also accesses a database and runs some queries. A collection of documents are compressed. The queries' results are imported into a spreadsheet and used to generate graphical charts. The user then transcribes a document.. The user edits and adds elements to a slide show template. Finally, the user looks at the results of his work (both the slide show and the portable document) in an Internet browser.
Bapco MobileMark 2005 is the latest version of the premier notebook battery life and performance under battery life metric based on real world applications.
- Office Productivity: The workloads in this category model a mobile professional at a fictitious automobile company. The worker creates documents using Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, accesses email, and creates graphics and animation with Photoshop and Flash to include in a multimedia presentation. An Internet browser is used to view presentations. The user also invokes file compression and virus detection in the background.
- DVD Playback: The DVD playback 2005 workload is based on a 1 hours 55 minute movie that BAPCo has created from content provided by BMW. The DVD playback test starts the movie playerapplication, sets up a full screen playback, and the loops over the content on the disk in the DVDplayer. This playback will continue until system shutdown at battery depletion.
3DMark 2001 SE PRO build 3.3.0 measures graphics performance by benchmarking the CPU, memory, and graphics through a series of 21 tests, including simulated games, theoretical tests, DX8 feature tests, and image quality tests. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.
3DMark 2003 build 3.6.0 measures DX9 performance through a series of 3D game based sound, graphics, and CPU tests. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.
3DMark2005 build 1.2.0 is a graphics intensive benchmark best suited for the latest generation of DirectX 9.0 graphics cards. It combines high quality 3D tests, CPU tests, and is the first benchmark to require Pixel Shader 2.0 support, making this a highly stressful 3D benchmark.
PCMark 2005 Advanced build 1.1.0 is the latest update to Futuremark's popular overall system benchmarking program. The 2005 version adds multithreading, DirectX 9, Windows Media Player 10, virus scanning, High Defintion video playback (WMVHD), and a vast number of other tests to its suite. Testing your computer's CPU, RAM, hard drive and graphics card, PCMark05 drives your computer to the max to determine its strengths and weaknesses.
Configurations
| Specifications | Panasonic ToughBook W4 | Sony VAIO TX650P | Fujitsu P7010 |
| Processor | Intel Pentium M 753 ULV (1.2 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache) | Intel Pentium M 753 ULV (1.2 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache) | Intel Pentium M 753 ULV (1.2 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache) |
| Front Side Bus | 400 MHz | 400 MHz | 400 MHz |
| Chipset | Intel 915GMS | Intel 915GMS | Intel 855GME |
| Wireless LAN | Intel PRO/Wireless 2915 ABG (802.11a/b/g) | Intel PRO/Wireless 220BG (802.11b/g) | Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG |
| Hard Drive | 40GB Toshiba 2.5" 4200RPM 2MB Cache | 60GB Toshiba 1.8" 4200RPM 2MB Cache | 100GB Fujitsu 4200RPM 8MB Cache |
| Memory | 512MB (1) DDR2 PC3200 400 SO-DIMM Single Channel Mode | 512MB (1) DDR2 PC3200 400 SO-DIMM Single Channel Mode | 512MB DDR333 PC2700 micro-DIMM (2 x 512MB) on Single Channel Mode CL 2.5 |
| Graphics | Intel GMA 915GMS integrated video controller | Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 128MB Dynamically Shared | Intel 855GME |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional w/SP2 | Windows XP Professional w/SP2 | Windows XP Home w/SP2 |
| Battery | 7,800 mAh | 7,800 mAh | 4,800 mAh |
Bapco SYSmark2004SE
Internet Content Creation
Office Productivity
Total Score
PCMark05 Advanced
Here are the associated scores (numbers in bold highlights the higher score):
| PCMark05 Advanced | ToughBook W4 | VAIO TX | LifeBook P7010 |
| CPU | 1933 | 1864 | N/A |
| Memory | 1891 | 1829 | |
| Graphics | 569 | 550 | |
| HDD | 2013 | 2247 |
and the PCMark05 Advanced Overall Score:
3DMark 2001 SE
The Intel GMA900 surpasses the integrated 855GME graphics in the Fujitsu.
3DMark03
The Intel 855GME Graphics just cannot keep up with the Intel GMA 900.
3DMark05
It's neck in neck here.
Battery Performance
Thanks to the massive 7,800 mAh rated battery, the VAIO TX and theToughbook W4surpasses the once battery king Fujitsu LifeBook 7010.
Pros:
- Rugged magnesium-alloy chassis
- Very lightweight and compact
- Sleek and durable design
- Built-in DVD/CDRW optical drive (Some ultraportables have an external optical)
- Decent sized keys
- Runs dead silent and extremely cool
- Long lasting battery life
- Upgradeable hard drive
Cons:
- Slow system performance
- Slow hard drive
- Only 40GB storage capacity available
- No DVD burner option
- No Bluetooth option
- Missing S-Video
- Poor sound quality
- Cramped keyboard
- Missing finger print security
- Expensive
Recommendation
With a magnesium alloy chassis and shock-mounted hard drive, the Panasonic Toughbook represents the ultimate portable computer made to withstand the inevitable rigors of travel and everyday abuse. Every user will appreciate the integrated DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive with its unique top-open design, and of course the passive cooling so it operates completely silent. Despite the slow-performing stock 2.5-inch hard drive, this laptop has a user-friendly replaceable hard drive compartment so you can opt for a faster and larger capacity hard drive; check out our latest 2.5 hard drive tests for more information. While it does support all available WiFi formats, Bluetooth is the missing wireless link that appears to be growing in popularity, especially with more Bluetooth enabled mobile phones becoming widely available
Similar to Sonys VAIO TX, this is one of the most energy efficient laptops weve ever tested and perhaps one of the best. Panasonic clearly had battery life in mind with the on/off switch to disable the optical drive when not in use, the Ultra-Low Voltage processor, and the Economy (ECO) mode software. Lasting almost 6 hours and 20 minutes in our productivity battery test, one can expect to use this machine out and about for an overly sufficient amount of time.
With a rugged magnesium alloy casing and with three lid colors to choose from, the Toughbook W4 gives the impression of a tough, yet modern system to accompany your extensive mobile lifestyle. The instant appeal of this laptop is the rugged factor, combined with unique features such as passive cooling for a completely silent operation and built-in optical drive that will appeal to most travelers.
If you need portability that can handle business tasks, durability to handle bumps & grinds, silent computing, long-lasting battery life, and a built-in optical drive, then the Toughbook W4 might be right for you. For users seeking more security features, Bluetooth, and widescreen display can opt for the Fujitsu or Sony. Lenovos Thinkpad X41 is also another top notch option, although it lacks the widescreen format and integrated optical drive.
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