Panasonic Toughbook 55

From £2,133 | $2,290 www.panasonic.com A surprisingly practical and modular platform

- 

There are lots of working environments were normal computer equipment wouldn’t survive for long. Those in the military, or working with a disaster support agency, or even on a construction site can’t have a mission-critical computer die because of rain, or dust.

For those applications, something beyond a typical Ultrabook is needed. Having had the Panasonic Toughbook 55 for a couple of months, we’ll state from the outset that this machine is a highly tuned answer to the problems we’ve mentioned, and dozens of other situations.

There’s a price to pay though. Our review machine was £2,476 in the UK. Cheaper variants with HD non-touch screens are available.

Design

It’s a cliché, but all toughened computers need to have visible screws, and the Toughbook 55 has plenty of those. However, what most purchasers will notice first is that this isn’t a slim and elegant design. It’s a chunky and angular piece of technology that is dominated by a substantial carry handle at the front.

Behind the handle is a central touchpad with two thumb-activated buttons that extends to the very edge of the keyboard area.

Panasonic provided a well proportioned keyboard where the keys aren’t flush against each other, and there is still room to the left and right for narrow borders under which the speakers live.

While thicker than normal, this doesn’t appear a radical departure for laptop layout, until you realise that it has no visible ports. None.

There are ports, more than we imagined, but they’re all safe behind protective doors and covers that enable this design to achieve IP53 dust and water resistance and meet the US military’s MIL-STD 810H requirement. We wouldn’t leave one exposed to rain for an extended period or buried in sand. But these protections should keep it from failing at the drop of rain or being dropped.