Review: Panasonic Toughbook CF-74 Business Ruggedised notebook

The Toughbook CF-74 from Panasonic looks like a notebook ready for battle with a reinforced case, shielded ports and sturdy LCD panel.

Beneath this hardy exterior lies an Intel Centrino Duo system, powered by a T2400 dual core processor with a clock speed of 1.83GHz.

Panasonic hasn’t backed up this CPU with even a gigabyte of Ram, preferring instead to supply it with just 512MB.

More memory would prepare this system for the requirements of the forthcoming Windows Vista, especially as the integrated graphics chipset shares what little system memory there is.

As it stands, Windows XP will soon complain about the small amount of Ram when you start opening up multiple applications.

The 13.3in screen is a decent size, but the maximum resolution is a disappointing 1,024x768. While this doesn’t make it unusable for normal tasks, it’s far from ideal when trying to view two windows side by side or a large spreadsheet.

On the plus side, the CF-74 has an impressive battery life, lasting up to eight hours. To further conserve battery power when you’re out and about, the 802.11g Wifi component can be manually turned off using the switch located at the front of the notebook.

We were eager to test just how robust the CF-74 is and contacted Panasonic about the definition of its Business Ruggedised label. It replied that while the notebook can withstand drops of up to 30cm the hard disk will remain intact from a fall of up to 90cm. It is hard to see the notebook being dropped that often from just 30cm, so such a guarantee is a little disappointing.

Despite making some sickening crunches when dropped, it survived our testing without damage or even a scratch on the casing. However, the battery fell out and on closer inspection we discovered a small piece of plastic on the battery had snapped off.

We're waiting to hear back from Panasonic regarding this and will post an update later today.

See the video of our CF-74 drop test.

Storage capacity is 80GB and the hard disk houses extra protection to keep it safe.

The CF-74’s screen has a hardened cover to protect it. However the casing around the hinges doesn’t feel as solid when compared with the rest of the notebook’s build quality.

Another deficiency in the chassis construction is the covering over the speakers, which bends a little too much for comfort.

Uncovered microphone and headphone sockets are located at the front while all other ports are covered with plastic flaps. These include two USB ports, an SD card reader, PC card and Express card slots, 56k modem, gigabit Ethernet and a serial port.

At 2.7kg it’s reasonably light to carry around; this is made even easier by the built-in handle, which folds neatly back into the chassis.

As a result of toughening up this notebook, the keyboard suffers from a lack of space. While the alphanumeric keys are of a regular size, other function keys are smaller and slightly cramped.

There’s no doubt the CF-74 is far more likely to survive drop damage than other laptops, but when you consider that your lap is more than 50cm from the ground it’s far from unbreakable.

Also, with such mediocre components (512MB Ram, integrated graphics, low-resolution screen) you begin to realise just how much of the £2,455 price tag goes towards making the Toughbook robust.

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