Panasonic’s 14” Toughbook 54 is Thin, Light and ‘Semi-Rugged’

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

The Toughbook 54 sacrifices a bit of ruggedness on the altar of portability

It’s not often that laptop manufacturers tout the lightness and thinness of a rugged or semi-rugged device. Panasonic’s announcement of the all-new Broadwell-powered Toughbook 54 on Friday was one such rare occasion. The latest in a long line of semi-rugged laptops going back to 1998, the Toughbook 54 is said to be the thinnest and lightest device in its class.
At 4.2 lbs, the Toughbook 54’s base model is over 25 percent lighter than the lightest configuration of last year’s Toughbook 53. And in case you haven’t inferred as much already, the Toughbook 54 is also considerably thinner than its Haswell-based predecessor.
The significant reduction in size and weight has come at a cost, though. The Toughbook 54 (PDF) can only withstand drops from a height of 76cm, which is a significant drop (pun intended) from its predecessor’s 1-meter impact rating.
Here’s a quick rundown of its specs:

• Processor: 5th Generation Intel Core i5-5300U vPro (3MB cache, 2.3GHz up to 2.9GHz)
• Display: 14.0” IPS 1080p full HD display (Gloved Multi Touch and Performance
• models) or 768p HD display (Lite and Prime models)
• RAM: 4-16GB RAM (8-16GB on Performance model)
• Storage: 500GB HDD main drive (optional 128GB SSD, 256GB SSD, 1TB 7200rpm HDD); 128GB SSD or 256GB SSD optional second drive
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5500 (all models); AMD FirePro M5100 graphics (Performance model)
• Ports and Connectivity: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, Intel Wireless Display (WiDi), 10/100/1000 Ethernet (two LAN ports on all models except Lite), 4G LTE (optional), three USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA (optional), GPS (optional) and contactless SmartCard/NFC reader (optional).
• Battery: 8 hours (15 hours with opt. 2nd battery) for Lite model; 11 hours (18 hours with opt. 2nd battery) for all other models

According to the company, the IP5X- and MIL-STD-810G-certified Toughbook 54 will go on sale later this month starting at $1,499.
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