Panasonic

Panasonic has announced the latest in its series of fully rugged laptops with the Toughbook 40 Mk2. The second iteration of Panasonic’s 14-inch rugged laptop packs Intel Core Ultra processors for the first time, and it retains everything that makes the Toughbook models special. It’s aimed at law enforcement, federal agencies, and utility companies, where a durable laptop is often paramount.

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Panasonic is introducing the TOUGHBOOK 40 fully rugged laptop. It’s still modular, it even has an IP66 rating, and more.

The Panasonic Toughbook 40 Mk2 has high-end specs

Render credit: Panasonic

While you might not think of Panasonic for its premium laptops, the latest model does come with Intel’s latest and greatest, with Intel Core Ultra processors up to a Core Ultra 7 165H with vPro technology. It also comes with Intel Arc graphics and even an optional discrete AMD Radeon Pro W6300M GPU for workloads that demand more powerful graphics processing. You also get up to 64GB of RAM and 4TB of SSD storage across two M.2 NVMe slots, which are all user repleaceable.

In fact, another big selling point of the Toughbook 40 Mk2 is that it’s a very customizable and upgradeable laptop. This new model has four expansion areas for the company’s xPAK modules, which include all kinds of ports and features. One of those modules is an updated barcode scanner that now has twice the amount of pixels and three times faster scanning, in addition to increased brightness and a wider scanning area. There’s also an updated contactless smart card reader to meet new security standards, and a whole new xPAK that includes ports such as USB-C- USB Type-A, and HDMI.

What’s more, the laptop has pretty good connectivity overall, including support for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, and both 4G and 5G, including FirstNet support and private CBRS cellular service. There’s also a new COM splitter software that allows multiple applications that require GPS information to work simultaneously.

It lives up to its name

Render credit: Panasonic

What the Toughbook brand is known for the most is durability and a design made for challenging and unique environments. That’s why the display on the Toughbook 40 Mk2 is a 14-inch panel with up to a whopping 1200 nits of brightness. That’s not for HDR, it’s how bright the entire screen can get, and it’s so that workers out in the sun can still see the screen with no issues. It’s even a touchscreen that works if you’re wearing gloves, so those same workers don’t have to take off protective equipment to use the PC.

It’s very durable, too. Panasonic says the laptop is tested for 6-foot drops, and it’s certified with MIL-STD-810H, MIL-STD-461H, C1D2, and IP66 classifications, meaning this laptop can take a beating, get hit with powerful water jets or dust, and even exposed to electromagnetic interference without breaking down. It’s not an easy laptop to break.

That kind of durability and features don’t come cheap, though. The Panasonic Toughbook 40 Mk2 is available today, and it starts at $4,699.