Panasonic ToughBook CF-W4 Review

Trusted Reviews takes a look at the ToughBook CF-W4 from Panasonic, and it earns itself an 8 out of 10 in their review scale.

If the ToughBook CF-29 is the Land Rover Defender of rugged notebooks, then the CF-W4 would have to be the Ferrari F430. The CF-W4 is s semi-rugged notebook, so it’s not as big, heavy and tough as its big brother. Instead it’s far thinner, lighter and sleeker, just like an F430. Of course just like the F430, the CF-W4 can’t take as many knocks as its more robust sibling, but that’s not to say that it can’t withstand the trials of life as a notebook computer.

Being a semi-rugged notebook, the CF-W4 can’t survive a drop of one metre like the CF-29 and CF-18. However, Panasonic will guarantee that it can withstand a drop of 30cm, which is more than you’ll get with most other notebooks. The great thing is that Panasonic hasn’t had to make the CF-W4 any larger or heavier to make it that little bit more robust. The CF-W4 can also withstand up to 100kg of pressure - so you could stack things on top of it, or use it as a seat cushion if you really wanted to.

While I like some of the features of the notebook, I am not really impressed with how they integrated the DVD/cd-rw combo drive, as a hatch that opens upwards. This worries me a bit on the durability of the drive, but I guess something like that will only become apparent later on in the machines life.

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