Panasonic ToughBook W4 Review (pics, specs)

Introduction:

I recently had an opportunity to test a Panasonic ToughBook W4 laptop, the latest ultraportable laptop that is a part of the acclaimed Panasonic ToughBook Series. Panasonic produces an array of innovative and unique laptops geared towards the business user. The ToughBook series is divided into two classes: rugged and semi-rugged. The W4 is part of their semi-rugged laptop series. These semi-rugged laptops are built to withstand the drops and bumps that the mobile business person may endure.

Panasonic ToughBookW4 (viewlarge image)

The review model I was able to obtain had the following specifications:

• Intel Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage 753 (1.20 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 400 MHz FSB)
• Intel 915 GMS Chipset with Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelator 900 with up to 128 MB Shared Video Memory
• 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM Micro-DIMM (1024 MB Max.)
• 40 GB Toshiba 4200 RPM HDD, Shock Mounted
• Built in DVD-ROM & CD-R/RW Drive
• 12.1" XGA Display (non-glossy)
• Intel PRO/Wireless 2915 ABG
• 1 x PC Card Slot
• SD Memory Card Slot
• 2 USB Ports/VGA Out/Port Replicator/Microphone&Headphone
• Jack/Modem/Ethernet

Build Design of the W4:

The Panasonic W4 has a very nice design. The laptop uses an all silver, all magnesium alloy casing. Using this alloy throughout the laptop provides the increased durability found in the ToughBook series. Supposedly, this model can withstand up to 100 kg of pressure. However, I'm not sure I would feel comfortable trying to sit on it or dropping it off a cliff! The laptop also includes a shock mounted hard drive for extra protection.

The casing is well built, with almost no flex to the machine. The LCD screen is firmly attached and I could not produce any ripples by pressing on the back of the screen. For a semi-rugged machine, the casing found near the keyboard and optical drive does seems a little thin, but allows for the machine to be super light in weight. It measures at 2.8 lbs, which is absolutely amazing, considering it has a built in optical drive and uses a 12.1" screen! Frankly put, this laptop is the lightest computer I have ever used!

The overall measurements of this machine are 1.8"/1.0" (at its thickest/thinnest points) x 10.6" x 8.3". All of the ports are located on the two sides of the machine. The front of the laptop has the microphone/headphone jacks as well as a main power and Wi-Fi power switches. Also located on the front is the optical drive switch. Probably the most unique feature of this laptop is the optical drive. It isn't your typical side loading tray found in most laptops. The right side of the palm rest is actually the lid of the optical drive and it opens upward when you press the optical drive switch.

Panasonic W4 left side (viewlarger image)

Panasonic W4 right side (viewlarger image)

Panasonic W4 front side (viewlarger image)

Panasonic W4 back side (view larger image)

Pansonic W4 top view (viewlarger image)

Screen:

The Panasonic W4 uses a 12.1" anti-glare LCD screen. Basically, this is a non-glossy, matte finished screen. Apparently, some complaints regarding previous Panasonic models have been dull looking screens. I found that the W4 screen looks good. It seemed quite bright at maximum settings. In fact, it appeared to be brighter than my Fujitsu S6231 Crystal View screen! Overall, for a matte finish, I thought the W4 LCD screen was very good.

For an ultraportable, I think the 12.1" screen is a good compromise. I have used the Fujitsu P7000 series, and while I think that laptop is an amazing ultraportable, the 10.6" screen found on that machine was too small for my eyes. 12.1" seems like a good choice without compromising the size and weight of the laptop.

Speakers:

As with many smaller laptops, the speakers are not very good. It sounds tinny with little to no bass whatsoever. I wouldn't recommend watching movies without some headphones

Processor and Performance:

The W4 uses the Pentium M 753 Ultra Low Voltage processor running at 1.2 GHz. I don't have a whole lot of experience with this processor, but I found it to be surprisingly quick with the W4 laptop. The machine had no problems running every day productivity programs. I'm not sure how the ULV processor would perform when using CPU intensive programs, but for the typical business user, which this machine was designed for, it should have no problems with day to day office tasks and presentations.

The W4 uses the recent Intel GMA integrated graphics which uses up to 128 MB of the system memory. While good enough to play the occasional non-intensive game, don't expect to use this machine as a gaming laptop. But for watching movies and other basic multimedia tasks, the integrated chipset is good enough.

Below are some benchmarks I tested with this notebook to get an idea of the speed of the notebook. I went ahead and posted numbers from a previous review of the W4 predecessor, the Panasonic W2:

Results for calculating Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy using the program Super Pi.

Notebook	Time
Panasonic ToughBook W4 (Pentium M 753 ULV 1.2 GHz)	2m 27s
Panasonic ToughBook W2 (Pentium M 713 ULV 1.1 GHz)	2m 54s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
IBM ThinkPad Z60m(2.0 GHz Pentium M)	1m 36s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
HP Pavilion dv4000(1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 39s
HP DV4170us (Pentium M 1.73 GHz)	1m 53s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

Futuremark PCMark04 Scores

[/TD]

Futuremark PCMark04 Scores
	Panasonic ToughBook W4 (Pentium M 753 ULV 1.2 GHz)	Panasonic ToughBook W2 (Pentium M 713 ULV 1.1 GHz)
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Compression	2.38MB/s	2.0MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Encryption	17.72MB/s	16.35MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / File Decompression	15.51MB/s	14.42MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Processing	7.17MPixels/s	6.46MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Virus Scanning	1197.861 MB/s	1310.48MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Grammar Check	1.92KB/s	1.66KB/s
File Decryption	35.52MB/s	32.7MB/s
Audio Conversion	1633.83KB/s	1508.28KB/s
Web Page Rendering	3.42Pages/s	2.98Pages/s
DivX Video Compression	88.69FPS	29.9FPS
Physics Calculation and 3D	68.01FPS	41.55FPS

The W4 does seem to be overall faster than its predecessor, the W2.

Overall, I thought the ULV chip of the W4 performed admirably when using every day programs such as MS Office or Internet Explorer. I also had no problems watching DVD movies. For an ultraportable machine, this computer is plenty fast enough

Heat:

The Panasonic W4 uses a fanless design. Therefore, it is whisper quiet. The only noise you can hear is the hard drive spinning. Unfortunately, the machine does produce some heat, especially at the highest processing speeds. While the laptop never became burning hot, the bottom of the computer does get pretty warm, particularly where the memory is located. On slower processing speeds, the laptop was much more comfortable to use.

Keyboard & Touchpad:

Panasonic keyboard (viewlarger image)

The W4 uses an 83-key keyboard. It did take some getting used to. Keys such as the "tab" and "caps lock" are quite small, and I would frequently miss them when typing. The keys are rectangular in shape which also took some getting used to. After a while, I felt more comfortable using this keyboard. The keys were solid, with only a little bit of flex at the F7 and F8 keys. Unfortunately, you have to press the FN key to use the page down and page up keys.

Optical drive open (viewlarger image)

The touchpad has a cool circular design. I thought it had good response and felt comfortable to use. The touchpad also has light indicators for hard drive access, caps lock, etc.

Wireless:

The Panasonic W4 uses the Intel 2915 A/B/G PRO/Wireless chipset. I had excellent reception throughout my house and very good down load speeds. No complaints here!

Battery life:

Battery life might be the W4's strongest point. This laptop uses a 7800 mAH battery that does not protrude from the back of the machine. With Wi-Fi on and low to medium brightness, I easily had 4.5 to 5 hours of battery life. With Wi-Fi off I had over 6 hours of battery life! Simply put, this laptop has the strongest battery life of any laptop I have used. Arguably, it might be the best in its class without having to use an additional battery. The instruction manual of this laptop lists this machine as having up to 7.5 hours of total running time!

Software:

The Panasonic W4 comes with Windows XP Professional. A recovery disc is included to reinstall the OS, DVD player, drivers, etc. Thankfully, the Panasonic W4 doesn't come preinstalled with a bunch of bloatware.

Customer Support:

The Panasonic W4 comes with a standard 3 year warranty. Since this machine is a review model, I did not have to contact customer support. Panasonic offers 24 hours, 7 days a week support by calling a toll-free number. Their website also has some troubleshooting FAQ's as well.

Pros:

• Incredibly light (2.8 lbs)
• Built in optical drive
• Fantastic battery life
• Fanless design makes it whisper quiet

Cons:

• Expensive
• No option for a glossy-type screen (for those that like these screens)
• No DVD Burner

Conclusions:

Overall, I was impressed with the Panasonic W4. For those of you who are looking for a truly mobile, business class notebook, this notebook might be the best in its class. The machine is on the expensive side. However, you are getting a high quality notebook that is durable, light weight, and offers incredible battery life. I am looking forward to seeing future models of the Panasonic ToughBook series.

Pricing and Availability:

 

not bad notebook, but a bit 'lady style'

 

They made some nice progressive updates from the W2 to the W4. It's just a shame they're not easier to find. Most ultra portable buyers have plenty of room in their budgets for somthing like this.

 

Maybe they look effeminate in Lithuania, but most ladies I've talked to about this series think they look too blocky and utilitarian - more for guys.

 

when closed maybe...

 

Nice review. The W4 looks good. It would be nice if Panasonic could release some budget notebooks.

 

EDIT: *new asuses s6*

oh yeah - talking about ladies - pink, covered in leather notebook is more suitable:
http://www.biosmagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=2939

there are more pics here (scroll to the middle):
http://www.ixbt.com/news/hard/archive.shtml?2006/0226

main specs:
Intel Core Duo;
11,1", WXGA;
Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g);
HDD 100 GB;
multi DVD...

comes with special case and mouse with leather.

sorry if i'am repeating something you allready know...

 

WoW! verygood at 2.8lbs with Optical drive and 12.1 Screen. Nice review.

I would be really good for business executives on the go. Light, strong with built-in optical drive with 6+ hours battery.

 

Great Review. * * * * *

Here's a dumb question. The palm rests of the W4 look like stylized with stripes of small grooves. I don't know if they are really there, or a cool illusion. If they are they're, how comfy are the palm rests?

Btw, Pink notebook? Sounds sexy to me. =)

 

Yes, those are small grooves, however, the palm rest was comfortable.

 

I'm talking about asus s6 not W4...

 

Nesbo,
Nice review. You covered the bases. While you might have been blown away by the battery life, I was blown away by the fact that you felt the screen was even brighter than the Fujitsu. If thats the case then that would mean this panny is running somewhere well over 200nits!! That would be something like an improvement of 100% over the W2.

How did other aspects of the screen measure up to the fujitsu? For example it has been noted on this site and others that Panny screens in the past have had impure color and bleaching of color over certain portions of the screen.

Last, will you be getting a T4 to look at as well? I note that the display on the T4 is a touch-screen so possibly it may still carry on with the prior dimmer
screen! I think this is an important point for many buyers to keep in mind, just because the W4 has an improved screen does not mean the T4 will as well. Note however one aspect that the T4 will impress even more the with the W is its battery life- said to be somewhere around 8-10 hours. It will be quite a decision between the two Panasonics.
JL

 

Well, when I put both machines on maximum brightness, it did seem that the Panasonic was brighter. Keep in mind, the S6231 isn't as bright as the newer fujitsu modesl (s6240 and s2110) I can say for certain that I didn't find the brightness of the panasonic to be a hinderance. I can also say that screen appeared brighter than my Dell Inspiron 9300 (matte finish as well) I just hope I am not false advertising because I have never actually used the W2 so I don't know what the screen brightness is like with that model.

As for other aspects of the screen, the Crystal View of the Fujitsu does seem to enrich colors better compared to the Panasonic. I did not notice the impurities you mentioned on the W4 but as I don't have much of an artistic eye, I probably wasn't paying that much attention to color detail.

Unfortunately, I will not be getting the T4. I believe a review for that will be presented by someone else.

 

Whats with the circular mousepad? Weird, or maybe I find it weird because I am just so used to see every notebook wire a rectangular one...

Good review and seems like a good notebook otherwise for business users .

 

The W2 brightness was terrible. I've seen them both, I can assure you the W4 is much better.

 

I think the circular touchpad is highly unique and attractive.

 

is the circular touchpad actually useful? or do you still pretty much use a rectangular section? and are the scroll zones still along the circumference, or are they straight lines?

does it have to be that thick to allow proper fanless cooling?

 

scroll zones are along the circumference. I still tend to use a rectangular section. I just think it's more asthetically pleasing more than anything else.

 

Great review.

Now lets see a video of you dropping it down a flight of stairs...

 

That's a beauty. 100kg of pressure? Interesting. . .

Great pictures, I enjoyed reading the whole review.

Chaz

 

You know I thought about running over the laptop with my car but thought Panasonic would never let me review their notebooks again!

 

Have you seen the 14.1" SXGA+ model, the Y4?
What is the screen like on it?
Also, you didn't mention the hard drive. Don't the W4 and Y4 both have the slow 1.8" 4200rpm hard drives?

Thanks,
Andrew

 

I have not seen the Y4, unfortunately.

The hard drive is the slower 4200 rpm drive.

 

Was told today by panasonic tech support that their touchscreen T series has a brighter screen than the W series. In light of Nesbo's review here, I would call what they say into question. It could very well be that the W4 has a totally new screen whereas the T4 gets a carryover screen. Too bad their won't be any way to compare the two.

 

LOL. "Opps...I accidently left my laptop under my car and happen to have a camera filming it as well..."

 

Anyone know about the brightness or quality of the Y4 screen?
I had previously read that the Y2 screen was very dim.

Andrew

 

Hey, nice review. Makes me want to sell off the old W2 and re-buy just for the faster CPU and the display! Oh, and by the way, these units can take the Swiss Bit 1GB SODIMM giving the total RAM a whooping 1.5GB. The older W2 had 256 on the board giving it a 1.25GB total but hey, who is complaining? Whenever anyone (guys usually) want to hold these units I tell them it is a piece of controlled air...that buggers their brains when they hold it!

 

Panasonic tech told me that the nits (brightness) ratings were:
W4: 230 cd/m2
Y4: 200 cd/m2

They did not have the nits ratings for the discontinued W2 or Y2, but wouldn't these both be brighter screens than previously?

Also, they told me that the hard drives were 2.5" 4200rpm, not 1.8" for both the W4 and Y4. Can anyone confirm this, because this is not what I had been previously told? Also, can W4 or Y4 hard drives be upgraded without destroying the notebook?

Andrew

 

I wish I had checked more closely about the hard drive. I apologize Andrew. I have already sent back the review model. Doing searches on the internet, I am seeing that the hard drive is being listed as removeable. There was a cover area with 2 screws where the hard drive was seated, so I would think it is accessible.

 

I was told by Panasonic tech that the hard drive "might be removable" on the Y4, but that they were not sure!! (if you can believe that).
Not the greatest support quality overall, in my brief experience. One guy referred to "XGA" as "UGA"!!

Update: the last tech I spoke to told me that the Y4 hard drive was DEFINATELY removeable. Not sure about the W4, since I didn't ask about it.

As for the "ELite colors" that these things come in, would the standard silver color be the most durable finish, or is it a painted-on finish as well??

Andrew

 

Aamsel,

Wow. How did you manage to find someone at Panasonic who actually knew what they were talking about? I must have spoken to about 3 techs who were as clueless as a lost 3 year old?

The nits rating for the W4 seems to be in keeping with Nesbo's comments. Anywhere around 200 legitimate nits is pretty darn good for a 12 in.

I wonder actually if the US is getting a brighter screen than Japan- as I spoke to dynamism a few days ago and they told me they felt there W4's looked about average. I also wonder if the US W4 gets the same updated chassis as the japanese mode? Indeed it sure would be nice to know what the US gets vs what Japan does.

 

The HD in all of the W and Y series are 2.5" and can be upgraded by the user. I know of several who have dropped the 60GB 7200rpm Hitachi drives into the W2 and Y2 models. To make a regular (new) 5V drive work, cut the pin 44 (key for 3.3V operation) and the pin 41 (logic supply). It is not necessary to connect pin 41 to pin 42 (spindle motor supply) if they're already connected internal to the drive, which they are in the stock Panasonic circuits.

 

It is not surprising that the new screen feels so bright.

I read somewhere that the brightness of the screens of new Panasonic ultraportables is as high as 500 Candelas per square meter. This makes them the brightests screens on the market, two times brighter than those we used to call bright before.

Now I really wish I had money for those beauties.

Btw, there were complains about the loud optical drives on the previous generation of these machines. Is the problem still show up on the new version?

 

Now that I think of it, the optical drive did sound loud.

 

Do you know WHERE you read that?

Andrew

 

There is a Toshiba utility that will "hush" the optical drives on just about any notebook. Of course, it will also slow them down, but it does work.

Andrew

 

So then...Panasonic uses 3.3V? Are they the only manufacturer doing this?

Andrew

 

wow! are you sure the screen is that bright? How does it compare to a Fujitsu P7010? I was seriously considering a lateral move to the Panny if the screen was comparable to my fujitsu. Might just have to order one from Japan to find out.


The japanese ones have a DVD-multi instead of the combo drive and currently come with the 1.3GHz Pentium Ms. Warranty is non-existant except with the importer.

Hmm, I have some pretty good options now.
1. Keep my P7019
2. Get a Thinkpad X60s (sucks that it doesn't have a built-in optical drive)
3. Get the Panny (no centrino duo)

 

Really don't remember the site. It was just a couple of days ago, I even wanted to post it here but did not know were ...

I think the brightest screens I have seen so far were like 350 cd/m^2 (on Sony T series?). 500 cd(m^2 is really astonishong. Maybe it is mentioned in some panasonic press release?

 

Raysmd,

Its worth noting that the Japanese Toughbook might not have the new 230nit US screen- just like we get a much different keyboard. Panasonic USA might have made the change specifically due to very negative US feedback on the W2? ANd I'm not sure if anyone except panasonic japan would be able to say which screen is which. JL

 

actually,

I was in Japan 3 weeks ago and saw the new W4 there. The screen was pretty good, but still inferior to the P7010. Having said that, I still believe the japanese models have everything the USA models do, plus more. It's a japanese company and obviously they would make sure they get the best components. That's why they didn't send over the dvd-multi.

 

Ray,

Well Fujitsu lists the 7010 as:
10.6" wide-format Crystal View XGA LCD; (1280 x 768 resolution); 240 nits LCD brightness, 150:1 contrast ratio? Is the 7010 brighter than the 6310 that nesbo describes?

Anyway at least for me I'd take a quick check at a panasonic dealer if there are any somewhere near you- I think it might at least be worth a quick look. JL

 

@jl123

Well, I can only tell you some lab measured spec datas for the european CF-W4 and CF-T4 models so far.

• Toughbook CF-W4
  Display luminance: 3...150 cd/m²
  Display contrast: 279:1
  Viewing angles: 47° hor./24° top/51° bottom
  Batt. runtime: 5.4h (office), 6.1h (presentation), 4.6h (DVD-video)
  Batt. load time: 4.1h
  Batt. runtime after 1h loading: 1.3h
  Loudness normal/under load/DVD: <0.3 Sone/<0.3 Sone/3.7 Sone
  Quality Audio-output/dynamic/frequency: +/-81.9 dB(A)/0.8 db
• Toughbook CF-T4
  Display luminance: 3...118 cd/m²
  Display contrast: 229:1
  Viewing angles: 50° hor./23° top/56° bottom
  Batt. runtime: 7.8h (office), 8.8h (presentation), - (DVD-video)
  Batt. load time: 5.1h
  Batt. runtime after 1h loading: 1.5h
  Loudness normal/under load/DVD: <0.3 Sone/<0.3 Sone/ -
  Quality Audio-output/dynamic/frequency: +/-82.7 dB(A)/0.9 db

Both models offer good battery runtimes, but the CF-T4 with the dimm TFT-panel of course even more. The TFT of the CF-W4 is therefor much more luminant, but far away from over 200 nits. As I often said before, you shouldn't believe all of that vendor related marketing blabla about their theoretical luminance values.

Further the memory is limited to 1 GB RAM which seem to be Micro-DIMMS with 172 Pins and no common SO-DIMMs. The keyboard has small flimsy caps (just 16mm height, but mostly normal 19mm wide) and needs some addiction, especially the Enter, Tab and cursor keys are here smaller than usual. The touchpad also needs some training in order to be usable, since one often glides over it's round area.

However, these Panasonic Toughbooks might be ideal for those people who work in the mobile service provider domain, since these subs offer good and long battery runtimes.


Hope this helps?

 

Well, it does not really help, it confuses actually.
For Panasonic to quote me 230 cd/m2, and have it test out at 150 cd/m2 is just not conceivable. If they had rated it at 230 and had it test at 212 or 205 would be normal, but not 150. Something is just way, way wrong there!!

Andrew

 

That why I say by all means someone should see if the US screen is different!
Also Ray next time your in Japan please check the Japanese T4 maybe thats yet another different screen- not a touch screen! JL

 

Well, so far I've never saw any by a notebook vendor advertized luminance value to be reached in reality. Most vendors advertize just the by the TFT-panel suppliers named theoretical spec value for TFTs, which usually are never reached in reality. This is often due to the backlights and the limited power the inverters are driven for notebook panels, in order to consume less power and thus to offer finally longer battery runtimes.


Here are some posts of other notebook luminance values, as you can easily see from these, there is usually no notebook which offers what the vendors are promising.

- posting 1
- posting 2
- posting 3
- posting 4
...and so on...

...just do a search over the IBM/Lenovo group.

 

I realized fully that published brightness specs are not usually achieved, but was stunned for the W4 to be 80 nits dimmer than was spec'ed.
That is WAY off the spec.

Andrew

 

Has anyone definitively figured out if the W4 screen is any brighter than the W2 or T4?? Last week I had the chance to see only a W2 andT4 first hand, and the screens were not as bright as I would feel comfortable with.

 

Our fellow moderator, Brian, has seen both the W4 and W2 and he says that the W4 is indeed much better in brightness than the W2. Unfortunately, I don't know how it compares to the T4. All I can say, is that I had no problems with the brightness level of the W4 and I tend to be a very picky person.

 

Or, has anyone seen a current Y4, compared to a Y2?
Panasonic's quote of 200 cd/m2 for it seems also difficult to believe. The Y2 was quite dim, according to any reviews I read in the past.

Andrew