Light AND durable notebooks? Is it possible? Apparently it is. Panasonic’s three new "business-rugged notebook computers" make up the 7 series and include the the T7 tablet replacement, the W7 ultraportable, and the Y7 thin-and-light. They’re rugged, yes, but here’s the kicker; they’re all under 4 pounds.

All three models come with Windows Vista Business, Intel Core 2 Duo ULV U7500 processors running at 1.06GHz, 80GB shock-mounted hard drives, and 1GB of RAM that’s expandable to 2GB. Here are some of the differences.

Toughbook-T7

- 3.3 pounds

- Fingerprint reader

- 12.1" 1024×768 Touchscreen

- 5-9 hour battery life

- No optical drive

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Toughbook-W7

- 3.0 pounds

- DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive

- 12.1" 1024×768 screen

- 7 hour battery life

- Electrostatic touchpad

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Toughbook-Y7

- 3.7 pounds

- Dual-layer DVD Super Multi Drive

- 14.1" 1400×1050 screen

- 5 hour battery life

- 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB

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All three also include EV-DO Rev. A chipsets for mobile broadband. The Y7 is available now for $2449 and the other two will be available in December for $2099.

Product Page [Panasonic] via Panasonic Press Release