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
Toughbook-W7
– 3.0 pounds
– DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive
– 12.1" 1024×768 screen
– 7 hour battery life
– Electrostatic touchpad
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
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