Pana's semi-rugged notebook with the super hi-res display has grown bigger and wider
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

The Panasonic Toughbook CF-52 is an interesting machine that offers a lot. Even though Panasonic has made it look more like a "real" Toughbook compared to its unassuming looking CF-51 predecessor, on the surface the CF52 seems like just another durable notebook. However, this semi-rugged laptop has a shock-mounted hard disk and a magnesium alloy case that is 20 times stronger than plastic.

On the technology side, the CF-52 was upgraded first from T2300/T2500 Intel Core Duo to T7100/T7300 Core 2 Duo and then to P8400/P8600 Core 2 Duo processors. Available hard disks grew to 80 and 120GB, and then to 160GB, standard memory starts at 1GB and goes up to 4GB, the WiFi module is now Intel's WiFi-Link 4965ABG, and Bluetooth is standard in the P8600-equipped machine.

So why didn't Panasonic simply upgrade the already very good CF-51 one more time? Most likely because they followed the trend away from "standard" aspect ratio displays and to "wide-format" displays. The screen of the CF-52 measures 15.4 inches diagonally. That's actually a bit more than the CF-51's 15 inches, but due to the aspect ratio it has less viewing area. The display comes in two varieties, 1280 x 800 pixel WXGA or a stunning 1920 x 1200 pixel WUXGA. That's as much as the giant Apple iMAC24 we use for production at RuggedPCReview.com.

On the connectivity side, things have evolved as well. Two PC Card slots have given way to just one Type II slot plus a 54mm Express Card slot. Instead of a large variety of optical drive options, you now get a DVD Super MULTI Drive with dual layer support that can do it all. There no longer seems to be a second battery option for the media bay and there is no touch screen option.

Overall, this is a superb machine, and that especially goes for the top-of-the-line model with the 1920 x 1200 display. If you need maximum resolution in a still fairly small and handy notebook that's also semi-rugged, the CF-52 is hard to beat.

On July 16, 2008, Panasonic announced upgrades including migration to the new Intel Centrino 2 processor, enhanced video and graphics capabilities, increased hard drive capacity (160GB) as well as expanded Wi-Fi performance with the addition of 802.11 Draft N.