Panasonic CF-53 Toughbook 14in rugged laptop

A bit of a hard case

The rough with the smooth

The PCMark 7 and 3DMark06 scores of 2173 and 4120 respectively were wholly unremarkable and in the case of the latter, wholly irrelevant because this clearly is not a machine you buy to play Crysis 2 on. The flip side of those lightweight numbers is that the CF-53 Toughbook is both very quiet and very cool even when running under load.

Benchmark Tests

PCMark 7 Results

Longer bars are better

Panasonic reckons the battery is good for 10 hours and it is not far wrong. With the screen brightness set at 60 per cent and the Wi-Fi radio on, I easily managed to get to the 7hrs 30m mark, even when three of those hours were spent watching HD video. Run Futuremark's new Powermark battery benchmark and you get a result of 3hrs 42m but that’s the power-use equivalent of taking hold of someone’s goolies and squeezing very, very hard.

Made for the long haul

Verdict

Built like Hadrian’s Wall and likely to last just as long, the Panasonic CF-53 Toughbook is perfect for anyone who wants a laptop for use beyond the office and domestic bliss. The bright non-reflective screen is ideal for outdoor use and the chunky battery means you won’t be forever searching for a power socket. For the price though, I’d really like to have seen a standard-fit webcam, a backlit keyboard and maybe even a 3G modem. ®

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