Product Reviews

Panasonic's Toughbooks have traditionally been aimed at what's fondly called the blue-collar market - people who spend their lives in rough conditions, such as out on a building site. They've never needed the latest specifications, because the main requirement has always been durability. With the CF-R1, however, Panasonic is entering a whole different market. This is still a Toughbook - as the extremely solid magnesium shell proves - but the styling and features are much more mainstream.

At first glance, the CF-R1's chassis has a slight air of plastic about it, but a quick tap shows it's actually made of a very special new material. Panasonic claims it has shaved 40 per cent off the volume of magnesium for this frame, keeping weight down without any compromise on strength. It certainly feels incredibly tough, and Panasonic boasts that the notebook is test-proven to survive a 30cm drop. To back this up, the first year of the three-year warranty even covers you for accidental damage.

Although the CF-R1 is a diminutive notebook, it still has room for a decent specification. The 10.4in LCD is bright and clear, and about as large as you could fit into this form factor. There's a fairly comprehensive selection of ports, including two USB 1.1, 10/100BaseTX LAN, V.90 modem, Type II PC Card slot and even an SD memory slot. A proprietary connector is provided for output to an external VGA monitor, plus there are headphone and mic sockets on the front.

The most notable absence is FireWire, which would have been useful for attaching high-performance external devices, especially considering that no external removable storage is supplied as standard. A USB floppy drive can be purchased as an optional accessory, but the lack of an optical drive

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might be a drawback for the non-corporate user, although a third-party PC Card or USB model is always possible. Bluetooth and 802.11b aren't available as options either, except via PC or SD card.

As standard, the CF-R1 comes with an 800MHz Pentium III-M and 128MB of SDRAM, which can be expanded to 256MB, but only through Panasonic's proprietary memory format for an extra £135. This would make a sensible upgrade when running Windows XP with more than just standard office apps. The 20GB Toshiba hard disk is slightly small considering the 30GB model in JVC's even tinier Mini note MP-XP7210 (see Reviews, issue 96, p109), but should be enough for the notebook's lifetime. The Toughbook managed an overall 2D benchmark score of 0.51, which is also behind the JVC, but adequate for a notebook in this category.

The CF-R1 did manage to outdo the JVC (and other) competition in battery endurance. The Toughbook lasted nearly two hours in our heavy battery test and over four hours under light use, which doesn't quite match the up to the six hours claimed by Panasonic, but beats everything else this small - even the JVC with its bulky long-life battery. You'd get even more life out of the CF-R1 with the screen turned right down, although this is only viable in extremely bright conditions.

The biggest downside of this notebook - as is almost universally the case with this form factor - is the keyboard. The keys are almost full size and the layout isn't bad, with reasonably proportioned Shift keys on both sides. However, the action doesn't give enough feedback and the ridges on the J and F keys are not obvious enough, which isn't ideal for touch typists. However, the key size is generally larger than those on JVC's Mini note, making this a less tiring notebook to use over long periods - particularly handy considering the excellent battery life. The strangely portal-shaped round touchpad is also responsive and accurate.

Overall, this is a strong entry into this market for Panasonic. You get a few more standard notebook features for less money from JVC, but not as good battery life. And, of course, the Toughbook deserves its name - this notebook should endure the rigours of life on the move. If that's your priority, but you still want a stylish, up-to-date notebook, then Panasonic's CF-R1 should be at the top of your list.