Rugged Powerhouse Unleashed: The $4,000 Contender That Outshines Dell's Latitude - Tested & Reviewed

Expert Review: The $4,000 Durable Powerhouse That Outshines the Dell Latitude

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

Panasonic’s new Toughbook 40 Mk2 is available now via a host of featured resale partners from Panasonic’s site. The price can vary substantially based on what kind of configuration you opt for.
It has an incredibly long battery life, can perform in extreme temperatures, and even has a nice keyboard to boot.
The tradeoff for its durability results in a low-resolution display, a finicky touchpad, and high price.

Late last year, I tried out Panasonic’s Toughbook 55 , a rugged laptop capable of withstanding harsh environments and tough enough to be dropped without fear of breaking. Recently, I tried out the company’s latest model, the Toughbook 40 Mk2 , and I prefer it over its predecessor for its exceptional toughness and impressive features.

The first thing you notice is that it’s more compact than last year’s model, but it’s still quite a chunky computer. It measures 14 inches, is over two inches thick when closed, and weighs a whopping 7.4 pounds. I urge interested buyers to be careful when handling the device so you don’t drop it. Not because you’ll damage it, but you might actually damage your floor. This thing is rock solid.

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Like the last model, the Toughbook 40 Mk2 supports XPAKs. These are modules that you can equip to add on extra features like a DVD player or extra ports. My review unit came with 11 different inputs total including a USB-A, USB-C, ethernet, and a HDMI port. Support for the XPAK system is the series’ shining feature and enables some interesting configurations.

ZDNET RECOMMENDS Pansonic Toughbook 40 MK2 Panasonic Toughbook 40 Mk2 introduces several upgrades including an NPU and 64GB of RAM to boost hardware performance. It offers in-depth customization via XPAK modules. View at Panasonic

For example, my unit came with two batteries, allowing the laptop to last over 22 hours straight on a single charge. That is not an exaggeration; it really lasted almost an entire day. What’s neat is the the model comes with a couple of lights below the keyboard letting you know when one battery is low so you can swap it out for a fresh one if you have multiple.

The keyboard has some cool tools all its own which can be found with the P keys. P2 activates Concealed Mode to instantly dim the display, P3 turns on Night Mode which covers the screen with a red filter and changes the keyboard’s backlighting from white to a similar reddish hue. P4, however, is my favorite: it lets you change the color of the backlight to one of four: white, red, green, or blue.

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Panasonic’s machine is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 165H processor, a whopping 64GB of RAM, and like many recent laptops, an NPU (neural processing unit) ensuring solid all-around performance. I had multiple pages open with video playing on many and it all ran as smooth as silk.

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I ran a couple of benchmarking tests to see how well the device performs, and it achieved an average score of about 10,700 on Geekbench ; not too shabby for a laptop equipped with the Ultra 7 CPU. Prior to receiving the Toughbook 40, Panasonic told me they designed their machine to perform well under extreme temperatures. I wanted to test if this was true.

Following the instructions given to me, I threw the Toughbook 40 Mk2 into my freezer for about half an hour for one test. Then on another day, I put it inside my car sitting directly under sun where internal temperatures reached over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I wanted to see if there were any drops in performance. As it turns out, there weren’t.

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET

Scores were mostly the same on the benchmark tests after taking the laptop out of the freezer. But I did notice a small dip in the final score after being in the hot car. It seems hot temperatures slow down the Toughbook’s ability to render images and web pages, but only barely. So long as you provide adequate ventilation, everything will be fine.

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Although the hardware performs decently, I do take issue with the touchpad. It’s slow. Simple tasks such as switching tabs can take several seconds because the input doesn’t always go through. There were times where I would move the cursor around only for it to briefly stop before continuing. Drawing a circle with my finger sometimes has the cursor follow for a bit before going off and making its own shape.

The device’s touchscreen is more responsive, however it has the same problems that the previous Toughbook had. While the display is covered in an anti-glare coating, the glass attracts fingerprints so all you see are smudges. Also, the resolution isn’t the greatest, peaking at 1080p.

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ZDNET’s buying advice

Prices for Panasonic’s Toughbook 40 Mk2 start at $4,245. It’s expensive for sure, however it is a better deal than the Toughbook 55 due to its compact size, insane battery life, and ability to better withstand extreme temperatures. Keep in mind that this isn’t exactly a laptop for the average consumer; rugged laptops of this caliber are niche products for specialized use, but this is one of the best on the market.

Also note that the final price can greatly increase depending on how many XPAKs you purchase since the expansion modules are sold separately. Costs range from $120 to over $1,000 for a 2TB OPAL SSD.