Semi-rugged workhorse of a notebook with very hi-res 1600 x 1200 screen
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

Of all of Panasonic's Toughbooks, the 51 looks least like one of those gleaming all-magnesium rugged machines, and most like a regular, standard consumer notebook. That's probably done on purpose, just so that this semi-rugged, magnesium alloy machine won't stand out too much in a crowd of generic Dell and HP notebooks. No one needs to know that the 51's hard disk is shock-mounted or that its magnesium case is 20 times stronger than plastic.

The 51 can be had in a basic version with a 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo chip and a standard XGA screen, or a much more interesting high-end version with a fast 2.0GHz processor and a glorious 1600 x 1200 pixel high resolution display with more than twice the resolution of an XGA. Both have a powerful 85 Watt-Hour battery. For security in corporate settings, the 51 can also be ordered with a SmartCard reader slot.

During its production cycle, Panasonic kept the CF-51 technologically updated, switching from M processors to the faster and more efficient Core Duos. Battery capacity, RAM and disk drive size were also updated. Unfortunately, and perhaps in response to an accelerating movie towards "wide format" displays, the CF-51 was replaced by the CF-51 that no longer offers a ultra-high res screen.