CF-19 MK5's are out! 2.5GHz i5 baby!!!!!!!!!

YouTube - ‪Panasonic Toughbook 19‬‏

WOW!!!!!!!!! YUM!!!!!!!

They claim 6000 nit screen.... Why do I NOT believe that?!?!?!? Also 1 nit at the lowest to use the sun as the backlight (just like the old blackberries!)

 

Sweet. Thanks for the link.

 

Amazing, what is the cost as shown...Driller

 

It's strange there is no progress.
Touch is not capacitive multi-touch, modem (who needs it?) port instead of additional USB/HDMI port, weak plastic screen "ears".
GPS option... Why don't they use Gobi 2000 GPS function?
Battery capacity is still 5700mAh, not 7,65Ah or more.
USB 3.0?
More about LCD. I think Panasonic for these money has to develop some kind of e-ink, but for laptop use.
6000 nits for advertising. They could say it has also 1000000000:1 contrast. Who checks this info?
I love my CF-19 MK2, but I don't like the lack of progress

 

I find it hard to believe it's 6000 nits... That's like 4.5 times that of the CF-31... and the 31 at full blast is almost blinding!

I think that was a goof up...

 

Here it is right from Panasonic... 6000 nit's: Toughbook 19 Rugged Tablet PC - Panasonic Toughbook 19 Convertible Laptop

DAYUM!

 

6000 nits is not by backlight, it's "transflective" parameter from sunlight.
Want to see it in action, by I think it's not much better than our current screens.
Best outdoors LCD I've seen is Xplore iX104 AllVue. It's really good, but Kindle's screen is muuuuch better
Please, Panasonic, I want fast color e-ink

 

It's a transflective screen - as far as I understand it, those don't need to drive up the backlight all the way to 6000 nits, instead they just don't wash out when the sun shines on them, so effectively they are as bright as the ambient light, i.e. as bright as necessary. (Correct me if I'm wrong?)

Apart from that I can't help but agree with BaRRmaley and be a bit disappointed - I'm ready to upgrade from mine, but this is not the update I have been waiting for. It seems so half-hearted; more memory and CPU power is great, of course, but that's something we have to thank Intel for. Regarding the other aspects Panasonic appears to want to soldier on with the old design with minimal changes. I had hopes for a webcam (the CF-31 has that option) and USB3.0 (is the CF-19 the only Toughbook update this year not to get USB3.0?).

Panasonic is expanding their tablet-ish range, apart from the CF-19 there are the H1 Field, the H1 Health, the upcoming 13" diagnostic tablet announced in April and the upcoming Android tablet announced in June. Maybe the CF-19 is no longer that high on their priority list.

Edit: I see BaRRmaley has already explained the transflective screen, I have to post faster.

 

I wasn't aware than you can get a webcam in a CF-31.... I knwo that you can get a camera built into the CF-19 (it's on the bottom) and we've been able to get 8GB ram since the last refresh with the 1.2GHz i5 CPU, so that isn't an upgrade.

On top of that, yes, the CF-31 has HDMI (THANK GOD), and 4 x USB ports, but they're all 2.0, NO 3.0 PORTS! So at this point only the CF-53 has 1 x USB 3.0 port!

 

According to Panny, you CAN get CF-31's with USB 3.0....

 

I have no idea what it looks like, but they list it under options (sorry, the 'flash'y site allows no direct linking).

Yeah, an inventive construction, but a bit impractical for my purposes.

Ah, right, I forgot that one.

I would have liked that for the CF-19, though lacking that, USB3.0 might have allowed some moderately adequate external graphics adapter.

Browsing Panasonic's site I just saw the latest CF-U1 has a transflective screen too, and here they provide a bit more info: The Panasonic Toughbook U1 Ultra features a TransflectivePlus display, which in addition to an adjustable LED backlight, harnesses the rays of the sun by using an internal reflecting layer to illuminate the screen and can generate up to 6000 nit of LCD brightness in direct sunlight for superior viewability. The supplementary LED backlight can deliver as little as 2 nit, useful in dimly lit areas or up to a full 300 nit, which is comfortable in normal viewing conditions.

 

Apologies for the poor formatting here, this is on my iPhone

Touch with multitouch - not much demand for it. Neither for capacitive touch - which doesn't work in the pouring rain. Not a good idea for the target environment for a CF19.

USB3 is not available on Intel chipsets yet, so USB3 currently requires an additional chipset which will be hard to just add to existing products.

Modem (RJ11) is still required by some utility/government organisations I would imagine, the world is not quite ready to ditch it yet.

GPS on the Gobi is not as accurate as the 'proper' GPS, so that's why it remains an option.

And the transflective screen effectively reflects ambient light back through the screen, using the ambient light to illuminate the screen. The brighter the sun, the brighter the screen.

 

yea i think modem will be needed for when the military goes to 3rd world countries who dont have high speed

 

Have to agree with this fact. Just tested my Motorola Defy - it's impossible to use it with wet fingers. I'm disappointed.

What are those countries with dial-up?
Military will use satellite )

Dial-up is dead, I don't believe you, men ))

 

Does anyone know if these are available yet -- and from whom? Panasonic lists the Mk5 as the current model but their buy/configure page only lists Mk.4s. Likewise, all the distribuors they list only mention the Mk.4. Might have a chance to get one - depending on what the $premium$ is for the 5 over some of the deals available on new Mk.4s.

 

Update:
According to a primary Toughbook dealer, Panasonic has parts for about 2000 Mk.4s and won't be making any Mk.5s until these are gone. One big order and that could be next week or, in this economy, could be next year. They "guestimated" October might be possible and their best estimate was a Mk.5 comparable to the Mk.4 I was considering would be $1200 - $1500 more. I would prefer the Mk.5 but the "maybe someday" availability combined with the 50% price premium and uncertainties of getting a first production run were more convincing. So I just ordered a Mk.4 (CF-19RHRAG1M). My wife just inherited some money and said she would pay - if I "dis-invested" myself of some of my "collection that's cluttering up the house". Seemed like a pretty good deal.

 

If you need a shipping address for the "dis-investiture" I'm will to make the sacrifice, take all the old toughbooks, you know, so you get your mrk 5 sooner.

 

What a wonderful, considerate guy! A few months ago, my wife would have probably taken you up on it - but I gave her a toughbook to take on a business trip when her company laptop died. She had a big presentation the next morning and, while working on it over dinner, a colleague spilled a pitcher of beer on her CF-18. It kept working but she was worried about going into the presentation with a computer reeking of beer. I told her not to worry, just take out the battery, make sure all the doors were closed tight and rinse it off under the faucet. When she put the battery back in the next morning it worked fine. Ever since then she has been a Toughbook convertee.