I'm torn between these two Toughbooks

Okay, I've found a CF-18 for £330 and a CF-T2 for £230 on eBay and I have no Idea which one to get. I like the CF-18 for its toughness, water resistance and swivel touchscreen and I like the T2 for its lightness, more conventional look (I don't dislike the CF18's styling, but you can't go into public with it without people staring) and battery life.

Which one do you think I should get? Here is the URL for the CF-18 (don't buy them all up!!!) http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Panasonic-Tou...14&_trkparms=72:1690|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

I know £330 is a very good deal, but is it too good? Do you reckon it's for real? One strange thing I noticed is it has XP Tablet installed and the seller mentions the screen is pressure sensitive, but also that you can use your finger. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't regular touchscreens (i.e non digitized) not pressure sensitive?

 

personal preference id go with the 18, its not pretty, but I have never had a problem with any of mine. and if you max the ram ( 1.25 or 1.5 GB depending on revision) 4 to 5 hours of battery is common for many less intensive applications

 

The description of the CF-18 is odd, agreed. Maybe they didn't check it that thoroughly, rather they copy&pasted various information from the web, or got confused between their auctions - they seem to be selling a lot of CF-18s.

That being said, I would still prefer the 18 over the T2. It is faster and stronger, and it does not look all that odd. Well maybe it does, but it is quite compact, so it isn't that noticeable. Also, the T2 is a bit non-standard regarding components. The RAM is on microDIMM, not the type usually found in notebooks. You can still get them, but they are more expensive. The hard drive is a lower voltage drive; other drives may work or not, or some may be modded to work. Installing it is fiddly. Back in its day the hard drive of these notebooks were not seen as user-replaceable, and attempting to do so would void the warranty. Compared to this, the CF-18 eats standard components and most things are easily accessible.

Björn

 

Welcome to the forum!

No offense... But this is kind of like me asking you if you think I should go for a Ferrari or a Porsche 4X4... You seem to know their strengths and weaknesses... What do you want and need? Aside from that... What do you think is cool? People always stare at the person with the cool toys. I am always asked about my Toughbook wherever I go... Just throw it on the ground and show them!

All joking aside... What will you be using it for?

As to the Toughbooks from Australia. They ones received by members here seem to be complete but well used. One had a pretty much dead battery which, if you add a new battery to the price of the laptop, is not that great of a deal. Also... If you don't have access to XP Tablet to reinstall the OS it can be a pain to load unless you have a spare XP Pro COA to use. The version of Tablet they load doesn't work well with the options so it is said. So you would also need a bootable USB CD or DVD drive to load XP Pro and you would need to download all the drivers and install them. This is all very easy to do... It just takes a few hours of your time.

I'm sure others will chime in as well.

 

Toughbook: I'm asking because I like both laptops, but at the moment can only get one. I was wondering what people's opinions on them were. (Just for the record, in case you ever come across this scenario, you should go for a Ferrari, the Porsche Cayenne is hideous!)

Edit: Woops, forgot to answer your question...
I'll be using it most of the time for school work and light gaming (old games like Half-life). The thing is I also like working outdoors (no idea why) and in Britain during the winter it rains alot, and during the summer it.....rains alot. I won't mind not being able to work outdoors too much but it'd be nice. I think the CF-18 seems like the better choice. The thing is, most CF-18s on eBay have digitizers in them but I'd much prefer a regular touchscreen. I've contacted the seller about the error in the listing. I hope it's a touchscreen!

 

If you can in fact operate it with your finger it is a touch screen. Ask him for the model #, if the second letter is a D, ie CF-18x Dxxxx then it is a digitizer. If it is not a digitizer, it should not have Tablet 2005 installed, it should have XP Pro.
CAP

 

Does it have to have XP Tablet for the Digitizer to work?

 

I'm not sure, the digitizers come with Tablet, for basic features or to utilize tablet functions better is the question. Alex has both so he will probably chime in here. Tablet sort of worked on the OZ computer, it might have worked better if it was a decent install. Panasonic puts it on there for some reason. I know Alex has a driver, wacom? which he uses for the digitizer. You'll need restore disks or a copy of Tablet 2005. What's on your COA?
CAP

 

It just says M$ Windows Tablet PC Edition... No date or anything...

 

No, you can download the driver for normal xp pro from the Wacom downloads area to make the digitizer work


Alex

 

I'd get the CF-18 without even thinking about it... their's no doubt that the T2 is lighter and all, but then again it isn't as tough either.

Just my two cents

 

I'd have to say I'd go for the CF-18 too... Though I've never played with a T2...

 

I used to own a T5.. and it is a T2 on juice pretty much... Nice, light, PLASTIC and GREAT battery life... The battery on the T2's wern't very good as far as I can remember (3 hours tops), vs the T5 had about 5-6 hour (just about an hour more than my CF-30)

 

Watch out Mrs. Toughbook, here he goes again!

CAP

 

And we all wonder why it is a madhouse in here?!?!? HAHA LOL... I LOVE IT!

 

I say for sure get the CF-18, I don't really care for non-rugged units, they just dont hold up for my job field

 

I think I'll go for the CF-18. I'm just waiting for the seller to reply clearing up the screen issue.
Just one thing: if it is a digitizer, is it possible to swap the screen round for a touchscreen?

 

As far as I know you could swap it out ... Good luck getting a hold of a normal touchscreen though...

 

That cf-18 is an excelent deal

As Rob said not to likely are you going to find a touchscreen, and I have a feeling that they are not interchangable
The digitizer works something like the touchscreen when you use the stylus
But will not work with just your fingers

How did you make out with your cf-27 battery/ac adapter issues?



Alex

 

the auction is for an Australian ex Telstra cf-18 toughbook, so is the same model as other threads here... And for sure it is a touchscreen.
I have bought two of them and the first was quite better than the second, but just for the external damages in the second one. Everything works fine, and will work better for sure if you do a reinstall of xp pro. But if you don't it works quite good anyway.
yesterday it falled down from 2 meters and no parts of it were damaged....
I think that in the future I will buy only toughbooks!!!

ps sorry for the "not perfect" english!

 

No! you can't swap the digitizer to a touchscreen model they have different pinout of LCD on the mbo. Maybe you can but you have only a regular LCD no touch no digit...



ohlip