New NX3/SX3/LX3 Announced in Japan

Enjoy.

ƒpƒ\ƒRƒ“iŒÂlŒü‚¯j| Let'snoteiƒŒƒbƒcƒm[ƒg@ƒ‚ƒoƒCƒ‹ƒpƒ\ƒRƒ“j | Panasonic

Premium edition comparisons:
プレミアムエディション　価格スペック比較表 | マイレッツ倶楽部 | CLUB Panasonic

 

err.... w w

 

As ugly as these are this is exactly what I'm looking for spec-wise. Hoping for some stateside love on these ASAP.

 

Ordered the LX3 today. Expensive, but this one should last me hopefully a couple of years ...

 

keep us posted. how much was it ? and what's the configuration ?

 

Expensive

CF-LX3 Premium
i7-4600U
512GB SSD
Blu-Ray Drive
802.11ac
8GB onboard (one slot open; I'll put the other 8GB in on my own for a total of 16GB)
Win 8 Pro
Blue lid cover
Both the large and small batteries
The keyboard without the kanji printing (although in reality doesn't make a huge difference; it's still a Japanese layout which I'm used to)
The privacy filter/screen cover thing made for the LX

If it's as good as the S9, J9, and J10 premium laptops I used (all from Japan), this one will be great. I should actually sell those come to think of it ...

 

Great specs! Any indication on when you will receive it?

 

Conics is supposed to get it around the 14th, so sometime after that. I'm leaving on a business trip later in the month and it may show up while I'm away so there's a chance I may not be able to even use it until November.

 

It's on the way but fingers crossed it gets here by Tuesday before I go.

 

nice system!

 

Man, I just received my CF-NX2 from them a month or so ago. Be warned there is more Japanese drivers then before in my CF-N10. I couldn't get rid of all the japanese characters on the screen as the drivers need them now.

I was doing some comparisons and it looks like the NX3 is slower than the NX2? 4792 vs 4265 average CPU benchmark score? Am I doing something wrong here? Also, is the screen the same between the two?

My CF-NX2 is very fast but I always wonder why Panasonic doesn't use quad core processors instead of dual core.

PassMark - Intel Core i7-4600U @ 2.10GHz - Price performance comparison
PassMark - Intel Core i7-3540M @ 3.00GHz - Price performance comparison

 

you're not comparing apples to apples.
The i7-4600 U is a Low-Voltage processor, with lower frequencies, designed for lower-power and extended runtime, having a max TDP of 15W @ 2.1Ghz up to 2.9Ghz;
while the i7-3540 M is a Standard Voltage processor, with a max TDP of 35W starting from 3Ghz up to 3.7Ghz .
The one you would want to compared it against is the i7-4600 M, which has similar frequencies, and 37W - with a 4892 PassMark score.
ARK | Compare Intel® Products

Given that the NX3 CPU uses less than half the watts of NX2's CPU, but still manages to give almost 90% of the computing power, it's no wonder why Panasonic decided to use it.
You should get a significant boost in operating times, and lower operating temperature, compared to the previous model.

Haswell quad cores are 47W TDP (with one notable exception, i7-4702MQ at 37W).

 

Thanks for pointing that out. I figured something was wrong. All these new nomenclatures make it very difficult for me to follow modern day CPU cycle. Do you think Panasonic will ever put a Haswell chip inside one of these machines? I remember years ago when panasonic would put some blazing fast cpu's in their laptops and now the new cpu's feel barely adequate even with SSD drives.

Speaking of SSD, none of my panasonic ssd drives have been able to last more than 15 months under constant use. Unfortunately the warranty is in Japan otherwise I have a number of SSD drives I could have send them.

 

All i3/5/7-4xxxx CPUs are 4th Gen Core (Haswell). Maybe you asked if Panasonic would put a quad core Haswell in the laptops - don't know.

I'm curios about your SSD experiences: less than 1.5yrs of life from a modern SSD is not good - who's the manufacturer of the ssd ? and what do you mean by constant use - how many TB did you write on them, before they died ?

You can always choose the cheapest HDD/SSD option, and replace it with some proven Intel/Samsung SSD.

 

Intel SSD's have not let me down in over 5 yrs. I have a 160GB G2, among many others, that has been in 3 units in the last 5 yrs. Daily use, torrents, racing videos, movies, photo editing, video conversion, etc and yet it shows no wear in the SSD Toolbox. How much more constant than torrent download/upload and video conversion 24/7 for weeks on end? If the ssd's you are having problems w/are factory units, then something is very wrong. Can you not return the drives through the company you bought the unit through? Need more details on usage.

 

+1 on the Intel SSD's, although I had a 320 600Gb with some strange problems, they send me a brand new one without much hassle. I now have 2 of them (one for use in my TB, the other I use for cloning the complete system over USB3 every other day orso) and I'm really happy with them. Fast, lots of space and afaik reliable!
The Hitachi that came with my second HDD housing wasn't as fast, was a bit finicky and it's gone to an older laptop used by the whole family.

 

I had really bad luck when the first SSD drives came out. I forget which manufacturer it was in my N7 but it was the biggest and most expensive offered by conics at the time $1200+, it failed in less than 1 year. My i7 N10's SSD default panasonic SSD failed yesterday which forced me to quickly setup my NX2. I am ordering the Samsung 1TB 840 EVO and hoping it doesnt have issues in the N10 as a backup pc. My N8 SSD drive failed but I just ordered the i5 N10 (i7 werent avaiable at the time). I had issues in my sony vaio p series with 128GB SSD as well in about a year but I had the CPU overclocked an extra 400+ mhz. SSD drives dont warn you when they are going bad.

I run a business and write emails, browse websites and work with excel daily. I never shut my laptops off, nor do my partners. I receive 1,500 emails daily, have 30 browsers open, 20 excel files open, 20 pdf's open, etc.... cache file is probably pretty big. The laptops usually see an average of 12-15 hours of use daily with only 200gbs or so stored on them. We have been using panasonic for 12 years since the days of the cf-t1 as all other laptops would fail rapidly. I usually buy 3-4 panasonics a year from conics. I remember when they would run $2,000 a pop now we spend $4-5k for the top of the line models.

I have a CF-AX2 but hate its keyboard and the new designs from panasonic are alot more dense and slightly heavier which dont make them as comfortable to use in bed. I remember when the laptops were closer to 2.1 LBS with lightweight battery. I bought the AX2 in place of an ipad but not sure if it was worth it, probably will buy an ipad5 next week. The CF-NX2 has decent processing power but I wish they had something alot more powerful. The screens panasonic has offered have always been lacking, even the new ones are ok but still behind all competitors.

 

wow, what a usage pattern ! you sure need all the RAM you can get on those laptops. I imagine the system swapfile is rather heavily used, so the bigger the RAM the less usage of the SSD with swapfile.
Just as an idea: 2nd gen i5/i7 SandyBridge can handle 16GB RAM - i7-2620M, 3th gen Ivy Bridge 32GB (i7-3540M), but the low voltage in the NX3, i7-4600U only 16GB according to Intel Ark. The big brother 4600M, though, supports 32GB.
I now understand your need for Quad Core i7

One suggestion for your usage: please, do try to restart your laptop(s) (Windows) once in a while - having so much stuff open, only means that memory leaks in applications will lead to too much RAM/swap used, and performance will only go down over time. You'll see the difference right after reboot, when with the same apps open, it will work (a lot) snappier. There are tools (don't remember now) that can save the application's windows positions, and restore them after reboot (not sure if they'll even start the apps themselves). At least with all major browsers, they automatically restore all your open Tabs (Chrome, Firefox at least).

If I remember correctly, the older SSD in Panasonics (toughbooks at least, not Let's Note) were early Samsung models. At that time they didn't have TRIM support and I don't know how reliable they were.
Could it be that Conics upgraded SSD's by themselves, or were they just custom order from Panasonic. Having to pay $1200 for a SSD and have it fail in 1 year, is arrrghhhhh ... I would be all over Conics/Panasonic JP if I were you - shipping a ssd back to JP is a lot cheaper than losing $1200.
Not sure about that 1TB Samsung EVO - it's big alright, but I think that's due to TLC NAND Flash (triple-level cell), an even denser (and theoretically less reliable) flash than the MLC - also used on the standard 840. It's still new tech by Samsung, and we'll see how it fairs in following years.
On the other hand, if it's not a backup system, but a primary one, an 840 Pro (MLC) 256/512GB would be a safer bet. Or an Intel 530.

 

Let's clarify a few things: the SX2/NX2 premium still had the option for a full i7-xxxxM processor. The SX3/NX3/LX3 are the first time Panasonc hasn't offered the "full" processor in their laptops.

I will say this: processor isn't everything. The J10 I used for 18 months had a full i7-2620M but the SATA II speeds and slower I/O architecture hampered it greatly. The difference in performance and better overall responsiveness when I switched to the Vaio Duo for awhile was staggering even though it had a technically slower (and ULV) processor.

I've run tons of VMs with ULV processors for years. The new ones with the burst speeds really are fast processors ... and there's a reason all the manufacturers (not just Panasonic) have started to use them. I think the price/power/performance ratio, not to mention the internal design you'd need for things like cooling, are not worth it anymore. The ULVs give you pretty much everything *most* (note I didnt't say all) people need. Heck, these days finding a laptop 14" or under with the ability to have 16GB is getting rare.

The LX3 uses mSATA so it's a whole new architecture it looks like. I'm assuming they're taking lessons from the AX series there.

 

So far so good with the LX3. Still getting it configured. It's been interesting using it having used the Vaio Pro 13 for the past 6 months - it's a very different beast in a good way. You can't totally compare the two since they are really very different.

 

Looking very forward to a review when you get the chance. This could finally be the Z replacement I've been waiting for.

 

Just a quick update -no time for a formal review at the moment, but the LX3 is what I wished the Pro was except for the screen and a bit of size. This isn't to say the LX3's screen sucks - it doesn't. But I am missing the 1920x1080. I don't necessarily miss touch. Screen quality overall is not as good as the Sony, but I didn't expect that. I feel it is better than the J10's screen.

The LX3 is impossibly light for a 14" - everyone who has picked it up is amazed. Since it's under 3lbs with the normal battery AND the blu-ray driev, it's hard to beat. The only negative is that on a plane, the 14" can be a bit cramped even vs. the Vaio Pro which was 13.3" and basically the same dimensions. I still would not have gone for the SX/NX at 12.1" since they are essentialy the same weight and if I wanted an optical drive, I couldn't have had a blu-ray.

The one thing about the LX3 I notice is that it is faste than the Pro 13. The slight bump in processor seems to help, but the better SSD in the Sony somewhat negates that. Panasnoic finally got USB 3.0 right - the speed as is fast as it is on any of my Sonys. The J10 had USB 3.0 but it was slow.

The LX3 is is pretty silent. You don't hear it taking off like the Pro 13 does sometimes, even when running a bunch of VMs and such also doesn't get hot.

All in all, I'm happy so far.

 

Thanks so much for the mini review. Any chance you can upload some pictures? I'm curious about the keyboard layout. Also, it looks like there is both an hdmi and vga port - do you think you can drive two external monitors at the same time, or is their use mutually exclusive? Also, what's the size of the power adapter?