got myself a cute japanese cf-sz5, do I need to do/know sthg now ?

Hey Folks
Just got myself a cute japanese cf-sz5 (from yahoo auctions via zenmarket), cloned the HDD to a SSD, set the OS to french and it seems to work good even though there is still a little bit of japanese displayed before I login into windows ...
Light and nice 16/10 machine with VGA, SD, 3 USB ports and a DVD player/writer

Do I need to do/know sthg now ????

For example is there some interesting Panasonic software I could install ?
(windows version is 20H2 and I don t see no specific Panasonic software installed)

PS :

• I think I am going to buy a small external speaker as the sound is not very loud/good (but louder than on my old CF-C1)
• old charger that was working with my old CF-C1 is working with it with a caveat : http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...charger-will-work-with-a-newer-cf-sz5.834714/
• here is a wiki page : https://panasonic.fandom.com/wiki/CF-SZ5

 

dual booting xubuntu ... screen bright and crisp (better than the ms surface laptop go screen that I tried) ... good performance and the fan doesn t stay on when I load an heavy web page ... zenmarket seems to have some good deals on sz5, sz6 or even sv7 ...

PS1 :
there was an issue with latest yandex browser not working with xubuntu 20.04 ... tried to install xubuntu 21.04 but its installer was failing (I have a dual-boot setup with Windows) ... I am now with MX linux 21 beta (based on debian 11) ... latest yandex browser is working great

PS2 :
there was an issue with mx 21 : when I was unplugging the charger (old charger made for a CF-R9, not supposed to go with CF-SZ5) I was sometimes losing the touchpad and keyboard ... now with mx 19 I am only losing the keyboard but I discovered I just have to press the "more screen light" keyboard shortcut/key and I get my keyboard back

 

https://pc-dl.panasonic.co.jp/dl/search?dc[]=002001&p1=227 this is the SZ6 but probably will work

https://askpc.panasonic.co.jp/s/download/install/sz5y.html go here.

 

thanks it s going to be useful as I ve just ordered a 16800jpy SZ6 on zenmarket
(mostly because my SZ5 bios doesn t like my CF-R9 charger : it says it s not the original charger and I have to press a key for the SZ5 to boot ... also I will have a spare battery this way ... )

 

Does the charger charge the battery properly? i wonder how it knows it not an original charger if its the standard panasonic barrel port charger. The dell laptops had the center pin that sent a digital signal. The universal ones would operate the laptop but not charge the battery. I have read that all the newer panasonic laptops from Japan will give the error message if not original or good knockoff charger

 

yes my old CF-R9 charger does charge my newer Panasonic CF-SZ5 properly ... there is only this warning when booting the BIOS and I need to press a button for the BIOS to finish to boot ...

 

PS : installed Clear Linux on my CF-SZ5 ... Octane V2 is 27.2+ K on chrome ... not so much more than W10 (about 26.7K, Edge is about 26.5K) but much better than MX Linux (about 24.5K)

 

I would be curious to see a graphics benchmark on this machine something like 3dmark or passmark.

 

just got my 16800jpy cf-sz6 : the charger is the original one ... battery wear is also 20% (same as my 15000jpy cf-sz5)

PS :
octane v2 is 33.6+k instead of 27.3-k (google chrome on windows) ... I was not expecting such a big performance jump as it s an i5 7200u and the SZ5 is an i5 6300u ...

 

Is the charger end the same? 16v.
I dont think there is much difference in real world power. Those cpu are very similar. How long is the battery life?

 

yes the charger end does look the same as my R9's charger (it s black ... I got some even older "compatible" Thinkpad chargers and their ends were yellow without an additional "ring")

I don't know yet about battery life on my SZ6 ... I think battery life is around 5-6 hours on my SZ5 ..

 

"only" 30+k in Clear Linux ... I am wondering how I got 33.6+k in Windows ... maybe I was (very) lucky

PS :
wow 34.6+k in Windows this time ... similar numbers with Windows Edge ...

PS2 :
reached 17.4+k in windows firefox and 15.4+ under linux firefox : so we still see a comparable advantage of Windows over Clear Linux ...

PS3 :
29.5k with chrome on MX Linux

 

oh 34.4-k in fydeos ... 34.3+k in neverware cloudready

 

give passmark a try. its free for 30 days and it saves your results online. Its on linux also but might not be for all distro.
i will try it on cf-c2 this week. I tried it on my desktop, getting old, i5-4670k

 

here is my result : 2092 on my SZ6 i5-7200u
not so great I guess compared to your 3342 on your i5-4670k ...

 

I will do it on the cf-c2. that will be a good comparison to see if the i5-4300 is much closer then yours. the desktop not a good comparison since it has a dedicated gaming card and nvme hard drive. it is an older cpu now.
did you run that on linux or windows?

 

windows 10

 

i tried the cf-c2
linux is very basic command line benchmark
I run garuda and windows 7 for a few programs that run not well in linux. passmark looks like a bug in the 2d tests so my total score is not a good comparison but the individual tests show a nice boost in the 7th gen compared to the 4th

 

( I have the i5-7200u which is almost 10% slower than the i5-7300u that you find quite often on yahoo auctions/zenmarket ...)

 

Its still decent cpu for most needs. The U versions though are bad at any gaming though. You might in the future make the list for windows 11 if that matters.
I am looking at similar cpu and even the weaker ones 6th gen m5. they are the cpu in cf-20. its wimpy but good battery life

 

I bought a similar one to yours with the Core M5 (6Y57) -1.1GHZ. When i get, few weeks it i will post a benchmark

 

I guess it s not a panasonic ? is it compact and portable ??
(maybe it s in my list : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-8ISd9k6u9OhkDbdLX7PcLN82Kd39y31etZeVT8BTSY/edit?usp=sharing ? )

 

Nice list.
14 on the list i got. There are issues though with that model and the previous one. It seems most of them have lcd issues that turn yellow. half of them i seen are like that.
Might use it just for travel. I want something to replace cf-c2 in future years though. I cannot find a toughbook that uses the digitizer pen though.


GPD Win makes some cool stuff and I seen some other 8" with ryzen 4600 cpu or intel i7

 

forgot about this one..
OneNetbook 4 maybe for me one day. seems like the ultimate portable machine. gaming and doing art, decent digitizer pen

 

I find this little and very light machine very interesting to travel
For the digitizer did you have a look at the CF-QVx series ? still kind of expensive on yahoo auctions though ...

I should say I really like my SZ5/SZ6 : cools down quickly, very light, bright screen ... at first I thought the touchpad was too small for 2 fingers scrolling but now I am used to it ... and very good value for the money (I think I ll get a CF-SVx in a couple of years, I think my SZ6 is powerful enough for my main usage which is web browsing (I am using CloudReady/FydeOS .imgs started from ventoy now ... these run fast and cool ... but I am not sure they are updating ...) , SVx is the successor to the CF-SZx and is very similar ... it is quite popular also according to yahoo auctions so I ll be able to find a good deal ... maybe one without DVD player which is like 919g only ...)

 

I like to get CF-QVx series in a few years. At the moment they are overpriced, i got the rz5 for a good deal.

I like to get a service manual for the rz5. it somes factory 4gb ram with 128 m.2 ssd. Since it still uses ddr3 i have a 8gb stick to upgrade it if its easy. I seen a few modded bios to get rid of the white list for some things. Its suppose to be a very light machine and i would image decent battery life. the cpu is 4w compared to the u series of 15w. 1080p touch screen should be sharp for that size.

 

I made a "win to go" installation of windows on an usb stick with Rufus and octane is also about 29.5k in Edge ... I guess Panasonic is adding some "special magic" to windows so that I reach 34.6k with the Panasonic Windows installation ... I heard "WinToUsb" can clone your internal HD to an USB drive : maybe I should have tried that ...

 

You can try a different kernel in linux. There are some for gaming and performance called zen kernels. If you use an easy arch like manjaro you can change kernels with 1 click.
never heard of wintousb but that looks neat. Now that usb 3.1 gen 1 and 1 are fast it might be no difference.

 

found a way to make a full install of cloudready on small USB sticks (I like cloudready because it's really fast and "simple") : https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudready/comments/ps3qgb/use_skip_dst_removable_to_install_cloudready_on/

this way I can keep my main hard drive with its Windows/Linux dual/triple boot

PS : I believed that this cloudready setup on USB sticks would update but it won't ... it would apparently update on USB SSDs though ...

 

What model is your charger? I will try a few of my official chargers. My newest is for the cf-c2 but I assume it will give me the error on my cf-rz5.

 

i got my cf-rz5.
I will review it soon. It is very thin and approx 750g. 1080p screen on a 10"

 

does it run cool or does it heat up a little bit ??

 

as I like cloudready (very good at web browsing which is my main usage), I ve installed it on my SZ5 ssd with an MX Linux dualboot ( https://neverware.zendesk.com/hc/en...ow-To-Dual-booting-CloudReady-on-UEFI-systems ) (also tried to dual-or-triple-boot windows but I wasn't able to make it work ... anyway I still have the rufus "win to go" USB stick possibility for Windows ...)

(cloudready on USB stick doesn t update but it apparently will on USB ssd)

 

yeah no issue with the original charger on my SZ5/SZ6 but I have the error (and need to press a button) when I use my CF-R9 charger (which looks very similar, except for the male plug at the end which is yellow (instead of black) and doesn't have an additional "ring")

 

i took it apart and did not get a get a chance to play yet. The mother board is very small 10x15 cm. It takes m.2 drive only. It came factory with 128gb drive. Only 4gb of ram. Ram is not upgradeable. Soldered to motherboard. This board comes with either 4 or 8gb ram. It actually has a mini fan and heatsink. I would think it would not heat up much. the cpu is only 4.5w compared to i5-4300 and yours which is approx 15+w. I have a couple of the panasonic chargers. I do get an error message only sometimes. I ordered one for this model. I suspect my older chargers are more powerful and it detects more current. The charger for this model is 2.8a which is very small. i want to see if i can install a new wifi6 card. my cfc2 did not work fully. i had the wifi but no bluetooth. I will experiment this week

 

I did a bit of benchmarks
This might be of interest to anyone wanting to purchase a toughbook cf-20. The hardware is almost identical. The rz5 will probably perform better since it has a fan for better cooling. This cpu will throttle when it gets hot. Impressive for a 5w cpu with a base clock of 1.1ghz.
Loading windows or linux is 20-30% slower. Maybe a 8gb model might be faster. The 128 m.2 samsung drive performs well.

m5-6Y57 up to 20-30% faster in GPU!
m5-6Y57 20-30% slower in CPU

Compared to i5-4300u

 

could you run octane v2 ? https://chromium.github.io/octane/

(I guess it might be a little above 20k ...)

 

on this benchmark the machines are very different
22800 on arch based linux (garuda) opera on the cf-c2
9800 on kubuntum, firefox on rz5 and 9000 on edge on windows 10

I assume this older benchmark is based mostly on cpu. I believe this is because of the base frequency of these cpu of 1.1 and 1.9.

A good test is to do an encoding benchmark of x264 video. Something that uses all the cores of the cpu. Not sure if octane does or not.

Still impressed with this tiny machine. I wonder how the newer 11 and 12 gens will perform in these. The newer panasonics are to expensive though.

 

22800 on a chromium based browser on the cf-c2 is what I'd expect (my cf-c1 gives me a little lower score)

if you reach 9800 on firefox on your rz5 I would expect you'd reach at least 14000 on a chromium based browser like Edge on windows ... have you just reinstalled Windows ? Windows needs to "cool down" a little after it's been installed because it still does a lot of things after being installed and this has a negative impact on performance ...

 

I ran both again on chrome. the rz5 has a new windows 10 but i turned off everything in the background.
Chrome browser makes a difference with this benchmark. 22400 chrome win 10

I did run chrome on garuda linux on the cfc2 also. It was 25300.

Opera is based on chrome but for this benchmark chrome is the only one to use.

It is a similar score and that seem more realistic since the cpu is 20% slower in real world benchmarks. I still give it great respect being 4.5w.

 

wow that's a good score !
... and I see it's affordable on zenmarket ... I would have bought one if I didn't have a chromebook flip c101 already ...
(I am now waiting for an affordable non touchscreen cf-qv9 or qv1 ... maybe in a year or 2 ... (too bad they don't seem to come in 16GB ... but then they won't be affordable anymore ...) )

by the way I am now playing with a triple boot (quad OS) on my CF SZ5 :

• brunch (chromeos with chromebrew that includes firefox and also sommelier (wayland/xorg) and pulseaudio server for my crouton),
• windows
• mx linux
• and ubuntu 21.04 crouton chroot under chromeos/brunch (no need for xorg or audio as I use chromebrew), with virtualbox (I guess I could also install libvirt/qemu/kvm ... there is also qemu in chromebrew btw) ...

... I am going to do a dual-boot windows + brunch on my SZ6 as it only has a 128GB ssd (but I have an MX linux .vhd on a ventoy usb stick ... and I'll throw a microsd in my SZ6 ...)

 

The rz5 are affordable. I looked at the rz6 but it was 5x more money. It is almost the same specs. If do get one the screens seem to have issues. This one has a tiny pressure mark. noticeable on white screen background. Otherwise i do not see it normally. You take a chance since the add said it was in perfect shape, screen. I agree with you. I might get a qv9 one day. Way to much money. Similar microsoft laptops are 1/3 price.
I was triple booting windows 7 and different linux versions the past year. I pretty much tested all the top 30+ on distrowatch. Favorites are q4os for older machines. Garuda for newer and gaming hardware and mint for a windows replacement.
these machines run android x86 very good also. If there is windows 11 hack version one day for these older machines I like to try since it will offer android app support.

 

chromeos (via brunch) also has good android app support

 

Have you tried Blue Stacks for Android app support on Windows 10?

 

picture of my SZ6 : https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/about-to-boot-antix-linux-from-my-portable-ventoy-usb-stick/
* with cloudready on the SSD (I tried brunch/chromeos with Windows but brunch was not as stable as Cloudready on this SZ6) (with a crouton ubuntu 21.04 under Cloudready)
* and WinToGo (Windows 10), 2 portable linux installations (runs on any computers with legacy or UEFI bios), and some tools on a small ventoy USB stick

 

bluestacks is ok for just playing games and simple things. It lacks on any bluetooth and external devices. android x86 is much better but it needs apps written in x86.
I tried bluestacks and a few others to control things cameras and gps. Its not supported.
if windows 11 will support some android then developers will write x86 apps for it. android has the best offline and other mapping systems and lots of neat things that are not on windows or linux.

 

Nice i use easy2boot. it has ventoy and other stuff. its the best out there. take a bit to figure out but it will will work on bios and uefi. It makes 2 partitions on the usb. that way the you can install large iso like windows 10h2 which is bigger then the fat32 limit. You need the fat32 to uefi boot.

 

I am on an holiday trip and I really appreciate how small and light my flip c101 is ... but it s not as versatile and powerful as an rz5/rz6 (probably better battery life though ... oh and the usb-c charging is convenient too as I use my phone's charger) ,,, my chromeos on the flip c101 is eol in 2023 and maybe I ll buy an rz5/rz6 at that time ..

 

I got the official charger for a cf-rz series. Its very small, smallest charger i have seen for a laptop. I sooner have usb-c charging though. I like to get another of these for parts. I am thinking models 4-6 are all the same. the 8 series are to expensive but i will consider one in a couple years. Most of these are limited to 4gb ram. Still fine with m.2 ssd drives. I will try arch based garuda linux this week. Kabuntu works out of the box except dimming the screen.
have you heard of the galliumos? custom linux for chromebooks to extend their life infinite.

 

yes I have heard of it ... I need to check if it can run on my flip c101 (ARM architecture)

I tried brunch on my SZ6 but I had some suspend/resume issues ... now using cloudready and it works well (using crouton and chromebrew to start linux apps but I can t start libvirt/virtualbox as the kernel modules need to be signed ... no problem to build these modules on brunch ...) (I also have WinToGo and AntixLinux21/MXlinux19 on a tiny Ventoy USB stick ... it's nice to be able to start your linux environment(s) on most machines ... maybe I ll try a light archlinux variant also to be on the "tip of the edge" ... it was really easy to have antixlinux/mxlinux .vhd installations that boot on both legacy or UEFI bios and I am not sure it will be as easy with archlinux ...)