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Those who have been looking for tough and ruggedized notebooks will be glad to know that Panasonic is coming out with three Toughbook 8 notebook models - the F8, W8 and T8. 

All three notebooks with their Intel Core 2 Duo Processors are lightweight, ranging from 1.3 to 1.7 kgs courtesy of their magnesium alloy casing and chassis. Panasonic put in flexible internal connectors so the Toughbook can withstand lots of abuse.  The hard drives and LCDs are shock mounted to keep them protected.  Also, don’t worry about dumping liquids onto the keyboard because it is spill-resistant.

In addition, the Panasonic Toughbook 8 series of notebooks also come with 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth 2.0 and most importantly the Gobi 3G technology. This enables users to select between mobile broadband carriers or international roaming functionality which will work with CDMA2000, EV-DO and HSPA/UMTS/GPRS technologies.

The Toughbook F8 features a 14.1-inch wide display and an internal optical drive, a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, up to 4GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, an integrated DVD multi drive, TPM security chip and runs Windows Vista with an XP-downgrade option. The Toughbook W8 packs in all the F8’s features except for its smaller 12.1-inch LCD and a modest 1.20 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor.  Finally, we have the Toughbook T8 which boasts of the same features, as the W8 but comes with an extra ergonomic rubber hand strap and a Display Image Rotation software.

The Panasonic Toughbook W8, T8 and F8 will all be released by November.  Both Toughbooks W8 and T8 will set you back $2,099 while the Toughbook F8 will have an SRP of $2,499.

Read [Business Wire]