Panasonic adds performance and features to its fully detachable rugged 2-in-1.
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

On February 7, 2018 Panasonic introduced a variety of feature and performance upgrades to its Toughbook 20, a 2-in-1 device that Panasonic called the world's first fully rugged detachable laptop when it was first launched in November 2015. The Toughbook 20 is, depending on how you look at it, a tablet that snaps onto an exceptionally well integrated keyboard, or a laptop where the display comes off and can be used as a tablet. And now it can be had with a newer and more powerful processor and ancillary technologies, as well as more standard features.

What is the Toughbook 20 2-in-1 detachable?

When the Toughbook 20 was first introduced, it was quite a departure from the venerable Toughbook 19 with its rotating display that could be folded down flat onto the keyboard, LCD facing up, so that it could be used as tablet. That worked well enough, but made for a hefty 5-pound tablet that was two inches thick — not exactly handy. The Toughbook 20, on the other hand, offers the display as a detachable tablet that weighs just 2.1 pounds and is only 0.8 inches thick. That makes it much more pleasant to use.

This approach makes great sense. It is not a totally new idea (back in 1994 Compaq offered the Concerto detachable laptop), but it took modern technology to make it feasible. That's because in a notebook the system board and most of the electronics are in the keyboard case, whereas in a tablet everything must be in the display part. In the past, this meant a thick, heavy tablet with a lightweight keyboard that did not offer the stability users expected from a laptop. Today, fanless design and miniaturized components make thin, lightweight tablets a reality. That means it's possible to package the tablet with a sturdy, rugged keyboard (it weighs 1.8 pounds by itself) and use the combo as a real, solid laptop that's no longer top-heavy.

This design approach does relinquish the cool rotating hinge that made it easy to discuss something with a customer or colleague by simply turning the screen. But the new approach still allows flipping the display for presentations and similar.

While the Toughbook 20 looks sizable in the pictures here, it's pretty small in real life. The display measures 10.1 inches diagonally — iPad class. So the footprint is actually smaller than that of the petite 11-inch MacBook Air. The QWERTY part of its keyboard, though, is full-scale, something touch typists always appreciate.

So what's new in the Toughbook 20 Mk2?

We're not talking massive tech update here, for that wasn't necessary. What Panasonic did was add a second available processor, jazz up the technology here and there, and make some features standard that used to be optional. Note that between the two versions and all the items that are or are not standard, and the separation of functionality between the tablet part and the dock part it can get a bit confusing.

Customers now have the choice between the new Intel Core i5-7Y57 processor that's part of the 7th generation "Kaby Lake" lineup, and the older Intel 6th generation "Skylake" Core m5-6Y57 chip. There's not a great deal of great deal of difference; slightly higher clock speed, some optimizations, some graphics improvements, perhaps 10-20% quicker overall.

Turbo power and great gas mileage

Most premium rugged tablets and laptops use "conventional" ultra-low voltage Intel Core processors with a high base frequency, a slightly higher turbo speed up for brief performance boosts when needed, and a thermal design power (TDP) of 15 watts. The m5-6Y57, on the other hand, is designed for hyper-miserly operation. That means a base frequency of just 1.1GHz and a super-low TDP of just 4.5 watts.

It was likely chosen to make the Toughbook 20's small 29.6 watt-hour battery last a long as possible in tablet-only mode. Doesn't that make the Toughbook 20 slow? That depends. The processor can reach a lofty turbo clock speed of 2.8GHz, but only for brief bursts of time. Once it heats up — and the Toughbook 20 doesn't have a fan to keep things cool, so performance may drop.

Why did Panasonic choose this route instead of just using a conventional chip? Because that would have meant giving the Toughbook 20 a larger battery and that would have made the tablet part of the Toughbook 20 thicker and heavier. What kind of battery life can the tablet alone get? The specs don't say. They do say that with an optional second battery of the same size that goes into the keyboard part of the Toughbook 20, there's full-shift operation. And with the combined almost 60 watt-hours, that should easily be possible.

But won't Toughbook 20 customers want dependable, sustained full speed rather than just occasional turbo bursts? They may, and maybe Panasonic designed the Toughbook 20's keyboard part to provide for additional passive cooling, which would mean more time in the turbo speed range.

Excellent, expandable state-of-the-art tech

Now what about the rest of the tech in the Toughbook 20? 8 ro 16GB of RAM, solid state disks with heaters up to 512GB. There's Intel AC8265 802.11ac WiFi with Bluetooth 4.1. There's optional 4G LTE and dedicated uBlox NEO M8N GPS.

The 10.1-inch display sports satisfyingly high 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution for a super-sharp picture. The display uses direct-bonding, anti-glare and anti-reflective treatments for best possible outdoor viewability, aided by a very bight 800 its backlight that can be dimmed all the way to 2 nits.

There's 10-point capacitive multi-touch with or without digitizer. The specs don't say what sort of pen it is, but does refer to a "waterproof IP55" (IP55 doesn't really mean waterproof, that'd be IP67) pen and a digitizer. This means it could be active pen technology (such as Wacom), or it could be the superb narrow-tip passive pen used in the Panasonic Toughpad M1 (though that does not technically use an extra digitizer).

Other optional functionality includes a magstripe reader, an insertable SmartCard reader, a contactless SmartCard/NFC, a fingerprint reader, a true serial port, and additional USB ports. Note, though, that for most of those it means either this option or that option, but not all at once.

Ruggedness specs, por favor

Panasonic calls the Toughbook 20 "fully-rugged" and states that it was "designed for MIL-STD-810G and MIL-STD-461F." Unfortunately, the only hard data supplied in the documentation is the IP65 rating, where the "6" stands for totally dustproof and the "5" that the device is protected against low-pressure jets of water from all directions. There's also mention of an optional Class 1 Division 2 Groups ABCD certified version for use in certain hazardous locations.

Panasonic's Toughbooks and Toughpads have been around, they are market leaders, and we have no doubt about their great quality and ruggedness. However, Panasonic really ought to supply more detailed ruggedness information, especially since the Toughbook 20 starts at a considerable US$3,099, and it's the very ruggedness of the product that justifies the price.

The rugged 2-in-1 Panasonic Toughbook 20

Overall, with the updated Toughbook 20, Panasonic offers the increasingly popular 2-in-1 design approach to its storied Toughbook line of rugged laptop computers with updated technology. This means a tablet part that's thin and light enough to really work as a tablet. And a keyboard part that truly makes the merged parts a Toughbook rather than just a tablet with a snap-on keyboard. There are some unavoidable compromises in doing that, but Panasonic went to great lengths to make it work. Only a hands-on examination can tell how well it all works in practice. -- Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, February 2018