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Panasonic Toughbook CF-F8 - Tough Love

By Aloysius Low & Andy Sim - 17 Nov 2008

Tough to the Finish

Tough to the Finish

If anyone is assuming that the Toughbook brigade has breathed their final gasp with last year's 7-series, think again. Panasonic is pushing their hardy sentinels to the fore with a number of 8-series models and the CF-F8 does a good job of maintaining the Toughbook reputation. Do note that only the CF-F8 and CF-W8 (12-inch) models will arrive on local shores and should already be available.

The inclusion of the pullout handle was something we liked on the CF-F8. This supplementary grip is not only handy, but it also looks pretty when tucked-in since it sits reasonably flushed with the F8's overall chassis design. Besides this, Panasonic hasn't made many aesthetic changes to their latest Toughbook since the Y7 series, but keeping it familiar is a good thing here, especially when oodles of marketing dollars have been spent to get you familiar with their branding.

It's nice to know that Panasonic has finally switched from the low-voltage processors associated with the Toughbook series and it does show in our benchmarking tests that compared against a ULV processor, there are definitely plenty of gains. These gains however, don't exactly match up to its tough price of S$3889 however, as you could probably get a superior notebook (performance wise) like the Sony VAIO Z for the same price or less (but without the ruggedness, of course)

Of course, the VAIO wouldn't have the toughness and reliability of the CF-F8, so it really boils down to a choice of what you're looking for in a business notebook. But when it comes to the toughness, Panasonic still remains the familiar and reliable brand with its Toughbook series, which hasn't let us down yet. Not one to give up when the going gets tough, the remarkable endurance of the CF-F8 will surely seal the deal for traveling executives with a penchant for the notebook school of hard knocks.

When the tough gets going - then well, you can't do no wrong with going with the Panasonic Toughbook CF-F8

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