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You know how the saying goes: you wait years for a review of rugged devices in PC Pro, and then three come at once. This month we don’t merely review the Toughbook 40, but also the Getac X600 (see p56) and Dell’s Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme tablet (see p57).
New Toughbooks don’t come along very often, and when they do it can take months before we get our hands on it for review; the Toughbook 40 was announced back in May 2022. The delay is because Panasonic prioritises its highly demanding customers, with the primary sector being defence (army, police, border control). It’s also aimed at utilities companies, whose workers must battle all conditions.
Modular design
One size is never going to fit all, so Panasonic adopts a modular approach. In my introduction to the Toughbook, I was given a suitcase-sized container filled with all the components that can be swapped via the four expansion areas: DVD
