Let'snote (ToughBook) v10: Spring 2011

Panasonic Japan announces new models of Let'snote (also called　ToughBook outside Japan,) S10, N10, F10, J10, and B10, and introduces B family on Thursday, January 27.

モバイルノートパソコン Let'snote 店頭向け春モデル発売 (Japanese)

Note that I'm not a salesman in Panasonic Japan though some ToughBook lovers in foreign countries call me Mr. ToughBook. This article is my personal note with some translation.

Summary. B10 is the 15" model. N10 (12") sounds a great choice. If you are interested in J (10", the smallest family), I recommend you should wait for J11 which may be released in May and drops its price in late June. A bad thing is that the new models don't have USB 3.0 slots yet.

[New] B10 (15")

B family, which is newly introduced, is really unusual--it has a 15" hi-def monitor but doesn't have a graphics card. So the B family is for boring-and-clunky Microsoft Office users rather than cool-and-intuitive Illustrator users. Thanks to lack of a graphics card, Toughbook B10 inherits ToughBook's low power consumption and has a 6-hour battery. I'm assuming that the battery runs for 2:30-3 hours. Also B10 has the 2nd version of Intel Core i5 (Sandy Bridge), it may be powerful enough to playback a YouTube 1080p video or a blu-ray video (with using an external blu-ray drive.)

S10 (12") & N10 (12", no optical drive)

S10 & N10 have great improvement especially in graphics performance, due to the new CPU. Also battery lasting time has increased from 14 hrs to 15 hrs.

As I mentioned, N10 would be great to buy since it has a Sandy Bridge, the new series of an Intel CPU, the 2nd generation of Core i5). Comparing to the CPU in the previous model, Sandy Bridge provides great performance improvement especially in graphics

Visual performance is the weakness yet important point of ToughBook.

N10, which has an optical drive, may be 3,000-10,000 yen ($35-$120) more expensive than S10. I doubt that an internal DVD drive is really worth $100. I would get an external blu-ray player instead.

J10 (10", no optical drive) & F10 (14" w/ handle)

Sadly enough, J10 & F10 have only been upgraded their CPUs. Not Sandy Bridge. Basically I don't recommend buying a new product after a minor change. Instead I recommend a major change (and that's why I recommended J9 when it was introduced.) I'm assuming that J11 which may be available in May will be a really nice PC. Also Let'snote usually keep dropping its price for five weeks from release, and so it's a good time to get J11 in late June. I hope J11 has the 2nd gen Core i5/i3 processors (Sandy Bridge) (and hopefully USB 3.0 slots as well.)

F10? As far as I've seen Japanese websites, F family is infamous because of its pointless handle.