Panasonic unveils CF-W8, CF-T8, CF-F8 laptops for the clumsy

Panasonic dragged a few of Europe's finest geeks to Paris today, to launch its new ToughBook Executive series of laptops -- all aimed at the pathologically clumsy.

Three new models were unveiled -- the 14.1-inch CF-F8 and the 12.1-inch CF-W8 and CF-T8. All three are 'business-ruggedised' to withstand everyday accidental damage, but their biggest draw is their comparatively low weight.

The CF-W8 and CF-T8 tip the scales at just 1.2kg and 1.3kg respectively, while the larger CF-T8 is just 1.6kg. Let's put this in context: the new 13.3-inch Apple MacBook weighs a comparatively heifer-like 2kg.

Despite their size and weight, all three are hard as nails, capable of withstanding 100kg of pressure on their lids and drops from 76cm (2.5 feet) in the air -- while switched on. Their keyboards are spill-proof, too. Panasonic says they can handle "a small glass" of liquid -- regardless of whether that liquid is water, alcohol, salt water, washing detergent or human sweat. Panasonic declined to comment on who provided the aforementioned cup of sweat for testing purposes.

The W8 and T8 use the same chassis, but the latter gets a DVD rewriter drive and a touch-sensitive screen. They do, however, share a 1.2GHz SU9300 Core 2 Duo CPU, 3GB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive. The F8 gets a 2.26GHz SP9300 chip, 3GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. There are no options for solid state disks, but all are shock-mounted.

All three should be available from Micro Anvika between December 2008 and January 2009 for somewhere between £1,200 and £1,500.

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