Panasonic Toughbook's have long been the poster child for rugged laptops and the CF-19 is another impressive model.

Poor touchscreen and a lack of features spoil a good design

The undisputed heavyweight champion of rugged laptops

A highly rugged travel companion with excellent features, but flawed usability

The W8 comes in an attractive silver, and there's no sign of those cramped keys and woolly, unresponsive track pads. The mouse pad is wonderfully responsive and keys are comfortable to use and type, even if a few common keys are inexplicably small.

Panasonic have yet to release an Eee-style netbook PC; and with good reason - their Toughbook range of laptops has been hugely successful, and new, interesting additions to their line of ruggedised PCs are coming thick and fast.

The Panasonic Toughbook range is best known for its fully-ruggedised industrial laptops. However, the CF-52 (£1551 inc. VAT) takes a slightly different approach. Its semi-rugged casing can be used on building sites and site maintenance, but won’t offer the same degree of protection as the Getac B300 (page 73).

Panasonic hasn’t made too many cosmetic changes to its latest generation of Toughbook, with the bulk of the improvements being made to how effectively the system handles the components and the heat generated.

Panasonic specialises in laptops for those who need to take a computer into some of the world's most extreme weather conditions. This could be up a telegraph pole, a mountain or down a sewer. The CF-30 is one such machine

Panasonic specialises in laptops for those workers who need to be active in difficult and potentially dangerous conditions. So the CF-19 Toughbook (£2325 inc. VAT) comes protected by a solid magnesium casing

Panasonic has persisted for many years with its Toughbook line. If ever there were a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it', the Toughbook would be it. First, because the Toughbook was done well in the first place; but second, because it's hard to break

Few manufacturers can match Panasonic and its Toughbook range when it comes to strength, so if you're looking for a laptop able to withstand virtually any conditions, the semi-ruggedised Panasonic Toughbook CF-51 could be an option.

Panasonic has clearly made a market for itself by releasing a Tablet PC for fieldworkers. The Toughbook CF-18 is a fully ruggedised device that meets the MIL-STD- 810F military standard