Working from the cozy confines of your home or the comfort of your plush office or even sitting near some hotspot in a

mall, any laptop or notebook will do. But if you have to work in those ?deserts or mountainous, too hot or too cold, too wet or dry terrains then ?any? laptop or notebook will not do. You will require a real tough laptop.

And Panasonic Toughbook CF 19 is one such tough laptop. It has the credentials of being used by US forces fighting in Iraq and in one instance it was dragged for more than 50 metres by a humvee and survived, proving its toughness.

The Toughbook CF-19, with its magnesium alloy, black and silver outer shell looks like a standard issue straight from the Starship of Star Trek. But if Panasonic is to be believed, this outer shell of ?military specification? can withstand sharp drops, shocks, vibration and extremes in temperature.

As Toughbook CF-19 is originally designed for a niche audience, it?s ideal for those working in impossible terrains and field environments.

The 10.4? bright 550 nits daylight-readable colour LCD display panel is swivel-able and via the pressure-sensitive touch screen, one can convert the CF-19 to an authentic Tablet PC!

On the front panel is a tough metal latch to lock the top lid (LCD) in place, flanked by a touch sensitive switch panel (for Tablet PC Mode) and an On/Off slider switch. The right panel has slots for Li-ion battery and detachable Hard Disk housing. The rear panel house, the headphone and microphone jacks, an USB port, an external display port and a serial port.

The left panel is the most happening panel. It has a socket each for DC-IN jack, USB port, IEEE1394 interface connector, modem port, LAN port, SD memory card slot and indicator LCD, PC Card & Express Card slots and Wireless On/Off switch. Needless to say that all the slots have water- and dust-tight flap covers. The shock-mounted hard disk drive and sealed keyboards and ports ensure that the notebook can perform optimally anywhere, anytime, and under any condition. The extended life (up to 7 hours) of the Li-ion battery fulfills the needs of far-flung on site operations.

As you open the Toughbook, on the top flap is the 10.4? (1024 x 768 XGA) transmissive, daylight-readable TFT Active Matrix Color LCD touchscreen display panel mounted with a strong metal swivel mount on the main base. Under the display screen is a mono speaker. On top of the base module is a sliding latch to unlock the swivel display screen. The spill-proof sealed keypad (82 keys) is okay for this size of laptop, a bit cramped, but with a little patience I could manage to key in this review (of course I had to install MS Words first). I used it with a pair of soft gloves (as the real-time situation may demand) without hassles. I found that the mouse pad and ?OK? buttons are a bit too small to be used with gloves on.

Converting the Toughbook into the ?tablet? mode is simple and can be done by sliding and holding the swivel latch to the right and rotating the display panel clockwise till it stops with a ?click?. Then close the panel over the keyboard (display screen facing up) and lock it and you get a sturdy tablet PC! The virtual keyboard can be activated by tapping its icon on the taskbar. The desktop can also be rotated 180 degrees for right orientation. There is a stylus attached to the Toughbook with a spiral cord so you don?t loose it. The touch screen is sensitive to both stylus and finger tip. The display LCD is very bright and crisp. I used it outdoors without any significant loss of visual quality.

The heart of CF-19 pulsate on an Intel Core Duo Processor U2400 (1.06GHz, 2 MB L2 cache), with an 80GB hard disk and 512MB of RAM but no CD ROM or floppy drive (external drives can be connected through USB port). Microsoft Windows XP Professional with SP2 comes as preinstalled OS.

The Toughbook CF-19 boasts of multiple connectivity options. Two USB ports, WiFi, Bluetooth, serial port for legacy peripherals, modem, LAN (10/100 though), audio, video, port replicator and two external antenna jacks. Wireless capabilities also include optional integrated radios.

To test the water resistance of the Toughbook, I sprayed some water from a hose in my bathroom with great reluctance, holding my breath and of course remembering all the gods I could think of! My prayers paid off and I could not bring any harm to the machine! CF-19 started swiftly the moment I switched it on. I breathed a sigh of relief only after seeing the Windows XP logo pop up.

Weighing 2.25 kg and measuring 271mm(L) X 216mm(W) X 49mm(H) the Panasonic Toughbook CF19 costs a bomb! An MRP of Rs 2,12,750 (inclusive of all taxes).

But then it?s made to withstand the impact of bombs!

In the box:

* The Toughbook CF19 Laptop,

* The AC power adaptor with AC cord,

* Li-ion battery pack,

* Stylus with spiral cord,

* Hand strap,

* User manual,

* Recover-Pro software DVD ROM.