Let's Note: Panasonic's Japanese Business Laptops!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.ค. 2024
- You might be familiar with Panasonic's Toughbook like of rugged notebook PCs. But in its home country of Japan, the company offers many more models -- so let's check out a smaller, decade-old one from the Let's Note series.
Sources:
The Conversation's article about fax machines in Japan: theconversation.com/japans-lo...
"Why WiMax," Computerworld, February 14, 2005.
"Broadband On The Go," Popular Mechanics, December 2004.
PCMag Toughbook CF-S10 review: web.archive.org/web/201111271...
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It's strange how the stars aligned and LTT did the same brand of computer within a few weeks of this.
Yeah, this episode has been in the works for over a month -- quite the strange coincidence!
This.
The universe is sometimes stranger then fiction.
@@ThisDoesNotCompute Coincidence, or conspiracy? 🤔
@@ThisDoesNotCompute You've stolen some of my ideas just recently for videos so I call this karma lol. What frustrates me about computer sellers just lately is they shoe horn Windows 11 onto machines that are just not supported. I think it's very disingenuous.
When I worked at a PC repair shop, we had a tourist come by and she had a modern let's note. It had a small but 1920x1200 screen so it was super crisp and clear, and sported an NVME SSD. It was incredibly light, it almost felt like a toy but it didn't feel cheap either. It was an absolute delight for everyone at the shop to work on.
I just bought the CF-NX3 12 inch refurbished on Amazon please tell me I didn't buy a lemon
@@Gen_Hatkins It was positively amazing, I'd be happy to own one.
Thank you that is a relief, I knew Panasonic is a great brand & it looked top notch but some of the comments had me doubting myself now I can trust my instincts again & be excited for it to arrive in a few days
@@Gen_Hatkins The only reason her machine made it to our shop is because she managed to trash her windows install with bullshitware and needed a cleanup
Everything else was fine on it
Panasonic laptops are quite visible on Japanese TV even till this day (shows, news programs, etc), the iconic trackpad is hard to miss.
The ones you see are actually newer than this. Linus made a video of one that looks just like this but it's got 11th gen processor so even the brand new ones still have the same look
you see them in the US too, cops and first responders all use them
@@allentoyokawa9068 The ones used by the cops are Toughbooks. They're a bit different from the Let's Note
@@nushnume I meant they use Panasonic, but I get ya
they use them in eromanga sensei and imouto sae ireba
I don't think these trackpads supported two finger scrolling, but it's because their scroll method is to run your finger around the circumference of the trackpad. But like you mentioned, there might be a driver limitation too
I tried sliding my fingers around the touchpad but it doesn't do the scroll function. 😢
Greeting from Japan! I have seen people using this PC in McDonald's (Japanese people love to study or work in McDonald's) a lot like 5 years ago, but nowadays not that common. But somehow I recently feel this kind of design is actually interesting to me, I hope to get a second-hand one someday and install Linux for programming probably.
I imported a cf-sv1 and it runs debian linux excellent so as a linux machine I'd say at least the 11th gen ones are well suited (and older ones like the cf-sv9 would work just as well). Newer generations might have some troubles with things not being supported yet but give it a few years and support will be just as good
Also to note, if you want 16GB of ram you will either have to go with one of the newer models which are expensive, or one that uses ddr3 as those were the last to have user upgradeable memory, something like the cf-sx4 or cf-sx3 for example
@@oggilein1 thank you for your advice, it's helpful!
False. I travel to Japan frequently and I see them all the time.
The time when the manufacturers still put good keybors in their laptops (the modern keyboards have almost no feedback and almost no traver..... worthless)
That under the palm rest DVD drive was definitely something you don't see very often. It was a good space saver. I still use optical media, but I know most people don't, so I like features like that.
When I was in Japan last (2016) I was astonished to see most folks using Macs. In offices it was a different story, mostly Fujitsus with a dash of Dells. Fax machines were everywhere, every home I visited had a fax machine. Even my grandparents had one. Mostly Panasonics.
They don't use mostly Macs, and fax is used worldwide still do to it's security
@allentoyokawa9068 stop talking nonsence, fax is hilariously insecure and there have been various critical security flaws found in fax machines from every manufacturer.
The reason people continue to use it is because people are stubborn, especially in nations with an aging population like Japan or Germany (both of which are prolific in keeping fax machine useage alive)
Everywhere else in the world fax is dead, it's been decades since I've seen one here in Australia for example
For what it's worth though, this adherence to tradition is also why panasonic continues to make such high quality laptops (I am writing this on a cf-sv1 which is an absolute joy to use) so it isn't all bad
@@allentoyokawa9068 You can't question someone else's experiences. What is there to gain by lying? And here in the UK we haven't used fax for years, so not everywhere in the world uses it.
The DVD tray is 90% of the value here, it’s the party piece
And it's got a corner office.
I bought a super drive for my wife's Mac. She's been ripping and burning CDs like crazy. She likes listening to CDs in the car.
Seeing this drive gives me a great idea to use the leftover palm rest space on the Framework 16...
Two finger scrolling is usually achieved by running a finger round the circumference of the trackpad.
Yes! It is called "circular scroll", and only few OSes support it, but it is the BEST way to scroll on a touchpad. Two-finger scrolling was not supported by the hardware on this machine, so it was impossible to use two-finger scrolling on any OSes (Linux, Windows, MacOS), but that's fine because circular scrolling is way better than two-finger scrolling anyway.
I think Japanese like to use fax for written communication because kanji is easier to handwrite than type. When I was at Berklee in the '90s a lot of Asian students would have fax machines because it was cheaper to send a fax than make a voice call to Asia. Email was becoming a thing but they still preferred to handwrite notes rather than type them.
Interesting, considering that 90's had rather poor CJK specific characters and radicands are not supported since most OS are Western-specific.
Fax and floppy disks...Japanese are loving backwardness.
im pretty sure typing is easier in most languages
@@pimeja7 since writing this comment, I’ve read elsewhere that handwritten notes are considered more personal in the etiquette of Japanese culture. So if you were a student far from home and wanted to write a note to your mother but didn’t want to wait the significant postage time to get to Japan, faxing a handwritten note would be seen as more personal and respectful.
Yes, and in addition, FAX is still the only legacy technology that is useful for business communication, as legally binding documents, such as contracts and agreements, are accepted as legal by the court if communicated via fax, while even newer internet technologies can be difficult to configure such.
As for the optical drive, physical media is still popular in Japan even today.
CD music album stores are everywhere, and I even saw some DVD rental shops. Japan was one of the last developed countries to widely adopt streaming music.
I was an Emergency Department scribe in 2013ish and all of us used these laptops to write our notes. They were durable as hell, super light, and served their intended purpose perfectly well
what you used was the Panasonic Tough Book, designed for military and rough environments.
@@miketran4289nope. They used a LETS NOTE/TOUGH BOOK. The business class tough books that evolved into Let's Note series were often used in medical and other applications where mobility (light weight) and durability (magnesium core) was key. They had plastics that, while may not age well in the life of the machine, could take a beating and stayed more intact than average brittle plastics on many laptops of the era.
WiMAX is still used to provide rural internet. My parents in Illinois have it and works well enough. They have a pizza box shaped antenna on the outside of their house that is pointed to an antenna mounted on a grain silo a few miles away.
Are you sure it isn't some other kind of tech? There's a variety of similar techs that have cropped up in recent years (and are often much more advanced/faster).
Also, I'm surprised to hear about this in *Illinois*. My parents are in rural North Dakota (which is far further from civilization) and even they have fiber to the home from their local ISP!
As of Summer 2022, there were 400 million WiMax users worldwide, with at least 10-12 million of them in the rural USA.
Its still in wide use. In fact according to the IEEE WiMax is more reliable than Starlink and it's not close.
@@medes5597 I stand corrected! Fascinating. I know about such towers in some places but my understanding is it was a different tech, interesting!
I love how they integrated the optical drive. Really creative. Shame about everything else.
The moment that lid popped was when I decided I wanted one purely for the novelty. Wildly inventive, that.
The only problem,
it will be extremely difficult to find a replacement for him when the laser stops shining ...
If I ever go to Japan I’m gonna take a wad of yen around to used electronics stores
Lots of laptops around 2011 had integrated optical drives they were more slimmer than this laptop
The iconic laptop for Japanese salaryman, one of my senpai in my first job always carring one with a portable A4-size printer.
I have a (U.S. market) Panasonic ToughBook laptop with the same round touchpad.
Michael MJD made a video awhile back about the CF-M33, which is simply an American import of the original Let’sNote (mini) CF-M32 but remade for the ToughBook line such as having a rugged magnesium lid and shock absorbent caddy. Though it was originally made to compete with the Toshiba Libretto’s of the time (hence why they too became a success in Japan), they ended up being mostly used within industrial or embedded environments typically to control specialized machinery due to their enhanced durability.
My daily driver PC laptop is a Japanese CF-SX2 I bought a few years ago, only one generation newer than that CF-S10. After an SSD and RAM upgrade upon arrival, it still runs as good as it looks - beautifully. The light ruggedization of the Let's Note line helps a treat too!
Is it a good one? Im planning to buy the same model as yours
Neat video!
I just happen to recently get ahold of a similar older model of that laptop, a CF-W7 that runs Windows XP and found it amusing that this video just happens to pop up on my recommended.
What's your plans for the W7?
Nice preview!😊
thanks colin love your content!!
Would be a great contender for Win7 or Linux install. Changing the thermal paste would be a good idea at this stage. The screen looks like it would be decent for its age and I like it's industrial design.
Cool review! Thank you! 👍
LTT just did a video on these, and it's honestly got some really neat features, like the optical drive.
Here you can find many like this ,one thing you forgot to mention,this laptop it has an special Sd driver that is possible to tranfer music to SD cards in copyright protected mode we used to listening in SD Music Players that was released in earlier 2000's !
I wonder if the hardware would be well-supported in Linux out of the box. There are a lot of older niche devices that no longer have maintained drivers on Windows, but that still have drivers in the Linux kernel. Could be worth a shot!
Love this laptop ❤ nice review
Actually, Panasonic laptops did spread outside of Japan. Panasonic also made the Toughbook series of laptops, which you'll find commonly in American police departments.
great video
thx for the video, pal
Love the surprising disc drive placement! I guess it might be annoying to have the drive spinning right there, but it’s a neat one.
Love it, particularly that palm rest DVD drive.
Your videos are so damn comfy
I use to have it way back. Perfect machine, its so fast! Cant wait to own it again.
The usability of these devices was relatively good. Over time, i got used to the CF-F5 i got as a gift from someone, working in a japanese company. With its great battery life for the time and its mild rugged design, it was the perfect choice for car diganostic operations. I still use it with Windows 7 and it's full of software for vehicle diagnostics: Manuals, part lists and OBD software. Though, i never managed to find a bluetooth adapter to fit inside the laptop itself. There seemes to be no option for the CF series.
Thanks!
i have a toughbook cfy4 that was a store demo unit. paid around $2000 canadian at the time.
Its semi rugged yet lightweight even with the charger, making it ideal to take with me everywhere around campus - you dont want to leave a laptop in the locker even for 30 min.
it had enough performance, the screen was large and high res (14 inch 1400x1050) full size keyboard and optical drive. decent battery life.
i did all my school work with it. some light gaming and dvd watching after school and before work.
i still have it and altho it cant keep up with todays requirements for any online activity, its still a good xp machine for retro windows and dos games.
the market has changed and this product line no longer has its advanatges over the competition, but i will forever remember this letsnote or "business" toughbook product as an invaluable tool during a certain stage of my life.
Ive been eyeing one of these for quite some time. But i have a dozen or so other laptop projects that I need to get to first.
I was precisely refurbishing one last week. The University I work for had it as the “recommended option” for portables, so you could see hundreds of them years go, after they were replaced I got a whole bunch of them, 10. I use them for spare parts and as distro hopping test-bed… btw, yes, I’m in Japan.
Pretty much everyone in civil service industry in Canada uses Panasonic Toughbooks the police use them and well as the RCMP and almost all of the provincial and federal government infrastructure workers
@carlosrios4248you're correct and incorrect. Back in 90s/00s, the TOUGH BOOK name applied to both series. I owned a couple older ToughBooks (T1 & Y5)
it was a great time to see these awesome machines. Only problem was the price point back then
I got this same model locally recently and its been one of the most useful laptops with its insane extendo batt and lots of io! Wish we still had laptops like this on the shelf in NA
I'm so enamoured with these laptops. I ended up ordering a 2016 10" Lets note RZ6 with 8GB of ram and a more contemporary i5. Hoping to use it for general web browsing and writing.
I always wanted an R series back in the day (I know, not same, not a 2in1). Congrats.
@ThisDoesNotCompute The low power on count likely means that the mainboard for this laptop was replaced or repaired by Panasonic at some point. Not 100% sure about the processes they used in Japan, but when I worked for Panasonic's US service center our standard operating procedure was to reset the board in either situation -- zeroing the counter. As for not supporting two finger scrolling, that's by design. All of Panasonic's laptops with circular trackpads let you scroll infinitely by moving your finger around the circumference in either direction. Some even had a neat feature where your starting position determined whether it would scroll vertically or horizontally. And good call not trying to open it up to replace the original stick of RAM -- I never personally saw this exact model, but if it's any thing like the Toughbook CF-C1 series that it shares major design elements with then disassembly will require physically destroying the keyboard. Yes really.
It's beautiful!
I *love* that disk drive.
I think you should check out the CF31 model, it was a weird combo of i5 3rd gen laptop with 4:3 XGA display.
9:59 I could have sworn that the introduction of WiMAX was after 3G was (relatively speaking) widely available. I used it briefly on Sprint; it was competing with Verizon’s LTE at the time for 4G dominance (despite the fact that neither was true 4G)
Bought a black S9 in Japan in 2010 and used it until 2014 in Europe and the US.. was running Linux Fedora; people in airplanes sometimes asked me about it.. still have it, the 2nd ram slot is same as S10 and kind of accesible from the trap but it's tricky
I bought one of these while I was in Japan. It did not include the original power adapter, which the machine detects on startup and presents a message on boot (in just English!) stating that it will only charge the battery to 80% capacity. Anyway, it's a fun machine and very Linux friendly; I run Fedora Workstation on mine.
That optical drive is a trip.
The toughbooks from Panasonic are very well known in the Netherlands in the petrochemical industry. Because they are really fall proof. Those things are built like a tank. With also a very high price, but worth it for the build quality.
Panasonic kept adding optical drives to the CF-S series of laptops until late 2022. The last model to still carry an optical drive is CF-SV2, which has that optical drive, a VGA port, a SD reader and a Thunderbolt 4 port at the same time.
Gotta love how the optical drive is hidden
I like that you installed FireFox as the better browser, nice.
Nerd Sniped pretty hard on this one. Can't wait to get your perspective!
i bought this for college and it has been the best purchase of a modern eletronic device i have ever made
I want to get one of the newer ones that was in the LTT video. A modern laptop with a disc drive is something that appeals to me.
Lol, I love how they implemented the Disc drive!
i like the hinges look very substantial
I wonder if Panasonic ever made a Let’s Note with a socketed CPU and an expresscard slot, those two things could extend the life of a machine by quite a bit. I know most Fujitsu LifeBook models from this time period have both.
I bought a used Panasonic SV-1 from a seller who had imported it from Japan to the UK, i got it for £600 which is alright once you know how much they ship when new. It has a 11th gen intel it-1155G7 wth Iris Xe graphics, it runs Windows 11 from new and shipped with a thunderbolt 3 port, 3 usb As 3.1 or 3.2 gen dont quote me there, 1200p 16:10 display, HDMI and VGA and an SD card reader. My model is missing the DVD ODD but it still ships with them.
The system is amazing and i bought it to get me through the rest of my school and college years and further on. I got the ide of getting the product because LTT highlighted it antirust happened to stumble across it. Its amazing, runs a little louder than most laptops today but still quiet and the battery literally makes up 90% of the weight, without it it feels too light haha. they're a great brand of laptops!
I had a Panasonic CF-T2 which had a resistive touchscreen and pen. i fondly remember it as probably my favourite laptop ever. it was so small, light and neat. it was almost indestructible too. the HDD died and it was a strange proprietary connection so i couldn't get a replacement easily.
You don't do linear scrolling in round trackpads!
They are actually really cool for circular motion around perimeter for scrolling!
Can't exclude the drivers not compatible with win11. But it's a shame the signature feature is missing from the video.
I remember experimenting with some custom/other device firmware on my old laptop that offered this feature on a regular rectangle trackpad - it was really cool way to scroll. Albeit iirc, I couldn't keep using it for some other reason.
Old Panasonic laptops almost reach the coolness factor of Sony devices, with unique recognizable hardware features like round trackpad and palmrest CD drive.
I used a Fujitsu laptop from Japan around 2008 which was kinda similar in appearance. Lots of ports, good build quality. It was clunky but got a lot of compliments.
For scrolling you run a finger around the circle like an old iPod. You gotta try it; really nice!!
i was expecting the non-toughbook type Lets Notes. those are more fascinating than the one here.
Panasonic has been making Personal Computers since the 80s. They were pretty big on the MSX standard, and the only manufacturer to support all generations (MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and MSX Turbo-R). One of my most prized possessions is a MSX 2 made by them, the FS-A1.
I used a similar specification machine (t420 thinkpad) daily up until a few months ago. With xubuntu it was pretty usable as long as i didnt want to both watch 1080p youtube and talk on discord at the same time.
Love it
i have one cf-ax3 ... its amazing ..
The toughbook cf-ax3 is the laptop I got for my daughter, relatively low power, but tough enough to survive kids and with a fairly nice touchscreen
Most if not all computers I've ran windows 11 on had no driver issues, because windows 11 is basically just a reskin of 10, but with artificial hardware limits
I like the integrated disc drive - I'm tempted to just buy one to use as my dedicated burning station.
I recommend rufus to build installation media such as for Windows 11 and Driver Booster to find and install the latest divers
That's the coolest CD drive I've seen in a laptop
Panasonic laptops are great! I have quite a few of them, I have a CF-18 Mark 3 which is a Pentium 1.2ghz machine, a CF-U1 that has an Atom, and a Toughpad FZ-Q2 with a Core m5. They are all great machines. Panasonics will never be gaming machines, but if you need a solid, reliable machine, these are them. And 2,000 hours on one of these is REALLY low. My CF-18 has around 24k hours on it!
CF-18, if it ever fails, it's a great self defense weapon.
@@CheezeCracker tactical laptop! 🤣
@@MichaelAStanhope yup. Wonder how well magnesium stops bullets
LTT video show you can scroll by running your finger around the edge of the touchpad. But that may not be support in win11
i actually remember those as a kid i haven't used it in yrs doe im interested in these.
Many modern projectors still connect via VGA, I have been praised for enlightening people that VGA to HDMI adapters exist since newer corporate machines only have HDMI.
I have a 2011 Dell Vostro that originally started out as an i3 machine with 4GB RAM. Over the years I swapped out part of the mainboard for one that supports an i5 along with a dedicated graphics card, upgraded the wifi to 802.11ax, swapped out the HDD for SSD and it sings with Windows 10. The only upgrades left are swapping out the old CD-ROM for a slot-loading BD/DVDRW and a backlit keyboard. I may actually do that some day.
It's 2023 now, and I bought a refurbished CF-SV7 on Idle Fish (a Chinese second-hand web market) which costs 2500 CNY and came with a new battery. I think that's good for college use.
Damn that cd drive door is so smart
I recently did a presentation where I had to use an HDMI to VGA adapter because the projector where I did the presentation didn't have HDMI support. The projector did support 1920x1080 over VGA, though.
my 2016 Lenovo L series Thinkpad has a VGA port, its just a staple that wont go away as you can have flat panel monitors (up to 1920x1200px, so plenty for 1080 even) via VGA
looks like a good laptop
I have Windows 11 on an HP ProBook from more than 10 years ago also with a second generation i5 and 8Gb of DDR3 RAM and it works perfectly.
for scrolling u must circle on the outer ring
Panasonic makes really nice Notebooks. A shame that they more or less only sell the toughbook line (I have some toughbook myself) outside of japan. And its nice to hear that japan also uses faxes a lot like we do here in germany. Here in germany for a lot of stuff you need a fax machine because the only other option is a classic letter.
So the Panasonic laptops don't use a hard a drive caddy. They have a taped flappy plastic sheet with foam inside the bay. Your drive was loose because the seller put in one of those slimmer drive in there. The thicker 2.5" drive would fit in there snug, but will be too thick to fit the newer Panasonic laptops.
Had noticed this or similar laptop before I invested in some Toshiba nb205s. Just wanted to learn what the windows side was, being mainly a Mac user who only used windows virtualization. Added ssd and only helped a little with speed.
Nice
We load win 11 on 4th gen at work it seems to work fine, dell optiplexes though so drivers arent an issue. It just depends on your manufacturer.
The design of this machine has sort of a Serial Experiments Lain quality to it I somewhat like. The circular trackpad is very eye-catching.
I had a Japanese Fuljitsu for my first laptop. Thing was stacked in 1998.
That no-so-obvious DVD drive compartment is so genius. lol
Oh I was SO down for a 2016-ish Panasonic CF-MX5 convertible. However language barrier means hunting down drivers is a hassle, JP keyboard layout is hard to learn, and I found NO INFO on how the touchpen worked (Compared to a Wacom drawing tablet).
I ultimately got a ThinkPad Yoga 260 instead, with similar specs, lower pricepoint, known Wacom functionality, and much better parts availability.
But I still kinda miss the sweet VGA port, the ethernet port and the insanely overengineered optical drive.
I wonder if the thermals would have suffered in this unit...
Also I hate the VGA port, but I still like that it's there. I'll never use it.
Ya good laptop and design 😊👍
I've got a Dell laptop from 2017 that has a VGA port. It's actually somewhat useful because I can use it with a VGA-composite converter to emulate old console games on my CRT TV.
It finally happened: The computer featured in the old tech videos I watch has the same specs as the one I´m using :S