Panasonic Toughbook 55 refreshed with Raptor Lake processors and Wi-Fi 6E

The Panasonic Toughbook 55 was last refreshed two years ago with Intel Tiger Lake processors. It is now configurable with 13th-gen Raptor Lake-U or Raptor Lake-P vPro processors. Everything else remains largely the same, including its MIL-STD-810H, IP53 and ASTM D4169-161 certified chassis, user-replaceable battery and a host of hot-swappable modules.

Panasonic offers the Toughbook 55 with two screen variants: a 14-inch 1,920x 1,080 touch-enabled panel (1,000 nits peak brightness) and a lower-res 1,366x768 screen. Both rely on Intel's iGPU to do the heavy lifting and can output video to up to four displays.

There are two processor options available for the Panasonic Toughbook 55: the Intel Core i5-1345U vPro and the Intel Core i7-1370P vPro. The company's decision to choose two different classes of processors is interesting. Memory support maxes out at 64 GB of DDR4 3,200, which is a bit disappointing but understandable for this class of laptop.

For storage, one can pick between a 512 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB NVMe SSD. A second drive is available for additional storage requirements. The Panasonic Toughbook 55 draws power from a 6,500 mAh, 10.8 V battery for an effective capacity of 70.8 Wh. A second cell can be purchased separately for additional backup. Panasonic claims the laptop will last for up to 10 hours on a single charge.

Wireless connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and 4G LTE. Port offerings are aplenty and include a Thunderbolt 4.0 port, a second USB-C port (optional), 2x USB-A ports, a Fischer USB port (optional), an RJ45 Ethernet jack, an HDMI port and even a serial port (optional). Even a DVD drive can be thrown in the mix if required.

The new Toughbook 55 is up for grabs on Panasonic's website now, but only the Core i7 model. The Core i5 model will hit shelves in February 2024. Refer to Panasonic's website for module availability.