Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 Modular Laptop Review

Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 Laptop is an Intel Tiger Lake Cpu-based Laptop that delivers excellent performance.

Panasonic has manufactured one of the most rugged and toughest laptops, known as the Toughbook FZ-55 MK2. It has a classic look, a rugged body, and many customizable options. Panasonic has made a solid laptop with an excellent body and has squeezed Intel Tiger Lake 11th Generation processors inside for its long-time durability.

Police, ambulance, and military mainly use these kinds of Rugged Laptops along with other govt operated defence departments. The purpose of manufacturing Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 is to provide maximum durability and flexibility in its performance and portability. A regular business laptop is built with the mindset of working and carrying around in a backpack with an average lifetime of a laptop is three years, even with excessive regular usage.

But this Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2, with a little bit of maintenance, is meant not only for basic computing but also for handling defence and emergency-related software. These laptops are built for heavy-duty and can take in a decent amount of external shocks without a hitch. The laptop is one of the most modular laptops that you can buy right now.

So without further delay, let’s quickly check out the all-new Panasonic ToughBook FZ-55 MK2 Laptop.

Panasonic ToughBook FZ-55 MK2 Laptop – Specs

Here are the detailed specifications of the Panasonic ToughBook FZ-55 MK2 Laptop

Laptop Class	Rugged
CPU	Intel Tiger Lake Core-i7 1185G7
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe Graphics
RAM	16GB
Storage	512GB SSD
Display	14 inch
Screen Resolution	1920×1080
Touch Feature	Yes
Panel Type	IPS
Screen Refresh Frequency	60Hz
Ports	3x USB 3.0 or 3.1 Gen1 ports 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 port 1x Thunderbol4 port 1x USB-C Power Delivery (PD) port 1x HDMI and DisplayPort 1x Dedicated Docking Station Port 1x 3.5 mm audio mic combo jack 1x Universal MicroSD reader 1x X-PAK removable expansion item
Webcam	1080p
Wireless Connection	WiFi 6E 802.11ax, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet
Battery	71 Wh Lithium-ion battery with 11hr backup
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 64bit
Dimension	1.3×13.6×10.07 inch
Weight	4.9 lbs

Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 Laptop – Price and Availability

The starting price of Panasonic’s Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 Laptop is approximately $2,100.00. It is available worldwide with all major online and offline retailers. But this Laptop’s price may vary from one country to another.

Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 Laptop – Design and Build Quality

Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 comes with a retro-type look which almost looks very similar to the older generation laptops. Panasonic has manufactured this Laptop with a retro suitcase design. The display unit connector hinge is robust and can fully open up to 180 degrees. The internal chassis body of this Laptop is solid and can withstand heavy external shocks and tremors. Besides, it has a top-quality dust and water protection build system. The laptop is very durable and has MIL-STD-810H Certifications.

Although it does not comes with a modern gen keyboard or display detachable option. The Panasonic logo is placed in the upper middle area on the top of the display unit. Panasonic offers this Laptop with only a black colour option, whereas the laptop lid comes in white. The laptop weighs around 4.9 lbs, and it is not very easy to carry around in regular laptop backpacks.

Panasonic Toughbook Modular Laptop – Display

Panasonic’s this Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 laptop has a very ordinary display screen. The colour looks good in this 95% sRGB IPS standard and has moderate brightness nits. We observed no dead pixels from our perspective, but the viewing angle is okay in terms of quality. It has an old 60Hz refresh rate display but comes with a touch screen feature. The panel is a 14-inch Full HD Display with a native resolution of 1920×1080.

Here are the full details of the Display Screen unit of this Laptop

Maximum Nits of Brightness	1155.4 cd/m²
Minimum Nits of Brightness	1.06 cd/m²
Average Nits of Brightness	996.8 cd/m²
Brightness in the Middle of the Screen	1061.1
Brightness Distribution	76
Contrast	1516:1
Calibrated	2.52
Display P3 Coverage	34.8
sRGB colour coverage	52.2
Adobe RGB 1998 Coverage	36
Response Time GTG	28.5
Response Time BTW	30
PWM Frequency	685

Panasonic Rugged Laptop – Keyboard and Touchpad

Panasonic has managed to squeeze a simple-looking sound quality slim keyboard and a touchpad. The keyboard comes in a compact style of chiclet keycaps and has an excellent typing experience. It also has a white backlit feature and has 36 months of warranty and waterproof technology.

The touchpad has placed in the below centre position of the keyboard. This touchpad delivers accurate response and feedback but is very cheap in quality. There are two separate mouse click buttons, and the touchpad area is small to our liking.

Panasonic Toughbook – Ports and Connectivity

This Laptop comes with three USB 3.0 or 3.1 Gen1 ports, one USB 3.1 Gen2 port, one Thunderbol4 port, one USB-C Power Delivery (PD) port, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort. Also, it has one dedicated Docking Station Port. Besides, it has a 3.5 mm audio mic combo jack and a universal MicroSD reader.

For wireless connectivity, it has the latest gen Bluetooth v5.2 and Intel WiFi 6E 802.11ax. Both the wireless components deliver data with excellent speed without any problem.

Panasonic Suitcase laptop – Audio, Battery, and Webcam

Audio

Panasonic has placed a stereo quality speaker in this Laptop. This speaker comes in an average quality but doesn’t create noise distortion at a high dB sound level. The universal 3.5mm audio jack delivers good quality stereo through any headset. The Bluetooth functionality inside the laptop would help you connect wireless headphones and speakers as well.

Battery

For the battery, Panasonic offers you a 71 Wh Lithium-ion battery that is removable. It gives a full 11hr standby time. In our testing, the battery provided roughly around 6 hours of backup time while doing Word processing and WiFi connection to the internet. The backup time also includes casual browsing and listening to music.

Webcam

For the webcam, Panasonic has placed a 1080p webcam on this Laptop. The webcam is placed in the upper middle position of the display unit. It provides clear pictures and videos but lacks white balancing when exposed in bright light areas. Otherwise, the 1080p camera is great for video callings and conference meetings.

Panasonic Toughbook – Benchmark Performance

The laptop comes with the Intel Core Tiger Lake i7 Processor while pairing it with 16GB RAM and 512GB NVMe SSD.

We ran some benchmarks with the Panasonic Toughbook Laptop, and the results are below.

Cinebench R15 Single 64bit	225 points
Cinbench R15 Multi 64bit	812 points
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64bit	100fps
Cinebench R15 Ref. Match 64bit	97.8%
PCMark 10	5078 points
DPC Latencies	2432 μs

Panasonic Rugged Laptop – Noise and Thermal

Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 does not come with special heatpipes and large fans, which the higher-end gaming laptops enjoy. You will see the normal cooling system that you will find on most laptops nowadays, but even though under heavy workloads, the chassis body temperature doesn’t cross more than 42 degrees Celcius. Also, the CPU fan works just fine without creating much noise.

Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 – FAQ

What is the free software that comes with this Laptop?

Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 comes with a free copy of Microsoft Office 360 and Adobe Document Reader and Editor software with three years of free subscription. Besides, it comes with Panasonic’s exclusive software from which you can customize your system.

How much warranty does the Panasonic Toughbook provide?

This Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 comes with three years of warranty.

Can I upgrade my Panasonic Laptop?

This Panasonic Toughbook is a modular laptop so you can upgrade it on the go. Since this is a modular laptop, you can upgrade the front expansion area with a Fingerprint reader, Smart Card Reader, and additional battery pack.

You can also upgrade the rear expansion area with VGA + Lan or VGA + Serial + Rugged USB. The universal Bay can be upgraded with a DVD/ Blue Ray Drive, AMD Radeon Discrete Graphics Card, Smart Card Reader and SSD Packs. Here is a full video of what you can expect from a Panasonic Toughbook Laptop.

Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 MK2 – Final Verdict

Pros

• Internal components are easy to upgrade
• Very High nits of Brightness on the 14-inch touch screen
• Good keyboard
• Rugged Laptop withstands dust, water, Collison
• Intel vPro support
• Robust Laptop essential for Police, SWAT Force, Medical, Fire Bridge, etc.

Cons

• Very High Price
• The touchpad is cheap in quality
• Suitable for only special Military or Medial usage, not for regular office or home

So this was all about the Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 Modular Laptop.

That’s all, Folks!

---