Panasonic Core 2 Duo ULV

Panasonic made sweeping changes to its notebook line on Wednesday with three of its ultraportables all receiving an upgrade to the 1.06GHz Core 2 Duo U7500, which adds 64-bit and dual-core support even in the tight confines of smaller PCs. The 12-inch W5a serves as the reference model with 1GB of memory, 80GB storage, and a top-loading DVD rewriter; it can also last for a long 10 hours on battery and takes drops of up to 12 inches or 220 pounds of pressure. The W5a should be available in Japan with other models on May 18th for $2,109.

Also seeing an upgrade is the T5a: similar in most respects to the W5a, it drops the optical drive in exchange for a longer still battery life of 13 hours and a lower price of $1,898 when it accompanies the W5a in mid-May.

A final upgrade was given to the smallest of Panasonic's notebooks. The 10.4-inch R6a also gets the faster Intel processor but is even tougher than either of the remaining models, surviving drops of up to 30 inches and has a splashproof keyboard. With the same memory and hard drive as the W5a and T5a, the smaller PC can run for up to 7.5 hours on a battery and weighs under 2.1 pounds. It should sell for $1,772.

By Electronista Staff