The Panasonic Toughbook W4 lives at the lonely intersection of good looks and ruggedness. When it comes to notebooks you usually get it rugged or get it attractive, not both. Panasonic's line of semi-rugged notebooks changes that: they're very cool looking yet they can withstand bumps and grinds better than standard notebooks. They're light weight too, again not something you generally find in a rugged design. Now before we go on too long, keep in mind that their semi-rugged offerings are a separate line from the well-known long standing line of fully ruggedized Toughbooks which are more suited to military expeditions and archaeological excavations than daily use.
Most but not all of the semi-rugged Toughbooks are very light weight, and the W4 is no exception, weighing in at only 2.8 pounds including its very high capacity battery. While many utralights sacrifice an internal optical drive, the W4 has a combo DVD/DW-RW drive with Panasonic's trademark pop-up lid design.