Panasonic Let's Note R7

The Panasonic Let's Note R-series notebooks are very popular in Japan. In the past, whenever I went on a business trip to Tokyo, I would see lots of business people with their Panasonic R3s, R4s and R5s. Not strange considering the fact that Japanese people embrace small and nimble things.

Not long ago the R6 was introduced and recently the R7 was announced. Both are offered in a special Jet Black edition, as shown in the picture. Since the beginning the Let's Note notebooks were always offered in a silver design. Hence, the Jet Black color was a welcomed change for many.

So what is so special about the R7? Nothing much. At least, not if you compare it to the previous models. It has essentially the same form factor. And battery life, which is still great, has not changed much. But the R-series is all about evolution, rather than revolution. Much like the ThinkPads. And much like ThinkPads they are sturdy due to their magnesium casing and spill proof keyboards. In addition, the stress tests these notebooks are put through are quite impressive.

What I like about the R7 is it's size and weight. It's comes with a 10.4" standard XGA screen and only weighs 2.05 lbs. While thicker, the footprint is so small that it make my ThinkPad X61 (even with the small battery) seem a bit bloated. The latest hardware includes a Core 2 Duo U7600 1.2 GHz CPU, up to 2GB 533 MHz RAM, Intel 965 Express chipset and up to 250GB of HDD capacity. Dimensions are 9.0" x 7.2" x 0.9-1.6" or 229 x 183.5 x 24.2-41.6mm. Only the thickness is above average in the ultraportable category - the rest is tiny.

Apart from Japan, the R-series notebooks are still quite unknown in most parts of the world, including Europe and the US. Hopefully this will change with time. A business ultraportable like this, deserves a larger crowd.

In closing, here's an interesting video giving a good impression of the size and sturdiness of the R6 (more or less the same as the R7):