Panasonic Toughbook
Shares rank 48 of 63 laptops by recommenders
Recommended for being solidly built, well supported under Linux, and backed by parts sold directly by Panasonic.
Recommended for being solidly built, well supported under Linux, and backed by parts sold directly by Panasonic.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Parts sold directly by Panasonic
“it's extremely well supported in Linux, built solidly, and you can buy parts directly from Panasonic”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “MacBook Neo Is So Popular That Apple Doubled Production” “If you have money to burn, the new FZ-56.”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “MacBook Neo Is So Popular That Apple Doubled Production” Solidly built, suits rough outdoor use
“it's extremely well supported in Linux, built solidly, and you can buy parts directly from Panasonic”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “MacBook Neo Is So Popular That Apple Doubled Production” “I spent the last week on the ocean and in the woods on a toughbook, and that was kind of fun.”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Apple is crossing a Steve Jobs red line” Praised as great, near-perfect machines
“At that point, it was pretty much the perfect laptop”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “I'm a laptop weirdo and that's why I like my new Framework 13” “they are great little machines”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “Why Japanese companies do so many different things”
Other laptops people recommend
The four most recommended other laptops, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple MacBook Pro | 928 | 688 | 57% | 13 | 5 yrs248 owners | — |
| Apple MacBook Neo | 707 | 355 | 66% | 9 | 1 mo8 owners | — |
| MacBook Air | 633 | 209 | 75% | 12 | 5 yrs130 owners | Approved |
| Apple MacBook | 499 | 348 | 59% | 12 | 9 yrs77 owners | — |
| Panasonic ToughbookThis page | 7 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I find it's a useful addition to how I interact with it.”
“it's a major upgrade from what I had before in terms of portable computing”
“it's extremely well supported in Linux, built solidly, and you can buy parts directly from Panasonic”
“They can be had cheaply on eBay, and you can buy parts directly from Panasonic”
“If you have money to burn, the new FZ-56.”
“they are great little machines”
“I will have an eternity to compile everything they provide in pkg archive from scratch”
“At that point, it was pretty much the perfect laptop”
“I spent the last week on the ocean and in the woods on a toughbook, and that was kind of fun.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.