Panasonic “Let's Note” laptop History (Japanese)

The recent discussion about GPD Micro PC scratched an itch regarding mentioning Panny's Let's Note series.

The early 2000's brought the CF-R1 and the CF-T1, et al, all fantastic for the size vs weight vs extreme toughness (not as good as real Panasonic TOUGHBOOKS).

Pro's: Durable, strong (I'm 140 pounds and I regularly used them angled on-edge against an immoveable object as a step stool), extremely light-weight. Ok, extremely light-weight.

Nice weirdnesses: The built-in CD-player that flips up under the palm rest on some of them, the hand-strap on some, circular touchpad that did what your mouse-wheel does.

Con's: Hard as all get-out to disassemble, keyboards that often feel like junk (but are definitely not junk, great quality, more than passes the spouse test (but it still often irks me)), possibly keyboard layout, many people think it feels cheap because there is no weight to the machines (tossing it across the bar usually changes their mind), expensive/selective availablity in some countries (U.S.A), dealing with !!secret information!!/official gate-keepers for manuals/unlock codes/etc.

Still, nice machines. My dichotomy is that I'm a ThinkPad fan for most of the opposite reasons.

The page takes a minute or two to render on my mobile, apologies.

My favorite (R-series) is, to me, a touch cramped/small for the keyboard.