It’s June 2024 and Panasonic wants you to buy an ultraportable laptop with a round touchpad — Let’s Note has a 14th gen Intel Core Ultra CPU, 5G connectivity but also a VGA from 1987 and a LAN port
The iconic Japanese laptop comes with a round touchpad plus the latest Intel chips and more
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Anyone looking for thebest laptopor thebest business laptopwill likely have come across some ofPanasonic’s designed-for-experts models, including the Let’s Note series, which is extremely popular in Japan.
We last met the Panasonic Let’s Note in 2023, specifically theLet’s Note SR 12.4, which launched in October 2023 with a lot of very interesting features, most notably a circular trackpad that breaks a lot of the conventions of Western laptop designs.
And now Panasonic is out with abrand new refresh(webpage in Japanese) to the iconic Let’s Note lineup, bringing them squarely into 2024.
New cards, new colors, same circular trackpad
The new models, named the Let’s Note FV5, Let’s Note SR4, and Let’s Note QR4, will be available starting on June 14 in Japan, costing upwards of around £1,500 (or $1,900).
Availability outside of Japan is often very limited, especially for new models. Older models doappear on eBayand other third-party sellers, however, although the default version ofWindows 11is in Japanese.
All of the Let’s Note models come withWindows 11 Proas standard, something you would expect from a business-focused device. In terms of the design, Panasonic has retained the boxy chassis and circular trackpad that makes the laptop so iconic.
On the inside of the device, everything has been refreshed: all of the models getIntel’s new Core Ultra 7 processors (except the low-end model, which gets Core Ultra 5), and the bundledIntel Arc GPU. Users can choose between 16GB and 32GB of RAM, and there are 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB SSD configurations.
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Panasonic has retained the 14-inch 2160 x 1440 resolution display for all models, and as such the weight of the laptops is kept relatively low at around 1.1kg. There is also Wi-Fi 6E, a nano SIM card slot, and SD card slot, which are nice additions in our MacBook-dominated lives. 5G connectivity also is there for the ride.
The company says users can expect battery life of around nine hours of typical usage, which is fairly good, and since most users are likely to be using a Let’s Note in the office, and then occasionally in a car or on a train, that is likely to be enough. Battery life does vary by each model and its respective CPU and GPU versions.
As a final flourish, Panasonic is also rolling out two new colors – Floral Gold and Matte Violet – to compliment the very business-like grey colour of old.
In Japan, Panasonic is running avariety of discounts(webpage in Japanese) at launch, offering money off for those who complete a quiz, and off the price ofMicrosoft Office.
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Max Slater-Robins has been writing about technology for nearly a decade at various outlets, covering the rise of the technology giants, trends in enterprise and SaaS companies, and much more besides. Originally from Suffolk, he currently lives in London and likes a good night out and walks in the countryside.
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