Meet Japan’s weirdest laptop — Panasonic’s extraordinary 1kg Let’s Note takes two SIMs, has a round touchpad, and holds on to a 35-year-old tech so that you can run four monitors

(Image credit: Panasonic)

Where to begin with one of the most astonishing enterprise laptops out there? Panasonic’s Let’s Note SR 12.4 has a stupendous collection of features that make it one of the most curious devices on the market today.

Its circular touchpad certainly feels alien to those you’d find in the best busines laptops, as does its removable battery pack. This can be replaced with ease or swapped out for a longer-lasting, albeit heavier, pack.

Beyond its Intel Core i7-1360P CPU and 16GB RAM, alongside a 512GB SSD, the Let’s Note SR 12.4 also features a SIM card slot and separate eSIM compatibility, alongside a rich collection of ports.

The Let’s Note is packed with business-friendly features

These ports include HDMI, two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support, and a rarely found RGB port. This means you can connect the laptop to up to four displays at once. Elsewhere, the notebook includes three USB-A ports, an SD card reader, an Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The device weighs under 1kg inclusive of the longer-lasting battery pack – labeled battery pack (standard) – which lasts 16 hours, according to the manufacturer. The battery pack (lightweight) lasts just nine hours.

Let’s Note laptops have a distinct visual identity and have been a staple of Japanese corporate society for decades, with the line dating back to 1996.

Known for circular touchpads, a boxy design, and its rugged build, the latest Let’s Note doesn’t drift too far from the stereotype – but there are plenty of features that might make it the most robust and dynamic model yet.

For example, the 12.4-inch laptop includes an automatic proximity-based PC lock and wake, display dimming while your eyes are turned away, as well as an AI sensor that may detect when somebody is physically nearby. Its camera also corrects facial brightness and automatically suppresses noise and other voices while users are video conferencing. Many of these features are designed to extend battery life.

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Keumars Afifi-Sabet is the Technology Editor for Live Science. He has written for a variety of publications including ITPro, The Week Digital and ComputerActive. He has worked as a technology journalist for more than five years, having previously held the role of features editor with ITPro. In his previous role, he oversaw the commissioning and publishing of long form in areas including AI, cyber security, cloud computing and digital transformation.