Panasonic’s got a reputation for tough-as-nails laptops with its Toughbook line, and it looks like they’re planning on extending that reputation to the booming tablet sector. The manufacturer has announced a pair of new entries to its Toughpad line, the 10-inch A1 and the 7-inch B1. Specs on the former are encouraging, while specs on the later are, for the moment, absent.
The 10-inch A1 has a 1.2Ghz Marvell dual-core processor, a gig of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and an open MicroSD card slot. Those are some fairly typical numbers. What aren’t typical are this tablet’s tolerances: it’ll withstand a 4-foot drop without issue, temperatures between 14 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit without breaking a sweat, and at least some resistance to water and dirt. Business customizations allow for remote access and encryption- an important addition when many interested customers will likely be business-oriented. Panasonic hasn’t mentioned battery capacity or camera quality, but it will be available with LTE or WiMAX connectivity.
All that toughness comes with a predicable heft of 2.13 pounds, buit that’s a small price to pay for a taqblet that qualifies as a blunt instrument in some states. The tablet may not have access to the Android Market since it’s substituting the Business AppPortal, and unfortunately that may mean that it’s also sporting Gingerbread – you’ve got to have Google’s blessing for Honeycomb.
Check out Panasonic’s opinionated Toughpad video:
The 7-inch B1 doesn’t get anything except a name and screen size in the announcement, but it’ll probably have a similar set of specs when it launches – whenever that might be. Pricing and availability were also no-shows, though Panasonic’s probably not too interested in the consumer market for either model.
[via SlashGear]
The Toughpad A1 runs Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) and will have access to the Android Marketplace (if your IT Dept. allows it, or you buy it yourself.)