Tablets By Ryan Whitwam Jun. 24, 2014 7:29 am
There have been moderately rugged tablets and phones in the past, but Panasonic’s new Toughpad puts them to shame. This device is designed from the ground up to be as close to indestructible as a mobile device can get. It can survive drops, water, and even a biting arctic chill that would render most devices inoperable thanks to its built-in heater.
The Toughpad has a 5-inch touchscreen, but the thick, heavy frame makes it feel more like a tablet than most 5-inch smartphones. It’s mostly a tablet, but there is an LTE variant with limited phone functionality, too. The screen can withstand the force of a 396-gram steel ball falling from a height of 80 centimeters, which is admittedly an odd standard. You can also drop it 1.5 meters onto concrete, and leave it in 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes.
No matter how durable a device is, cold weather can stop it dead. Panasonic has utilized electric heater technology in its Toughbook laptops before, but this is the first tablet that does so. The heater will flip on automatically when necessary to keep the battery warm and bootable at temperatures as low as -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 Celsius). Most mobile devices are not guaranteed to work at temperatures below freezing. The Toughbook also keeps chugging along at up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 Celsius). It does not have a tiny built-in air conditioner, though.
There are two variants of the Toughpad, the FZ-X1 and FZ-E1. The E1 runs Windows 8.1 Embedded with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. The X1 is an Android 4.2.2 device with an older Snapdragon 600, but it probably doesn’t need as much muscle as Windows. The FZ-E1 will start at US$1,849, while the FZ-X1 Android model will start at $1,799. Not exactly a mainstream device then.
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The Toughpad has a 5-inch touchscreen, but the thick, heavy frame makes it feel more like a tablet than most 5-inch smartphones. It’s mostly a tablet, but there is an LTE variant with limited phone functionality, too. The screen can withstand the force of a 396-gram steel ball falling from a height of 80 centimeters, which is admittedly an odd standard. You can also drop it 1.5 meters onto concrete, and leave it in 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes.
No matter how durable a device is, cold weather can stop it dead. Panasonic has utilized electric heater technology in its Toughbook laptops before, but this is the first tablet that does so. The heater will flip on automatically when necessary to keep the battery warm and bootable at temperatures as low as -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 Celsius). Most mobile devices are not guaranteed to work at temperatures below freezing. The Toughbook also keeps chugging along at up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 Celsius). It does not have a tiny built-in air conditioner, though.
There are two variants of the Toughpad, the FZ-X1 and FZ-E1. The E1 runs Windows 8.1 Embedded with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. The X1 is an Android 4.2.2 device with an older Snapdragon 600, but it probably doesn’t need as much muscle as Windows. The FZ-E1 will start at US$1,849, while the FZ-X1 Android model will start at $1,799. Not exactly a mainstream device then.
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