Panasonic launches rugged Windows 8 tablet

MUNICH: Panasonic has unveiled a rugged 10in Windows 8 tablet, the Toughpad FZ-G1, along with a rugged 7in Android tablet, the Toughpad B1.

Aimed at workers in the field, Panasonic's Windows 8 tablet is touted as the world's thinnest and lightest device of its kind, weighing 1.1kg. It has a waterproof 10.1in IPS capacitive multi-touch display and is powered by an Intel third-generation Core i5 processor with a choice of 4GB or 8GB of RAM, and has options of 128GB or 256GB of SSD storage.

Speaking at a theatrical press event held in Munich, Germany on Tuesday, Panasonic's managing director of product solutions Hiroaki Sakamoto said, "Our mission is to improve the working lives of everyone through engineering.

"Being our first family of tablets designed for businesses, we've developed these high quality products [that function] under tough environments for Windows 8 due to its increase in popularity."

With two ladies in military style outfits showing the tablet on the conference floor, Panasonic took the opportunity to say that the FZ-G1 is different than your average consumer tablet in the way that it's built for harsh environments.

Shock resistant so it's protected against hard knocks, the Toughpad FZ-G1 is also shielded from dirt, dust, rain and temperatures from -20 degrees to 60 degrees Celsius, all while providing eight hours of battery life.

"Users want to boot up and run their tablets right after it has been stored in environments such as a car that's heated up in the sun, for example," added Panasonic head of marketing and product solutions Jan Kampfer.

"Media tablets just switch off when they get too hot, but this won't happen with the FZ-G1."

This is due to a built-in water and dust resistant high performance fan, which helps cool the device no matter what the environment, according to Panasonic.

Also standard are dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and a smartcard reader along with front and rear-facing cameras that both have 3MP resolution. The rear-facing camera also features a high quality LED flash for scanning documents, a feature that is important for enterprise users.

For added connectivity, the Toughpad FZ-G1 comes with a choice of 3G or 4G connectivity and also has al serial port. On the left hand side, there is a hatch that acts as a stowaway niche for a digitiser stylus pen, and on the right is an I/O box with full-size USB 3.0 and HDMI ports and an audio jack, also under a protective door.