Panasonic’s Toughbook notebook PCs and Toughpad tablets are a favorite of many enterprises, but the company is also clearly making a play for “prosumer” buyers by showing off its new Toughpad FZ-M1 tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show this week.
Panasonic says the Toughpad FZ-M1 is the first rugged 7-inch tablet that’s fanless, which helps it to meet standards for repelling dust and rain. The tablet boasts a 4th generation Intel Core i5 vPro processor and runs 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro, but an Intel Bay Trail-M processor model is also available. For enterprise buyers, the FZ-M1 also includes remote management software and the Toughbook’s usual security features like encryption, IPsec VPN, trusted boot, and root protection.
The Toughpad FZ-M1 measures a svelte 0.7″ (17.8 mm) thin and weighs 1.2 lbs. (544 g) in its standard configuration. As with previous Toughpads, the rugged tablet is tested to meet military STD-810G specifications for drops of up to 5 feet, shock, vibration, altitude, humidity and extreme temperatures. Panasonic says it has also submitted the tablet for ANSI 12.12.1 certification (Class1, Div2) for use in incendiary environments.
The FZ-M1’s 7-inch, 500 nit, daylight-readable WXGA display features an anti-reflective screen treatment, and Panasonic says its capacitive, 10-point multi-touch screen can even be used with thick industrial-type gloves. An optional stylus is available for signature capture and similar applications. The tablet has a 720-pixel front camera and 5MP rear camera with auto focus.
The FZ-M1’s user-replaceable battery lasts for up to 8 hours, and can reach 100% capacity in just two and a half hours, according to Panasonic. If that’s not enough, you can choose a high capacity battery that promises 16 hours of power, and/or order an optional bridge battery that lets you switch batteries without powering down the device.
For connectivity, the Toughpad FZ-M1 includes Intel 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 3.0, micro SDXC card slot, docking connector, and optional multi-carrier 4G LTE. Other options include dedicated GPS, choice of near field communications (NFC), Ethernet and serial ports, SmartCard reader, barcode reader, UHF radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader (up to 10 ft. range), or Magnetic Stripe reader.
The Toughpad FZ-M1 is backed by a three-year warranty. The Core i5 vPro processor model will be available in early spring for a retail price of US$2,099. For lots of hands-on photos, check out Engadget.
