Panasonic debuted this week two new tablets from its lineup of rugged products, aimed at people who work outdoors. The newcomers are the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-E1 and the FZ-X1, both handheld models with 5 inch screens. They can take 10 foot drops and keep on working.
They’ll also take on dust, water and extreme temperatures, but the prices are pretty steep, starting at $1799. The new Toughpads go on sale in August and the FZ-E1 comes with a 2.3 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU, Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld, plus a 5 inch 720p display. The screen is an LCD and it uses anti reflective technology. The Toughpad FZ-X1 has a Snapdragon 600 1.7 GHz unit, Android 4.2 and relies on the same screen.
Both models share 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, microSDXC card slots, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and optional 3G and 4G. There are also options for barcode readers and magnetic stripe card readers. On the camera front we’ve got 8 MP back shooters and front 1.3 MP cameras. Both Toughpads rely on 6200 mAh batteries, good enough for 14 hours of functioning and they also support hot swap, so you can replace batteries on the go.
The WiFi only Toughpad FZ-X1 goes for $1799, while the mobile broadband one goes for $1849. The other unit starts at $1899 and goes up to $1999.
