Think your Gorilla Glass-protected waterproof smartphone is durable? It’s a proverbial wimp next to Panasonic’s new ToughPad, an ultra-rugged 5-inch tablet that sometimes does double duty as a phone.

That kind of ruggedness has a cost, however: This baby is anything but elegant. “Brick” is an apt descriptor for the 15-ounce, 1.2-inch-thick handheld, so it’s just as well the ToughPad is aimed at the business and industrial market, designed to take the kind of punishment that factory floors, highways and battlefields occasionally dish out.

reviously, Panasonic only offered ToughPad tablets in 10- and 7-inch sizes; this is the first one to have a 5-inch screen, which is a market dominated by Honeywell and Motorola Solutions. The tiny ToughPad comes in two options: the FZ-X1, which runs Android 4.2.2 “Jelly Bean,” and the FZ-E1, which is one of the first devices to ship with Windows Embedded 8.1, a special flavor of Windows for business handhelds.

As you might expect, this sucker is built to take a pounding. Not only is it rated to withstand a 10-foot drop onto concrete, but the screen “floats” within the housing, enabling it to survive falling on its face. And the IP68 rating means it’s guaranteed to still work after being submerged in 5 feet of water for 30 minutes.

The tricky thing about water resistance, though, is that water can still play havoc with usability (just try using your waterproof tablet while running it under a faucet). Panasonic has thought of this, though, and has included a “rain mode” that reduces the 10-finger touchscreen to just one finger, but makes the device usable in a storm. Even through gloves.

One of the advantages of bulk is you have room for a bigger battery, and the huge 6,200 milliamp-hour (mAh) battery will last 14 hours. It’s hot-swappable, too, meaning you can take it out and slip in a fresh one and it won’t even turn off — that’s thanks to a high-voltage capacitor that will still work no matter how long you own the device.

The Windows model is powered by a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip and the Android one has a 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 model. Wi-Fi-only models cost $1,849 and $1,799, respectively, with 4G LTE and phone-call options each costing $50 extra. Adding a barcode reader or magstripe scanner costs $100 each.

 

Author: Pete Pachal
Source: Mashable