Panasonic has announced its re-entry into the corporate tablet segment with two new Toughpad FZ-E1 and FZ-X1 tablets that also dual as a smartphone.
The FZ-E1 and FZ-X1, which are now on display at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 trade show in Barcelona have been designed for resilience.
While The FZ-E1 version will run Windows Embedded 8 Handheld on a Qualcomm 2.3GHz processor, the FZ-X1 will run Android 4.2.2 on a Qualcomm 1.7GHz processor.
Apart from being dustproof and waterproof, the Japanese electronics supplier claims that the Toughpad handsets can withstand extreme conditions with surviving drops of up to 3 meters and being submerged in 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. The tablets will function in temperatures in a range from minus 20 degrees to 60 degrees Celsius.
The devices will feature a highly sensitive touch panel, which will enable users to fully control the tablet even while wearing gloves and properly operated them even when their hands are wet. They are the first tablets to have 3G and LTE in the company’s Toughpad range of tablets.
Both the tablets feature 5-inch LCD display (1,280 x 720 pixel resolution), 2GB RAM, 32GB onboard storage, LTE connectivity, an 8-megapixel rear camera and a swappable 6,200mAh battery.
Panasonic announced on Monday that it is aiming to manufacture 40,000 Toughpad handsets per year. The Toughpads, priced at ¥130,000 ($1,268), will first hit Japan before being rolled out to Europe and the United States.
The FZ-E1 will be launched in June, and the FZ-X1 will be launched in August.
