Panasonic has expanded its line of rugged Toughbook devices with a couple of new models – a 5-inch smartphone and a 7-inch tablet called the Toughbook T1 and Toughbook L1, respectively. Both rely on Android 8.1 Oreo and are designed specifically for enterprises, so they boast a couple of features that are usually unseen in consumer-grade products, such as barcode scanners, all while meeting the MIL-STD-810G military durability standard.
The Panasonic Toughbook T1 smartphone has a 5-inch 10-point capacitive multi-touch display which can be paired with an optional passive stylus. It features a resolution of 1280 x 720 and can be used while wearing gloves. Meanwhile, the Panasonic Toughbook L1 tablet shares the same display characteristics except the panel has a larger 7-inch diagonal. Likewise, both the smartphone and tablet are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 chipset housing four ARM Cortex-A7 CPU cores clocked at up to 1.1GHz, coupled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of eMMC storage, although it is possible to expand the memory by up to an additional 64GB. They also feature an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera coupled with an LED flash, while lacking a front-facing sensor. As for connectivity, the new Toughbook duo takes advantage of Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/d/h//i/r, GPS, GLONASS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, and 4G LTE, though the tablet will also be available in a Wi-Fi-only variant. Finally, while the smartphone is rated by the manufacturer for up to 16 hours of continuous use, the tablet is equipped with a cell that should keep it up and running for up 12 hours.
Although both models meet the MIL-STD 810G standard which should contribute to a more resilient shell against drops, their ingress rating is not the same across the board, with the Panasonic Toughbook T1 having a higher IP66/IP68 rating while the Toughbook L1 tablet taking advantage of an IP65/IP67 rating instead. Availability details are unclear as of this writing but according to Panasonic, each of these new devices should launch for the suggested retail price of $1,499. Both models take advantage of a 1-year warranty while the OEM is offering an optional 3-year warranty as well as 24/7 IT support.
