Panasonic Debuts Tough Tablet

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Panasonic Tough Tablet
 

I have to admit I'm pretty excited about the upcoming release
of Apple's iPad; I'm convinced the coming battle royal in computer form factors
will be in the iPad/Kindle 8" to 10" range. Well, that battle may extend into
more than the civilian commercial world as I just spotted, over at one of the
my favorite Techie sties, Engaget, that Panasonic just released the Toughbook
H1 Field, what it calls "the world's most rugged handheld tablet computer."

I've never personally used a Panasonic Toughbook laptop as
I've found them to be too clunky and heavy for my taste. But a really rugged
Toughbook tablet would be a whole different animal. Panasonics says the Field weighs
in at 3.4 pounds; a bit heavy for a tablet, the iPad weighs less than a pound,
but ruggedizing the thing adds weight.

The 10.4" touch screen tablet comes with the familiar 1.86
GHz. Intel Atom chip found in most netbooks, 2GB RAM, 64 GB solid state drive,
mobile broadband, a 2 megapixel camera, RFID reader, camera, GPS, and, a
totally cool six foot drop rating. Battery
life is pretty impressive at six hours and it comes with swappable batteries.

The downside is price: $3,379.00. Since the souped up
version of the iPad will run around $800, that strikes me as an awfully expensive
tablet. Still, I can definitely see its utility in the field and the military
has some serious deep pockets. 

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