Panasonic releases a new tablet that’s quite expensive

Oct 30, 2014 10:08 GMT  ·  By

Panasonic is no stranger to the world of business tablets that come with a twist of ruggedness. Well, the company has unveiled its latest offering which is a tablet that has been supposedly “designed for business.” Apparently, it’s also the most powerful and flexible in its current Android lineup.

The new slate will arrive in Europe just in time for the holiday season, meaning December, and will hit the US a little later in February, coming with the impressive price tag of $1299 / €1031.

Panasonic Toughpad FZ-B2 won't come cheap

The tablet’s specifications aren’t all that impressive if you compare it with other products currently available on the market today. However, we suppose the slate costs as much due to its rugged properties, although we still feel it’s a little bit too much, even for a business-friendly slate.

The new Panasonic FZ-B2 tablet has been spotted on the company’s own website, so we can tell you it takes advantage of a 7-inch WXGA IPS LCD that delivers 1200 x 800 pixel resolution. The good news is that the tablet boasts a fanless design, so it should prove to be a decent and silent work companion.

Under the bonnet resides a 64-bit Intel Celeron N2930 processor (with 4 cores, 4 threads, 2MB cache) clocked at 1.83GHz (up to 2.16GHz in burst mode) fitted with Intel HD Graphics (313 MHz base frequency and up to 854 MHz with burst) and 2GB of RAM. The new slate operates Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box.

As a rugged tablet, the FZ-B2 abides by the MIL-STD-810G standard and is IP65 certified for dust and water resistance.

Other specifications include 32GB of storage (expandable via microSD card), two cameras (5MP on the back or an 8MP one plus 2MP up in front), Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 3.0.

Panasonic says the tablet’s battery is good enough to offer an 8-hour life cycle, but if you feel like you’d be needing more, a 14-hour option is also available for your pleasure.

Panasonic's latest products include smaller 5-inch rugged Android tabs

Not so long ago at IFA 2014 in Berlin, Panasonic pushed out the ToughPad FZ-E1 / X1 series which hopes to be the company’s most portable lineup. It’s made up of really tiny 5-inch slates with either Android or Windows out of the box.

For these models Panasonic partnered up with Qualcomm to deliver the chips needed to keep the tablet alive. So if you prefer Intel instead and don’t mind having to work on slightly larger 7-inch screen, the FZ-B2 might be what you need.

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Panasonic Toughpad FZ-B2 is quite expensive
Panasonic Toughpad FZ-B2 is a new rugged tablet
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