14 DAY TRIAL // Panasonic finished preparing its latest two tablet devices which, rather than being intended for consumers, are meant to act as instruments in field activities where it is not the safest place for gadgets.
The two rugged slates are called Toughpad A1 and Toughpad B1 and measure 10.1 inches and 7 inches in diagonal, respectively.
Whatever information is available right now was made public by the company both in its press release and this particular web page.
Alas, the B1 was not detailed at all, so it isn't even clear if the OS is the same one as on the A1 (the hardware more than likely isn't).
Panasonic did give the full scoop on the A1, though, down to the presence of the Android 3.2 operating system (Honeycomb).
Based on a 1.2 GHz dual-core Marvell processor, it has 1 GB of LPDDR2 memory and an XGA screen (1,024 x 768 pixels) with anti-glare, 500 nit brightness and support for finger and pen input (a stylus is part of the bundle).
Also, 16 GB of NAND Flash storage exist, while a microSD card slot can let some extra gigabytes in.
Furthermore, the tablet comes with GPS, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, USB, micro HDMI and even 4G (LTE or WiMAX).
Other components included are a 5-megapixel camera (on the back), a 2 megapixel front camera and a battery that can last for up to 10 hours per charge.
All the above are packed inside a frame that has dust, water and temperature resistance, as well as compliance with the MIL-STD-810G standard for drops.
Hardware-level security, FIPS 140-X and HIPPA compliant and a cable lock slot were thrown into the mix as well.
2012 is when sales start, by which time some actual details on the B1 might surface as well. Hopefully it really will be significantly cheaper than the A1 ($1,299 / 944.52 Euro).