Panasonic was showing off its connected IoT products, as well as a rugged smartphone in the Toughpad line. Although officially described as a tablet, the device is 4.7″, supports dual SIM cards and can be used for voice calls – enough, in our eyes, to classify it as a smartphone!
Two Toughpad models are available: the FZ-F1, running Windows 10 IoT, and FZ-N1, running Android 5.1.1. Being a Toughpad, enterprise users are the focus. The 3,200mAh battery is warm-swappable, and a 6,200mAh pack is available as an option. A stylus can also be used with the unit.
Panasonic’s new smartphone can survive a 1.8m drop and meets IP65 and IP67 specifications. The display (1280 x 720) is sunlight-readable and features a rain-sensing mode, which ignores water droplets. A barcode reader is built in, with activation buttons on both left and right sides of the device.
The processor in the Toughpad smartphones is a 2.3GHz Snapdragon device, with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM.
A WiFi version of the FZ-N1 will be launched in March, for $1,500, with a voice model available in the summer. The FZ-F1 will be launched as a data (4G) and voice model in the autumn, for $1,600.
We also saw a new monitoring camera from Panasonic. The Nubo is a 4G-connected device, which can record to an SD card or the cloud. It is designed for indoor and outdoor use.
On display was the Toughbook 20 (CF-20) hybrid which was released in November. (Panasonic Produces ‘World’s First’ Rugged Hybrid)
