Panasonic has announced the Toughpad FZ-M1, a super-tough 7-inch Windows 8.1 tablet that doesn’t compromise on specs.
You might be used to tablets as somewhat precious, fragile things that need to be wrapped up in a protective case. Panasonic’s Toughpad range is different.
Back in June we reviewed the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-G1, a 10.1-inch Windows 8 tablet that could take some serious abuse whilst packing a punch of its own.
The Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 takes the same principles and utilitarian design philosophy and applies it to the 7-inch form factor. This compact tablet is built to withstand a 5ft drop, and is water and dust proof to the point of IP65 certification thanks to its fully sealed fabless design.
Despite the heavy duty reinforcement that such ruggedness necessitates, the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 is 'only' 18mm thick and weighs just 544g. Okay, so it won’t be giving the iPad mini 2 a run for its money on the form factor stakes, but then we wouldn’t even contemplate dropping Apple’s miniature marvel from 5-inches or exposing it to a little light drizzle.
Though Panasonic has physically scaled the Toughpad FZ-M1 back compared to the FZ-G1, it’s no less capable. It packs an Intel Core i5 vPro processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. It runs on the full Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit OS, and it can stretch to a respectable 8 hours of battery life.
Just about the only underwhelming spec is its 7-inch display, which comes with a rather paltry 1200 x 800 resolution. On the up side, it has been supplied with a special daylight-friendly coating, and it can be used even with heavy gloves on.
The Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 will be available some time in early spring for around $2,099, which translates to about £1,280.
Read More: Best Tablets 2014
Via: Extreme Windows Blog
