This week Panasonic added the Toughbook N1 handheld device to its line of ultra-durable portable computing gadgets. Now the company is introducing two more models.
The Panasonic Toughbook T1 is a rugged handheld with a 5 inch display, and the Toughbook L1 is a rugged 7 inch tablet. Both feature shock-resistant designs, dust and water resistant bodies, and built-in barcode scanners. These are aimed at the enterprise market rather than consumers, and they’re priced to reflect that: both models will sell for about $1499 and up.
For that price it’s a little disappointing that both devices also feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processors. On the bright side, they ship with Android 8.1 and include hot-swappable batteries, allowing you to change our batteries in the field without pausing to turn off the device.
Here’s a run-down of the spec sheet for each model:
Toughbook T1
- 5 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display
- 10-point multitouch input and support for glove touch
- Optional passive stylus
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 quad-core processor
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB eMMC storage
- microSD card up to 64GB
- 3 mics + mono speaker
- 8MP rear camera
- micro USB port
- Headphone jack
- 802.11a/b/g/nd/h//r, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC, and optional LTE
- 3,200 mAh battery
- MIL-STD-810G tested (5 foot drop-resistant)
- IP66 and IP68 dust and water resistant (up to 5 feet of water for 30 minutes)
- 2 user defined buttons
Toughbook L1
- 7 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display
- 10-point multitouch input with support for glove touch
- Optional passive stylus
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 quad-core processor
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB eMMC storage
- microSD card up to 64GB
- 2 mics + mono speaker
- 8MP rear camera
- micro USBÂ [prt
- Headphone jack
- 802.11a/b/g/nd/h//r, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC, and optional LTE
- 3,200 mAh battery
- ML-STD810G tested (5 foot drop resistant)
- IP65 and IP67 dust and water resistant (up to 3.3 feet of water for 30 minutes)
I like the Toughbook idea, but not the huge price tag. For me, it’s better to stick with inexpensive hardware and simply replace it when it breaks. It’s kind of fun upgrading to something new every year or so anyway.