Panasonic unveils Toughbook C1
Panasonic Computer Solutions Co. unveiled the Toughbook C1, a 12.1-inch convertible tablet PC designed specifically to support government field workers. The tablet PC delivers up to 10 hours of battery life, touts a 30-inch drop rating and includes an optional Gobi2000 mobile broadband component, said Dave Poulin, senior business development manager for the company’s government division.
“This is for someone in any aspect of government that is not necessarily mounting [a laptop] in a car or working on them in the mud or the snow,” Poulin said. “It’s tailored to IRS agents or those who do inspections, code enforcement or evidence collection — things of that nature.”
The tablet is powered by the Intel Core i5 520M vPro processor and weighs 3.2 pounds (with one battery, 3.7 pounds with two). It delivers up to 10 hours of battery life, enabled by “a twin hot-swappable battery design that allows for continuous use,” Poulin said. It also supports an optional fingerprint scanner, he said.
Poulin said the tablet has embedded wireless technologies, including Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 and optional Gobi2000 mobile broadband technology from Qualcomm. It is also designed so that Wi-Fi, WiMAX and 3G mobile broadband modules can be installed in the same unit and that, in the future, it will be certified on the Sprint and Verizon Wireless networks, he said.
It will be available worldwide in June 2010. It costs $2,499.
