
Panasonic Toughbook Tablet - mileswu
http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughpad/us/4k-tablet.asp
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blhack
Wow a lot of the people in this thread don't get it.

This isn't for you. This is for doctors, and architects (which is pretty
obviously indicated in their marketing material).

~~~
sliverstorm
A lot of people are very uncomfortable with the notion that not every product
is targeted at them. It's an ego thing. If I was Freud I'm sure I could
explain it better.

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darkchasma
6k for a 4K 20" tablet with a 2 hour battery that weighs over 5 lbs with only
an i5 and 2GB vram? This isn't going to be the ultimate Civ 5 machine that
I've been hoping for.

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Fundlab
I keep wondering why tablet manufacturers are all focused on the smaller form
factor when they could be producing all in one screens upwards of 32" to
replace clunky desktop units. Such screen sizes wouldn't necessarily need the
generosity of a long lasting battery because of their sizes but could pack
enough punch for compete with desktop units.

Hopefully manufacturers delve into that market more and drive the price down.

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code_duck
How exactly would one hold a 32" tablet, or situate it at a desk? Arms grow
very tired operating horizontal touch screens, and if the screen is on a
table, angled, it's awkward to sit and look at.

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dhughes
Only one way and that's comically:

[http://mashable.com/2013/10/07/fox-news-
deck/](http://mashable.com/2013/10/07/fox-news-deck/)

~~~
wildgift
Ha ha. Ridiculous. The reason why smartphones and some tablets are popular has
less to do with touch than with size. It's pleasant to hold a small screen a
foot from your face for reading and watching videos.

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chx
Let me quietly wish that we will see a model with a DisplayPort input so it
could be used as an external monitor for a laptop. I would love me a 4K 20"
5.5lbs transportable monitor. Given then weight is pretty much the same as the
AOC e2351F I have anyways, the only question would be -- four times as many
pixels, fourty times the price. Is pixel density and hardiness worth a
magnitude of price difference?

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pcurve
Product so new, they didn't even have time to fix the title tag.

"<title>Best 10 Inch Rugged Android Tablet - Panasonic Toughbook Tablet
(Toughpad FZ-A1)</title>"

Jokes aside, the biggest problem is that it falls far short of durability of
its sibling Toughpads.

"2.5-foot drop rating (bottom side), 1-foot drop rating (26 drops), Magnesium
alloy chassis and GFRP rear case"

Compared that to other Toughpads.

"MIL-STD-810G, 4-foot drop and all-weather IP65 dust and water resistant
design"

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secstate
A little off-topic, but I like how marketers trying to sell Win8 have to use
fake application screenshots. Where are the actual apps that let you share
blueprints? Oh, right. They're not sexy at all, and wouldn't benefit from a 4K
display.

Too bad.

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wildgift
[http://weknowmemes.com/generator/uploads/generated/g13840685...](http://weknowmemes.com/generator/uploads/generated/g1384068507571012525.jpg)

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tzury
Don't let the $6K tag price confuse you.

ToughPad, as its older brother ToughBook has its own market of army, police
and alike which require rugged equipment.

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shitlord
And they _still_ manage to damage those things.

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pslam
Dimensions/Weight: 18.7”(L) x 13.1”(W) x 0.5”(D), 5.3 lbs.

Weighs more than a MacBook Pro 13 (4.5 lbs). This should be marketed as a
body-building tool. In fact, I'm not sure the models in the "Solutions" page
are actual users, because they don't have gigantic forearm muscles required to
hold a 20" 5.3lbs screen from one corner:

[http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughpad/us/windows-4k-tab...](http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughpad/us/windows-4k-tablet-
solutions.asp)

~~~
shurcooL
Also lighter than most desktops with 20" screens.

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nairteashop
Looks sweet. Per Panasonic's press release, this will be available in January
and cost $5,999 (!)

[http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20131107007032/en/Pana...](http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20131107007032/en/Panasonic-
Toughpad-4K-UT-MB5-Tablet-U.S.-Premiere)

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mileswu
If they can make a 20" 4K display and put it in a tablet, then why can't they
just mount it in a desktop display and I'd be interested in buying it (though
whether I have the money is a completely different question). I'm sure it
would be easier to manufacture if they didn't care about weight/power
consumption and there might be a bigger market.

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timpattinson
It looks good, apart from one thing: a 2 hour battery life (see
[http://tpgweb2.net/panasonic/psci-0897/PSC6102-10_FY13_SS_To...](http://tpgweb2.net/panasonic/psci-0897/PSC6102-10_FY13_SS_Toughpad_4K_HR.pdf))

~~~
shurcooL
I think it's meant to be used more like a desktop. Except it's going to lay
flat on your drafting table, offer a touchscreen and high resolution 4K
screen.

Having a battery means you can move it around without having to shut it down.
You can also take it to meetings and present stuff.

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jrs99
i think the best part of it is that you can take it outside, or take it to a
client. 2 hours isn't a lot, but it is enough for a meeting with someone at a
starbucks or at their home.

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err4nt
Just imagine playing mine craft with so many pixels! I don't care about the
price or battery life, we are finally in the age of overpowered 'gaming
tablets'

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tomashertus
Panasonic is dying... I've been following this company for my whole life.
Their concepts are bad and their focus is wrong. Typical Japanese company with
board full of elder chairmans, who are afraid of big change. I don't see light
in this tunnel....

~~~
wildgift
I beg to differ. They have an awesome rice cooker, and their Panasonic
Platinum line of big portable radios was cool in the 80s.

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sk5t
I have to think this has been designed, built, and priced to sell to the sorts
of law enforcement organizations that already have the latest armored
personnel carriers, and have just a bit more budget to dump.

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kephra
This might even make sense for me, if:

\- the display is as bright as the good old toughbooks, means it must be
readable in bright sunshine

\- the system is able to boot Linux

\- it runs on 12V

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eonil
Really wanna know what GPU is equipped to cover 4K graphics.

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KaoruAoiShiho
NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M

AFAIK better than the GPU in the Retina MBP

~~~
Tloewald
The low end mbp has iris hd video, so I imagine any decent GPU could handle a
4k display (the bottleneck is connectors).

The high end mbp has a 750M.

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nathancahill
"If you see a stylus, they blew it. If you see a task manager... they blew
it." -Steve Jobs

~~~
biot

      "While one could increase the resolution to make up some of
       the difference, it is meaningless unless your tablet also
       includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their
       fingers to around one-quarter of their present size."
                               -- Steve Jobs (on 7 inch tablets)

~~~
Tloewald
The ipad mini is an 8" tablet. Its touch targets are the same as an iphone's.
And Steve Jobs was never averse to changing his mind.

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rufugee
It looks very interesting...if only it were Android.

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hammadfauz
This isn't for anyone. _Anyone_. Beyond the 300-350 pixels per inch, the
'sharpness' and the 'detail' is not perceivable by human eyes. It's a wastage
of power, memory and CPU/GPU resources. This is what happens when Marketing
dictates Engineering.

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e12e
Is that really true in general? I'd say the difference _in print_ start to
disappear around 600dpi (dpi/clarity isn't really discernibly different
between a 600 dpi print and a 1200dpi print. But up to 600 dpi, I'd say there
definitively is a difference)?

Granted, with current technology we have single-coloured pixels, so 300 ppi is
really 3-900 dpi (or pixel-parts) -- that might have something to do with it?

~~~
twotwotwo
The dots in your basic 300dpi monochrome laser printer's output are black or
white, but on a 300ppi screen you could antialias with grey pixels (or even
subpixels as you note), which can boost perceived smoothness/quality a lot.
Figure here conveys a difference between PPI and DPI pretty well:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_per_inch#DPI_or_PPI_in_dig...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_per_inch#DPI_or_PPI_in_digital_image_files)

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twotwotwo
Oh, just saw a post about this on another site and noticed it's 231PPI because
of the large size. That's a good bit less than the 300PPI on the Nexus 10 that
they compare it to in the image on the product page, interestingly. Also south
of 1080p and 720p phones, the new Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire, or any of Apple's
iPhone/iPad Retina displays.

It's maybe most comparable to the 15" Retina MBP--roughly similar density (220
vs 231), and both are bigger panels you use at a distance.

Just interesting that from a pure spec-wars perspective, raw density isn't one
of the dimensions on which the Toughpad is pushing the envelope. Density in
its size class, maybe, but not density full-stop.

