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Having previously announcing that they were out of the smart phone game, Panasonic have revealed two new additions to their ToughPad family of devices that have telephony abilities. The two new ToughPads are thoughtfully called the FZ-E1 and the FZ-X1. Panasonic are keen to call them rugged tablets, but both devices carry 5 inch displays, which means in essence, they should rather be categorized as rugged smartphones. Semantics aside, whichever term is used to describe the FZ-E1 and FZ-X1, they are both aimed at the business sector.
Whilst both ToughPads share mostly the same components, they do differ in the software and CPU departments. The FZ-E1 runs Windows Embedded 8 Handheld software, and powered by a Qualcomm MSM8974AB Quad Core (Snapdragon 800) clocked at 2.3GHz, whilst the FZ-X1 is running Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 and is also powered by a Qualcomm, this time a APQ8064T (Snapdragon 600) Quad Core clocked at 1.7GHz.
Both ToughPad devices carry a 5 inch 1280 x 720 HD display, with a more than decent 2GB of RAM, a 1.3 MP front facing camera and a 8MP rear facing camera for the video conferencing, as well as a built-in bar-code scanner, Micro-SD support, and twin loud speakers on the front of the device which are capable of 100dBA, which will definitely help when in noisy environments. With regards to telephony abilities, both the FZ-E1 and FZ-X1 contain the 3G/LTE radios, and are compatible with WiFi up to and the including the AC band.
Both ToughPad devices are impact resistant, passing the MIL-STD-810G test of dropping from a height of 3m, as well as being IP65 and IP68 compliant, which means they are dust-proof, drip-proof and waterproof. They both carry a monster battery with a 6200mAh capacity, rated for up to 14 hours of productivity, with a standby time of up to 1000 hours. Panasonic have slated the Windows 8 Handheld FZ-E1 for a mid-June release, with the FZ-X1 Android 4.2.2 device scheduled for a late August release. Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section below or via our Google Plus page.