Today, Panasonic announced the latest member of its TOUGHBOOK family, the TOUGHBOOK S1. This is a new 7-inch Android tablet aimed at mobile workers in tough environments, so that they can have a device that can keep up with their daily life. The company already has a solid lineup of Android devices, including the 10-inch TOUGHBOOK A3, the 7-inch L1, the 5-inch T1, and the 4.7-inch N1.
Compared to the similarly-sized TOUGHBOOK L1, this new tablet comes with some major improvements, with one of them being the battery. The TOUGHBOOK S1 comes with a warm swappable battery, meaning you can remove the main battery and replace it on the fly because there's a smaller battery built into the device that keeps it from powering off for 45 seconds. TOUGHBOOK's larger tablets and PCs often have hot-swappable batteries, but this is new for its 7-inch lineup. A regular battery will get you nine hours, but there's an extended battery option that offers 14.5 hours.
The are other things, too, like the fact that this tablet is FirstNet certified, meaning emergency responders on the field can set it up to connect to Band 14, which is reserved for emergency communications.
“The TOUGHBOOK S1 is purpose-built for mobile workers in the most challenging environments and conditions, especially in transportation and logistics, manufacturing and field services where efficiency and reliability are essential for getting the job done,” said Craig Jackowski, GM of Product Management, Panasonic System Solutions Company of North America.“Building on the TOUGHBOOK legacy of productivity and ruggedness, the TOUGHBOOK S1 comes at a time when our customers demand reliable technology solutions to support digital and mobile operations.”
Of course, you can count on the TOUGHBOOK S1 being able to take a beating. It comes with MIL-STD-810H certification and it's tested for 5ft drops onto concrete. In fact, Panasonic says it tests the durability by dropping the same device 18 times from the same height. It can also survive between -4°F and 122°F, it comes with both IP65 and IP67 water and dust resistance, and it has glove touch mode so it can work with gloves up to 5mm thick, as well as Panasonic's rain mode so the screen can still respond when it's wet. It also has a 500-nit screen, so it should be visible enough outdoors.
Being a business device also means it's configurable with things like an optional USB Type-A port, an optional barcode scanner that can be had in either portrait or landscape. And, of course, it's backed by Panasonic's productivity+ suite, which helps enterprise customers configure, deploy, and manage these devices. This offering also comes with things like getting fast and easy replacements, so when you need a replacement device, Panasonic can send you one that's already configured for your business and ready to use.
As for performance, Panasonic is using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 octa-core chipset, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of internal storage, which you can expand via microSD. These devices are meant to run specific sets of apps, so they don't need the highest-performance components out there, and this chipset ensures that the device can be supported in the long-term so customers don't constantly have to think about upgrading. The tablet comes with Android 10.
The TOUGHBOOK S1 is available from today starting at $2,499. You can contact your local Panasonic representative to order them for your business.
