VR-Zone

If you're one of those users that always end up in situations where your devices break, then you're most likely familiar with Panasonic's range of Toughbook notebooks. Panasonic has announced that it's going to launch a Toughbook Android tablet that should arrive sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.

The so far unnamed tablet, simply going by Toughbook tablet at the moment will be shown of InfoComm in Florida which kicks off today. It's not intended as a consumer tablet, but instead this should be the first corporate Android tablet. Panasonic didn't reveal much in terms of specifications, but considering that the tablet will have a 10.1-inch screen with XGA  resolution (1024x768) we might be looking at an Gingerbread free tablet.

What little is given away in the press release tells us that the tablet will come with a stylus, but it's not clear if we're looking at a resistive touch screen or some other kind of technology. The good news is that the tablet will have a matte screen, so it should be easy to read.

Beyond the screen, the only other specifications listed include full-shift (read 8h) battery life, integrated GPS, 3G and/or 4G connectivity and “professional-grade” accessories. The picture of the tablet also suggests that it will be possible to store several user profiles on it, as it has a dedicated user button beyond the menu, home, back and power buttons.

Most of us won't need a Toughbook level ruggedized tablet, but it's good to know that the option is out there and hopefully we'll see a few other manufacturers follow suite with some more consumer oriented models that can take a knock or two and still survive. Expect to pay silly money for the Toughbook tablet, but we can imagine that there are quite a few companies out there that can't wait to get their hands on one.