Radical upgrade: Panasonic puts Intel Core Ultra X7 with ARC GPU in its new tablets
Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Toughbook brand, Panasonic is releasing two new rugged Toughbook devices. Both are primarily tablets, though both the 10.1 inch Toughbook G3 and the 12.4 inch Toughbook FZ-34 also include optional keyboard-attachments, transforming them into laptops.
Toughbook, of course, is not a mainstream brand in the PC market. Panasonic operates in a niche, making these specialized, highly customizable devices, which mostly sell to B2B customers and government. Still, the Toughbook G3 and Toughbook 34 bring some impressive technical upgrades. Both are upgrades from older Intel CPU platforms - Meteor Lake for the Toughbook G3, and Raptor Lake for the Toughbook 34 - to the newest one: Intel Panther Lake.
First truely AI-ready Panasonic Toughbook tablets
Namely, customers will be able to configure the new Panasonic tablets either with the Intel Core Ultra 5 335 or with the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H, which also includes the powerful ARC B390 GPU. This would enable the Toughbooks, which both include an active cooling system, to perform much more compute-intensive tasks than their older counterparts, including some simple local AI tasks. This applies especially to the maxed out configurations: While the Panasonic Toughbook G3 and Panasonic Toughbook 34 start with 16 GB of RAM, they can go up to 64 GB, as well as 2 TB SSD storage. Both offer the same options, as Panasonic designed them to share certain parts.
Another focus for Panasonic was the battery life: The small Toughbook G3 can be outfitted with an up to 99 Wh battery, which should bring the battery life up to a maximum of 24 hrs. The Toughbook 34, which has a bigger 3:2 screen compared to the older Toughbook 33, can be configured with two 40 Wh battery, for up to 18 hrs of battery life. Both have extra-bright IPS screens with up to 1,000 nits, as well as 5G connections.
As rugged, business focused Toughbooks, Panasonic's new devices include all the bells and whistles you expect, and more: Their thick magnesium shells contain a variety of modular components, allowing customers to upgrade and even mod their devices to their needs. The Toughbooks can even be outfitted with barcode scanners for warehouse use. Plus, Panasonic was careful not to alter their design too much, so the new Toughbooks are still compatible with the accessories of their older counterparts.
Panasonic Toughbook G3 and Toughbook 34: Pricing and availability
The Toughbook G3 will be available in October, while the Toughbook 34 should already be available today.
Source(s)
Panasonic (via a press release)
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