Toughbook CF-U1 Rugged Ultra Mobile PC Now Available

Panasonic's Toughbook CF-U1 rugged ultra mobile PC, designed for field workers and those who work in extreme environments, will be available in August for about $2,499.

Panasonic spent about two years collecting feedback from government and commercial organizations about their mobile computing needs, and have delivered a Toughbook capable of withstanding shocks, vibration, humidity, altitude, temperature extremes and thermal shock, while also being rain and dust resistant.

The portable and durable Toughbook U1 also features a "sunlight viewable" LCD touchscreen, a thumb-friendly backlit QWERTY keyboard, a solid state drive, fingerprint scanner, 1D and 2D barcode and RFID readers for data capture, and a 2-megapixel digital camera. The device supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, next generation (SiRFstarIII based) GPS technology, and 3G mobile broadband Internet connectivity. It's also the first rugged handheld UMPC equipped with the new Intel Atom processor, and operates on Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.

Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1 features and specs: 

- Genuine Windows Vista(R) Business with Service Pack 1 (with XP downgrade option)

- Intel(R) Atom(TM) processor Z520 1.33GHz with 533MHz FSB, 512KB L2 cache

- 16GB solid state removable drive (32GB optional)

- 1GB memory

- 5.6" WSVGA sunlight viewable touchscreen (1024 x 600 resolution)

- Anti-reflective screen treatment

- LED backlighting

- Extremely rugged

- MIL-STD-810F and IP54 compliant

- 4 foot drop approved

- Magnesium alloy chassis encased with ABS and elastomer

- Removable solid state drive

- Sealed all-weather design

- Rain-, spill-, dust- and vibration-resistant

- Rotating hand strap

- Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 5100 Series (802.11a/g/draft-n)

- Bluetooth(R) v2.0 + EDR -- Interfaces:

- USB 2.0 x 1

- Headphone x 1

- Expansion Bus x 1

- Integrated options include 3G mobile broadband, integrated camera, fingerprint scanner, GPS, barcode or RFID readers

- Optional expansion modules for magnetic stripe reader & serial/ethernet/smartcard are expected in late 2008

- Approximately 9 hours of battery life

- 2.3 lbs (with strap and both batteries)

- 2.2" (H) x 7.2" (W) x 5.9" (D)