Panasonic Gets Tough With Ultra-mobile Pcs

摘要

Panasonic has launched its first ultra-mobile Toughbook, the CF-U1. It is chunkier than most UMPCs but its 15.1cm x 18.'4cm footprint is par for the format and it weighs just 1.06kg. It includes two batteries that Panasonic claims last for nine hours. You can hot-swap spare batteries without powering down. Solid-state drives (max 32GB) come as standard, as does the magnesium alloy case of earlier Toughbooks, although it is now coated to increase scratch resistance. It uses a small keyboard with handset-style keys, something I normally hate as I would rather have a good keyboard or none at all - you can always plug one in if necessary. But the Atom Z520-powered CF-U1 is designed for rough field use, and so should not be judged by consumer standards. Typical uses will involve mapping or e-form filling, with minimal alphanumeric input and often using only one hand to type. To make two-handed typing easier the Qwerty text keys are split in two and separated by a number pad. The 5.6in 1024 × 600 touch screen can be used for handwritten input, but is too small to do so comfortably.