Panasonic outs new Android smartphone with 4.3-inch OLED headed to Europe

Panasonic has shown off a very cool looking new smartphone that will be headed to Europe next year. We heard that Panasonic was going to move outside Japan with its smartphones last month. The new smartphone will hit in March of 2012 specifically and it looks very nice with rounded edges. One of the key features of the new smartphone is that it has a 4.3-inch qHD OLED display. That screen has a resolution of 960 x 540.

The rounded edges give the phone a D-shape profile. Panasonic hasn’t offered a smartphone outside the Japanese home market in a long time so this device will be the first time many Europeans are able to get their hands on a smartphone from Panasonic. Other interesting features of this smartphone include that it is somewhat rugged with some water resistance and the phone is dustproof.
After the phone hits Europe next March, it will head to other countries as well. The device will make it to Asia and North America. We don’t have all the specs right now on this phone, but we expect to see them in the coming weeks, as the launch date gets closer. Panasonic will need to have a well rounded device because the brand name along won’t cut it in the competitive Android market.
[via SlashGear]

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Panasonic’s new Toughpad A1 and B1 can beat up your tablet

Panasonic’s got a reputation for tough-as-nails laptops with its Toughbook line, and it looks like they’re planning on extending that reputation to the booming tablet sector. The manufacturer has announced a pair of new entries to its Toughpad line, the 10-inch A1 and the 7-inch B1. Specs on the former are encouraging, while specs on the later are, for the moment, absent.

The 10-inch A1 has a 1.2Ghz Marvell dual-core processor, a gig of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and an open MicroSD card slot. Those are some fairly typical numbers. What aren’t typical are this tablet’s tolerances: it’ll withstand a 4-foot drop without issue, temperatures between 14 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit without breaking a sweat, and at least some resistance to water and dirt. Business customizations allow for remote access and encryption- an important addition when many interested customers will likely be business-oriented. Panasonic hasn’t mentioned battery capacity or camera quality, but it will be available with LTE or WiMAX connectivity.

All that toughness comes with a predicable heft of 2.13 pounds, buit that’s a small price to pay for a taqblet that qualifies as a blunt instrument in some states. The tablet may not have access to the Android Market since it’s substituting the Business AppPortal, and unfortunately that may mean that it’s also sporting Gingerbread – you’ve got to have Google’s blessing for Honeycomb.
Check out Panasonic’s opinionated Toughpad video:




The 7-inch B1 doesn’t get anything except a name and screen size in the announcement, but it’ll probably have a similar set of specs when it launches – whenever that might be. Pricing and availability were also no-shows, though Panasonic’s probably not too interested in the consumer market for either model.

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Panasonic unveils new BizPad Android tablets

In Japan, Panasonic has officially announced the launch of two new BizPad Android tablets. Designed for heavy duty work, these Android tablets are said to be shock resistant, dust resistant and water resistant, with an easily replaced battery pack – for those times when you just need a fully charged battery to use out of the office.
Other features include: a card reader/writer, NFC, security features, and optional 3G. The tablet will be available in two sizes: the 7″ JT-580VT Series and the 10.1″ JT-581VT Series. Both tablets will run on Android 3.2 Honeycomb. No word on pricing, but the JT-580VT will be available in late December, and the JT-581VT in mid-January next year.
[Press Release]

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Panasonic LUMIX Phone 101P pairs a powerful camera with Android 2.3 Gingerbread

This week, Japanese carrier Softbank unveiled a number of smartphones that it will be carrying in the near future, and the Panasonic LUMIX Phone 101P is one of the them. The LUMIX Phone 101P borrows heavily from Panasonic's experience with its LUMIX line of digital cameras, and pairs some powerful optics with Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
If you were to imagine a pocket-sized point-and-shoot digital camera with an Android smartphone grafted onto the back of it, that is pretty much the LUMIX Phone 101P in a nutshell. The front of the phone features a 4-inch, qHD (540 x 960 pixel) touchscreen and the usual menu, home, and back buttons for Android. The phone is powered by a dual-core, 1GHz TI OMAP processor, and it includes support for Japanese digital TV service.
Looking at the camera side of things, we find a 13.2 megapixel CMOS LUMIX sensor with Panasonic's "Mobile Venus Engine" for image processing. The camera is autofocus and appears to sport a xenon flash unit. Unfortunately, Softbank has not provided details about the LUMIX Phone 101P's video recording abilities, but we would be very surprised if some sort of HD recording wasn't included. The phone is waterproof and it manages to keep trim dimensions despite its powerful shooting abilities. The 101P measures 123mm x 64mm x 9.8mm (4.84in x 2.52in x 0.39in) and weighs 128g (4.5oz).
Softbank will be offering the Panasonic LUMIX Phone 101P in November. Exact pricing has yet to be announced, and there is no word of plans to bring the phone to global markets. Q4CTHNYTGCK9 [via TechCrunch]

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Panasonic Toughbook Android Tablet Revealed

Panasonic has revealed its rugged Android tablet. It is a sturdy-looking 10.1″ tablet that looks like it can take punishing shocks on every corner, without being knocked out. Panasonic pitches it as a “business tablet”, so it comes with 3G/4G and IT management features, including hardware-level features that could mean “encryption”. It also has handwriting recognition and does not need a stylus, which has been a hallmark of business tablet for so long.

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