On May 18, 2021, Panasonic announced the TOUGHBOOK S1, a slim and sleek 7-inch Android-based tablet designed for capturing and accessing critical information on the job in industries such as warehousing, transportation, logistics, manufacturing and field services, or many other environments where fragile consumer tablets just won't do.
Panasonic introduced the S1 tablet as the latest addition to its growing number of fully rugged Android tablets and handhelds. The company has long been an industry leader in workplace mobility with an impressive succession of TOUGHBOOK laptops. In essence, the S1 represents an adaptation of what the TOUGHBOOK brand has stood for and represented for well over two decades to a new generation of smaller and lighter devices.
The idea of such thinner and lighter designs isn't new to Panasonic. Over the years the company has sold, with varying success, select products from its Japan domestic market "Let's Note" lineup as additions or alternatives to the big and heavy traditional TOUGHBOOK laptops.
This is different. With personal technology having become part of almost everyone's life, reliable computing and connectivity must now be available for use on the shop floor, in factories, in vehicles and in the field. There's the ubiquitous smartphone, of course, but smartphones can only do so much and they are not rugged. TOUGHBOOK products, on the other hand, are purpose-built to hold up on the job.
While the new TOUGHBOOK S1 represents a visual and tactile departure from the traditional TOUGHBOOK design language of hefty magnesium housings with matte-silver powdercoat finish there's still just enough of a hint of that in a sleeker, thinner, lighter design that channels the flush black glass, rounded corners, and elegant metal accents of trending consumer tech.
All of that makes for a cool looking and very compact 7.6 x 5.2 inch tablet that's just three-quarters of an inch thick and weighs less than a pound. Despite being able to survive multiple 5-foot drops onto concrete, hundreds of tumbles from a meter and, of course, immunity to dust and liquids. Impressive. And needed when you use a tablet for work.
For specs, the TOUGHBOOK S1 looks good. There's the Qualcomm "Snapdragon" 1.1GHz SDM660 processor that includes four ARM Cortex-A73 and four ARM Cortex-A53 Kryo 260 CPU cores as well as Adreno 512 graphics. That chip, while no longer new, is pretty much the standard and workhorse in higher-end rugged Android handhelds and tablets. There's 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB eMMC mass storage plus what's in the micro SDXC card slot on the storage side (up to 64GB).
For communication there's 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and Class 1 Bluetooth v5.1. There is a contactless NFC IC card reader and the device is FirstNet-ready. And there is dedicated GNSS with with support for all the major satellite systems. With positioning, more satellites are better, especially when in areas with interference or less than perfect coverage. The TOUGHBOOK S1 has an 13mp camera in the back and a 5mp vidcam in the front.
All of this represents substantial technology updates to Panasonic's existing 7-inch tablet, the TOUGHBOOK L1 (see here). We're talking three extra years of Android hardware and software progress here, so while the two look largely the same, it's like the difference between a three year old phone and a brand-new one: faster, more storage, better screen and so on.
The availability of an optional industrial-grade scanner differentiates both the old and the new 7-inch TOUGHBOOK from consumer phones and tablets that rely on their camera for an occasional scan. 
The S1 uses an industrial-grade Zebra SE4750 scan engine that incorporates intelligent imaging technology, great motion tolerance, advanced focusing, LED illumination, and works on just about any type of data imaginable, from 1-D and 2-D bar codes to photos and fully searchable and editable documents (for a detailed description of the SE4750, see here). For optimal ease of use, the integrated barcode reader is configurable for landscape or portrait modes.
Users of modern consumer tablets expect at least ten hours of battery life. The TOUGHBOOK S1's 12.2 watt-hour battery is good for about eight hours, but Panasonic also offers an extended 21.2 watt-hour good for about 12 hours. Batteries are warm-swappable and easily replaced.
Which version of Android to use remains one of the more difficult choices handheld developers face, as version quickly change and it's not always easy to update. The TOUGHBOOK S1 comes with Android 10, which as of May 2021) is used in close to 50% of all Android devices according to the statcounter website. Compared to earlier versions of Android, 10 offers better privacy support, allows access to system settings directly from apps, allows in-app biometric authentication and more.
The sidebar to the right shows the modular design of the TOUGHBOOK S1. It can accommodate both a standard or an extended battery. The scanner module can be installed both for landscape and for portrait use, and there's also an optional USB Type-A port module.
Often, the full value and utility of a handheld or tablet is only realized in conjunction to accessories. Customers of popular consumer products can count on a large selection of third party protective cases but little else. Enterprise products such as this TOUGHBOOK, on the other hand, bring with them a whole ecosystem of available accessories. Panasonic alone offers two types of batteries and a 5-bay battery charger, shoulder strap and rotating hand strap, a passive stylus and tether, a 5-bay desktop cradle, a single device desktop cradle, compatible printers, and more. Panasonic also offers basic and comprehensive deployment services, custom configuration, as well as various types of warranty and maintenance services. Also available is SOTI cloud licence and hosting.
The TOUGHBOOK brand is practically synonymous with ruggedness. Panasonic earned that reputation with its big rugged laptops, and the quest for exceptional durability and reliability under adverse conditions is continued with the company's smaller, lighter devices. What we especially like is that Panasonic doesn't just make vague claims such as "MIL-STD compatible" and such, but actually posts the ruggedness test data report by an independent testing lab right on the TOUGHBOOK S1 webpage (see here). In it is a list of 27 separate ruggedness tests that the S1 has passed. Kudos to Panasonic for doing that!
The TOUGHBOOK S1 starts at US$2,499 — fairly hefty given that the also 7-inch TOUGHBOOK L1 started at US$1,499 at its launch three years ago. What about its competition? There isn't all that much. With smartphones getting ever larger, most tablets have migrated up in size. So Panasonic's sleek, handy and very rugged TOUGHBOOK tablet may just be what a lot of enterprises have been looking for. -- Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, May 2021
