A smaller, more rugged Windows-based device by Panasonic 
and more variety in Samsung’s Galaxy series were among the highlights of new additions to the tablet market highlighted at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 Rugged 7-inch Tablet is geared toward business users. Lightweight at 1.2 pounds but with a hefty price tag of $ 2,099, the Toughpad runs Windows 8.1 Pro and packs a 64-bit 4th generation Intel Core i5 vPro processor.
Bigger Note and Asus Hybrid
The 7-inch display is daylight-readable with 1280 x 800 10-point multi-touch and has an optional stylus. It comes with a whopping 128 gigabytes of storage, expandable to 256 GB.
Samsung and Asus also boosted their Android -based offerings. The Galaxy Tab Pro’s 12.2 model is the biggest Samsung tablet yet, and also comes with 10.1 and 8.4-inch siblings.
Running Android 4.4 (nicknamed Kit Kat) the new Tab Pro packs a Qualcomm 2.3 gigahertz quad-core processor. “Created to satisfy every possible type of user case scenario, it combines a crystal-clear, WQXGA display for a world-class viewing experience, powerful productivity tools, and unique features with preloaded and free downloadable content, producing a superior mobile solution,” Samsung boasts in its CES blog.
Samsung also has a new Galaxy Note Pro with S Pen, featuring a 12.2-inch WQXGA Widescreen (16.10) display, with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 and with more than 4 million pixels. Prices haven’t been announced yet.
Last month we reported speculation that CES would usher in a range of hybrid devices that can serve as both PCs and Tablets, and one fine example was the latest version of Asus Transformer, the 13.3-inch Book Duet, which can switch between Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 standard and Android 4.3.3 to run mobile apps. It has a detachable keyboard and is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor.
You want lots of storage? The Duet has 126 gigs in the tablet and another 1 terabyte in the dock. The cost isn’t much higher than a mid-priced tablet, at $ 599.
Fresh from attending CES, ABI Research tablet expert Jeff Orr told us the new Samsung devices were particularly, well, Note-worthy for business users.
Still Early For Hybrids
“In short, the CES tablet announcement that shows the most promise for [business] productivity has to be the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro and Galaxy Note Pro at 12.2 inches,” Orr said.
“The devices incorporate up to four tabs or windows to show simultaneously under Android KitKat 4.4 and this is a breakthrough for running, organizing and viewing multiple applications. Combine this with the company’s S-Pen for hand-entered writing and selection and the Bluetooth mouse announcement make the large tablet viable for PC -mainstay applications such as Microsoft Excel.”
The analyst added that while there were several other “dual-boot” or multi-operating system announcements, “We do not expect these to appeal to the mass market due to price and the complexity of moving between the OS environments, though 2014 will be a year where this type of tablet solution will be experimented.”
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