Panasonic Debuts Toughbook UMPC

Proving small can be tough too, Panasonic revealed its tiniest Toughbook yet at CeBIT this week.

Panasonic’s Toughbook line of fully rugged notebooks is about to get a tiny new addition, in the form of an ultra-mobile PC (UMPC). The company took the wraps off its latest resilient piece of PC hardware at CeBIT this week.

The new Toughbook UMPC features a 5.6-inch LCD wrapped in a bulky case (we’re guessing magnesium based on previous Toughbooks), with a full QWERTY keyboard stretched under the screen. Oddly enough, the numberpad has been placed in the center – presumably to stay out of the way of your thumbs at the edges of the keyboard where it would normally fall.

Not surprisingly, the Toughbook UMPC will use Intel’s new Atom processor, which Intel claims offers ultra-low power consumption, though it will also feature hot-swappable batteries for extended use.  Vista will be the native operating system.

Panasonic hasn’t yet released pricing information for the new Toughbook UMPC, but it will most likely see a Japanese release in fall of this year.