Panasonic Toughpad 4K Performance (UT-MA6) Review

When Panasonic first showed off the Toughpad 4K at CES, we were gobsmacked. Incredible 4K resolution on a huge screen! A portable tablet design! It was exciting because the Panasonic Toughpad 4K was unlike anything else we had seen: a large-screen tablet, with rugged business utility built in. Fast forward to today, and we find ourselves a bit stymied for many of the same reasons. The Panasonic Toughpad 4K Performance (UT-MA6) ($6,999 as tested) is ostensibly made for professionals, but it's an odd product that doesn't fit neatly into any one product category.

In one sense, the Toughpad is a business tablet, a giant 20-inch tablet with a gorgeous 4K-resolution display. At that size, it's perhaps more of a portable all-in-one desktop PC, but it has no built in stand to prop it up like a monitor, and there is no keyboard or mouse included. With premium components, the ToughPad 4K Performance can also be considered a workstation PC, though it's unlike any workstation we've seen before. It is all of these things at once. Beyond its business focus, even Panasonic is unsure of how it should be categorized, responding with a chuckle and essentially saying "D, all of the above" when asked about it. The Panasonic Toughpad 4K Performance (UT-MA6) is it's own thing, an odd duck that is impressive, but puzzling.

Design
Panasonic is marketing the ToughPad 4K as a portable solution for everything from retail displays to video production, giving users a large display with crystal-clear detail. There are two versions of the Toughpad 4K Tablet available, the Toughpad 4K Standard (UT-MB5) ($5,999 list), and the Toughpad 4K Performance (UT-MA6), which is reviewed here. Our evaluation unit is equipped with a dual-core Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia K1000M graphics, making it as much a mobile workstation as a simple tablet. That means it's well suited for uses like bedside healthcare in hospitals, where the Ultra HD display lends itself well to viewing X-rays and MRIs, or for architects traveling to building sites, who want to review or change details on blueprints, and need to be able to see the big picture.

Measuring 0.5 by 18.7 by 13.1 inches (HWD), the tablet is technically portable, but mobile use will definitely be limited by the dimensions and the weight (5.6 pounds). The ratio of size and weight are actually quite remarkable, given that most 20-inch monitors weigh considerably more, and don't offer the same sort of touch capability or processing hardware. It's also not much heavier than the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (2013)( at Amazon) (4.46 pounds) or the Toshiba Satellite P50T-BST2N01( at Amazon) (5.1 pounds), despite having a much larger screen. Panasonic calls it "the world's largest tablet," and while there's plenty of truth to the claim, for our purposes, it more closely resembles a portable all-in-one desktop PC, like the Sony VAIO Tap 21 (SVT21217CXB)( at Amazon) or the Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20. Granted, these are very different devices, with significantly different use cases, but the size of the screen and the semi-portable design do offer some similarity.

The large tablet is wrapped in layer of woven glass fiber that looks a lot like carbon fiber. The materials are actually quite similar, though glass fiber is less brittle. Beneath it is a magnesium alloy frame, and Panasonic has built in some of the expected Toughpad ruggedness. The Toughpad 4K is built to handle drops of up to 30 inches (2.5 feet) on its back, and up to 12 inches from any other direction, including face-down onto the display. That ruggedness is essential for a 20-inch display that will be toted around—anything less and you'd risk damaging the display just by setting it down too hard—but that's as far as the rugged design goes, with no further protection against damage or the elements.

The 20-inch screen is the real star of the show, boasting a razor-sharp 3,840-by-2,560 resolution with 230 pixels per inch (ppi)—that's 9.83 million pixels—with a 15:10 aspect ratio. We've seen 4K displays on other devices—from monitors like the Dell UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD UP3214Q( at Amazon) to laptops, like the 4K-equipped Toshiba P50T-BST2N01—but this is particularly impressive, due to both its resolution and its size. Laptops like the Toshiba Satellite P50T-BST2N01 and the Apple MacBook Pro with Retina offer 282ppi and 220ppi, respectively, but do so on much smaller displays. The Apple iPad Air($389.99 at eBay), with its 264ppi actually has a slightly higher pixel density, but the sheer size of the Panasonic's display offers roughly four times the viewable area.

I tested the display using several 4K
videos and a dozen or so giant high-resolution images. The display is really what you're paying for with this device, and it doesn't disappoint. Colors are bright and vibrant, with a wide gamut, and the viewing angles are superb, allowing great visibility from nearly any direction. While the 20-inch display is too big for regular tablet use, it is uniquely suited to serving as a portable presentation device, with Panasonic's In-Plane Switching (IPS) Alpha display technology offering nearly 180 degrees of crystal-clear viewing from any angle, both horizontally and vertically. The screen has a 15:10 aspect ratio, which is proportioned so that it can show large-format (11-by-17-inch) documents, like blueprints and schematics, at nearly full-size. The display offers 10-point touch functionality, but also supports Panasonic's optional Toughpad Stylus Pen ($260).

Accessories
For full functionality as either a
tablet for work or an all-in-one PC, you'll need to pick up a few accessories, none of which are included in the $7,000 price. For those who need more accuracy than fingertips can provide on a 9-million-pixel display, you'll need the aforementioned Toughpad Stylus Pen. The pen connects to the tablet via Bluetooth, and uses an infrared-based optical sensing technology to provide 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity and almost pixel-level accuracy. You can even use more than one pen on the same tablet, opening up collaborative capability. We didn't have a pen included with the system for testing, but we immediately saw the need for it, especially for anyone who needs high-accuracy cursor control and input.

If you need to use the oversized tablet in a more traditional desktop setup, you'll need to get Panasonic's accessory Desktop Stand/Cradle ($399.99), which docks the tablet using a 24-pin docking connection, and offers three additional USB 3.0 ports (for attaching a keyboard, a mouse, and external storage), an HDMI-out port for connecting a second display, and another Ethernet port, so that you won't have to constantly plug and unplug your network connection whenever you need to grab the tablet and go. And soon to be available is a wall-mounted cradle with a VESA mount, letting you put the tablet on the wall like a monitor.

Finally, as 20 inches of tablet can get a bit unwieldy, Panasonic also has a specially designed portfolio-style tote ($299.99). The bag features a shoulder strap, a fold-away screen cover, and a built-in easel, letting you prop up the tablet for easier use. Again, we didn't get to try this out, but we immediately saw the need for it, as the large tablet is a bit of a pain to carry across the office, let alone across town.

Features and Performance

Features
On the right edge of the chassis, you'll find one USB 3.0 port, an SD card slot (SD, SDHC, SDXC), and a power connector. Exclusive to the Toughpad 4K Performance model, you'll also find Gigabit Ethernet and a mini DisplayPort (which supports 4K output to a second display). On the left, you'll find a SmartCard reader and four physical buttons (Power, Volume Up and Down, and Screen Rotation Lock). On the front of the unit is a physical Windows button and a 720p HD webcam, while on the back, the system has a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, which is exclusive to this model. For wireless connectivity, the tablet offers 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. It's also outfitted with the usual tablet sensors, like an ambient light sensor, magnetometer, gyro sensor, and accelerometer.

Like most other tablets, the Panasonic Toughpad 4K Performance has both a front and rear-facing camera, though it would be extremely rude to use the cookie-sheet-sized tablet to take snapshots at tourist attractions. Nonetheless, the 5-megapixel camera on the back of the tablet does deliver decent-looking images in full light, though the quality drops off in low-light settings, with colors appearing washed out, and shadows and light spots appearing too dark and too light, respectively. Additionally, the 4K display is roughly equivalent to a 10-megapixel image. That means that zooming in or viewing images full-screen will mean grainy and pixelated photos. The front-facing camera offers only 720p video capture (about 1.2 megapixels), but it's sufficient for use with Skype and similar services. The biggest problem I saw with the webcam is that, without the benefit of a desktop stand, you'll need to hold up the 5.6-pound display for the duration of your call.

A few security features help to protect your large investment, with Computrace theft protection, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) v1.2, and Intel's Anti-Theft technology in addition to the usual password protection and the SmartCard reader mentioned above. There's also a pop-out security cable loop for locking down the tablet so no one walks off with it.

Inside the 0.5-inch chassis, a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) offers fast storage, but with 4K media taking up significantly more space than HD video content, you'll probably want an external drive (like the Seagate Backup Plus Fast($299.99 at Amazon)) for your media storage. Our system came with Windows 7 Professional, available through Windows 8 Pro downgrade rights. Initially only available with Windows 7 due to a lack of Windows 8-compatible drivers for the Nvidia Quadro K1000M graphics, the Performance model now also comes with Windows 8 Pro. The Standard model is available only with Windows 8.

Panasonic Dashboard lets you adjust and monitor several aspects of the tablet's settings and performance. More importantly, the Dashboard also lets you adjust the different aspects of the display, such as icon and text size, and adjust the color profile to dial in exactly what you want to see. The system also comes with Firefox Web browser preinstalled, and a 30-day trial of Microsoft Office 365, with an option to purchase the full program. Panasonic covers the Toughpad 4K Performance tablet with a three-year warranty, which includes both coverage on parts and labor as well as 24/7 tech support via phone.

Performance
When we started looking at the system's performance, we again ran into the question of how to categorize the Toughpad 4K. With a 2.1GHz Intel Core i7-3687U dual-core processor—an older CPU that predates the current Haswell processors on the market—and 16GB of RAM, it's a unique mix of design and capabilities.

In some respects, it is a high-end tablet, much like the Wacom Cintiq Companion( at Amazon), designed for the user who needs a stunning display and the ability to work with the images directly. When looking at our Photoshop CS6 test, which approximates a heavy graphical workload, the Toughpad 4K fared much better, finishing the test in 4 minutes 5 seconds, while the Wacom Cintiq took nearly 5 minutes (4:55).

Other high-resolution laptops can also be considered, since the 4K display will appeal to users already relying upon laptops like the Apple MacBook Pro or the Toshiba Satellite P50T-BST2N01, which also offers 4K resolution. Here we start to see the limitations of the unit, which gets left behind by both laptops—the Apple MacBook Pro finished Photoshop in 3:14, while the Toshiba Satellite took 3:30, each with similar high-resolution displays.

From another perspective, the Toughpad 4K is really more of a portable all-in-one desktop, like the Sony VAIO Tap 21 (SVT21217CXB), or the Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20, which completed Photoshop in 5:03 and 11:10, respectively. The difference here, however, is not only the 4K display and the much higher-quality construction, but the price—the Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20 costs only $1,099, while the Toughpad 4K Performance sells for more than six times as much. Superficial design similarities aside, these products are very, very different.

Finally, we can look at workstation all-in-one designs, like the HP Z1 G2, which is made for such demanding tasks as rendering engineering designs and computer animations. It cranked through the same Photoshop test in 2:49—the shortest of any system mentioned here—and is the only comparison system remotely comparable in price.

The tablet's GPU offers significantly more potent graphics capability that you would get from the integrated graphics offered on the Wacom Cintiq Companion or the Sony Tap 21, instead putting it again in the same general class as the HP Z1 G2 workstation all-in-one, or the Dell Precision M4800 workstation laptop we're currently testing. In those comparisons, however, the big tablet dwindles, scoring only 4,580 points in 3DMark CloudGate, and 374 in 3DMark's FireStrike Extreme—the Dell M4800 nearly doubled those scores, with 8,636 points on CloudGate and 723 points on FireStrike Extreme, and the HP Z1 G2 rocketed even further past that, with 16,293 points (CloudGate) and 1,730 points (FireStrike Extreme).

As a portable device, battery life is also an issue, but don't expect anything like the all-day battery life your little Android tablet gets. The Toughpad 4K Performance lasted just 2 hours 4 minutes in our rundown test, putting it dead last against all of our battery-equipped comparison devices. In discussions with Panasonic representatives, I learned that the design uses a smaller (read thinner and lighter) battery to reduce the bulk and weight of the overall design. Honestly, given that the slim battery is powering 9.8 million glowing pixels and still supporting the performance indicated above, two hours is downright impressive.

Conclusion
In the end, there aren't many devices that offer anything like the Panasonic Toughpad 4K Performance's blend of portable design, large Ultra HD display, and functional processing power. Unfortunately, there also aren't many people or businesses that will ever have a need for it, let alone need it enough to spend thousands of dollars on a single device. For those who need a workstation with a large display, there's the HP Z1 G2; for artists on the go, there's the Wacom Cintiq Companion. We've reviewed several portable all-in-one PCs, and even desktop-replacement laptops with 4K or Retina displays are significantly more affordable than the Toughpad 4K. With so many more affordable and more useful alternatives, it's hard to recommend the Panasonic Toughpad 4K Performance, even if it does have an amazing display and impressive design. It's a very well made product, but it's a solution in search of a problem, and most of those problems are already solved.