LAS VEGAS — Panasonic today introduced a remarkable 20-inch 4K tablet at CES 2013: a tablet so new it doesn’t yet have a name, and so big it might not fit in your bag.
The prototype, described by a Panasonic spokesman as “pre-production,” is an Intel-based Windows 8 tablet with 3840 x 2560 pixels: “beyond [Apple’s] Retina,” said Kyle Walls, director of product management for Panasonic USA.
The tablet is so new that hard specifications are still to come, but the tablet is roughly 10″ x 15″, weighs roughly 5 pounds, has an SD card slot, and runs on Intel dual core i5 or i7 processors. Its solid-state drive is expected to be 128 GB. The unit currently is equipped with 802.11n wireless, but could accommodate wireless broadband as the product develops. Battery life is estimated at two hours.
Developed for business users, the screen was designed initially to fit the needs of architectural firms using architectural-standard A3 paper.
Walls had no word when the the unit would be available commercially. No pricing was announced.
“Wait until Hollywood sees this,” commented one show-goer.
Skip Ferderber is a Seattle-area journalist covering the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. He is a former Los Angeles Times staff writer, edited Millimeter Magazine in the motion picture and television technology industry, and contributes to Crosscut.com, Seattle Business Magazine, HD Video Pro Magazine and others.
