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) (4.46 pounds) or the Toshiba Satellite P50T-BST2N01 (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) 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 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, 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.
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