Jan/Feb 2004

Panasonic has launched itself into the palm-sized portable Bluetooth printer market with a wearable model called the Toughprint - squarely marketed at users of its Toughbook handheld and tablet PC range and similar devices.

The Toughprint measures just 88mm by 102mm by 43mm, and is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a standby life of 10 hours. It is said to have been drop-tested from a height of 1.5 metres without adverse effect.

The Toughprint can output barcode labels or plain text such as receipts, and it prints on paper 58mm wide. Print width is 48mm at 32 characters per line. Print speed is 80mm/second, and the print density is 8 dots per mm at 384 dots with a 0.125 dot pitch.

Connectivity is via Bluetooth v1.1, and provision has also been made for infra-red links to IrDA v1.2 rating at up to 115.2kbps.