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Panasonic's 20-inch 4K tablet is coming to Europe soon

The 20-inch Ultra HD tablet Panasonic showed off at CES earlier this year is now a real product, the company said at IFA.

Nick Hide Managing copy editor
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Nick Hide
Panasonic shows off its absurd 4K tablet at IFA in Berlin. Nick Hide/CNET

BERLIN -- The 20-inch 4K tablet concept that Panasonic showed off at CES earlier this year is now a real product.

The Japanese company announced that the Ultra HD slate will "shortly" be released in Europe. The prototype shown in Las Vegas had a ludicrous 3,840x2,560-pixel resolution.

With an aspect ratio of 15:10, Panasonic says it can display an A3 poster in almost its complete size, a comparison that indicates the company may intend this product for a commercial rather than consumer market.

Its IPS Alpha LCD panel accepts touch input, via a "high precision" digital pen that matches the tablet's resolution.

There's no word on how much the superslate will set punters back, or even which operating system it will run. More information will be released during IFA, Panasonic promised, so keep your eyes glued to our IFA home page for all the details as we get them.

Update, September 5: Panasonic says the tablet, which will be part of its Toughpad line, is still technically a prototype, with a likely release date of November -- and an eye-watering price of 4,500 euros ($6,000 US, £3,800).

It'll run on Windows 8.1 and come in two versions: standard and an as-yet unpriced Performance version. Both versions will use Intel Core i5 chips, with the Standard boasting 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD; the Performance will pack in 8GB of RAM and a 256GB flash drive.