Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet
A gadget powered by Android
We have finally had the chance to test the new Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet and we had a nice experience. Once again Lenovo didn’t let us down and we don’t think there’ll be many unsatisfied users. We are not saying it’s perfect, but it has a different approach which we liked. We refer to the content creation feature it has and which is the best there is right now, it provides a first-rate digital pen support, many ports and business-friendly software.
Nvidia Tegra 2 processor
We want to begin our review by referring to the tablet’s performance. The ThinkPad has an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor with 1GB of RAM and runs the Android Honeycomb. We watched some HD videos and used almost all its applications and the overall performance was good. Concerning the OS, Lenovo couldn’t help but make some small changes here and there. The ThinkPad has a default background showing the stylus hold in one hand, which is different than the usual background. Also, the custom buttons have a more rounded shape and the Lenovo Launcher is on the home screen. The tablet features Lenovo’s App Wheel, also present on the IdeaPad K1. On this wheel you can have your most favorite 6 apps, with thumbnail shortcuts.
Netflix, mSpot and Slaker apps
What we really enjoyed on this wheel is that the thumbnails have now a little red X that launches the app, without being necessary to go through the settings menu. While talking of apps, we have to mention that Lenovo included on the ThinkPad some utilities for professionals, like PrinterShare which allows you to print files to the WiFi enabled or Cloud printer. MS Office files can be opened with Documents to Go and checking emails, calendar events or even Facebook is possible with Lenovo Social Touch. For more apps, you have access to Lenovo’s App Shop and the Android Market. But the tablet has the basics covered, including entertainment apps like Netflix, mSpot and Slaker and games, like Angry Birds HD plus some card games.
Corning Gorilla Glass screen
The ThinkPad’s design borrows some features from the company’s notebooks, like the raven-black aesthetic for example. At the bottom of the tablet there are four physical buttons for auto rotate on/off, web browser, back and home, and the screen above is made of Corning Gorilla Glass which make it glossy and nice. The tablet measures 10.3 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches and has 1.6 pounds, which means it is heavier and thicker than the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad 2. But we didn’t find these details to be uncomfortable. Maybe the buttons on the front were to stiff, but nothing more. Actually, thanks to its thickness, the tablet has many useful ports. On the bottom right under the physical buttons there are a miniHDMI out, a microUSB, a headphone jack and docking station ports. There are also a full-size SD card reader and a SIM card slot, protected by a plastic cover. The left side has a full-sized USB port and you can use it for attaching an external hard drive, a USB Flash drive, a keyboard or a mouse.
10.1 inch display
The most annoying problems we encountered were with the sound. We couldn’t make out much of a video conference and playing music was disappointing. However, the 10.1 inch 1280 x 800 screen delivered great image quality.
The stylus is the tablet’s most interesting feature. You can write notes, draw or tap the screen in the most accurate way possible, thanks to the N-trig duo-sense technology. A very interesting feature is MyScript Notes, which converts your hand-written notes into an editable text. It worked many times in our test, but it also depends on your hand- writing. The battery life lasted about 8 hours.
Test and review conclusions
Lenovo’s ThinkPad also has two cameras, a rear 5MP one and a front-facing 2MP camera, both shooting colorful pictures. At the and of this review we think that the ThinkPad is worth taking into consideration, because the negative parts are almost unnoticeable.
Technical specifications and features
| Available Operating Systems | Google Android 3.1 Honeycomb OS |
| Form Factor | Touch-bar Tablet |
| Display Dimensions | 10.1 inches |
| Type | TFT-LCD-LCD Capacitive Touch Screen |
| Available Colours & Definition | 16 Million Available Colours & 1280 X 800 Pixels |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:10 |
| Corning Gorilla Glass | |
| Input/ User Interface | Multi Touch |
| Ambient light Light sensor | |
| Accelerometer Light sensor for UI auto-rotate | |
| Proximity Light sensor, Gyroscope | |
| CPU | Nvidia Tegra 20 Dual-Core 1GHz Processor |
| Internal Memory | 16GB/32GB/64GB SSD Data storage |
| Expandable Memory | microSD card Memory card slot For Memory Expansion |
| Camera specifications | |
| Still | - 5 Megapixels |
| - 2560×1920 Pixels | |
| Secondary | - 2 Megapixels |
| - 1600 × 1200 pixels | |
| Movie Recording | Available |
| Video Out | 1980×1080 pixel, 1080p HD video playback via HDMI out |
| Internet Browser & Messaging | Flash, HTML |
| MMS, SMS, IM, Email, RSS | |
| Bluetooth | v2.1 with EDR Stereo |
| Radio | Stereo FM with RDS |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n |
| Headset | 3.5mm stereo headset jack |
| Video Formats | MPEG4, H.263, H.264 |
| Audio files compatibility | MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, OGG, MIDI |
| GPS | Available |
| Type | 24.1W 3250 mAh Li-Polymer Standard Battery |
| Playback Time | Up to 8 Hours |
| Dedicated external keyboard, PlayReady DRM | |
| Slacker Radio, Amazon Mp3, mSpot Music apps | |
| Twitter and Facebook included, YouTube | |
| eBuddy Messenger, ooVoo, PokeTALK | |
| Android Market, G-mail, Google Maps, G-Talk | |
| Angry Birds HD | |
| Quickoffice, Digital compass | |
| MS Office Docs with Documents to Go by DataViz | |
| Network | Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi + 3G |
| External dimensions | |
| W x D x H | Not Available |
| 14.5mm Thickness | |
| Total weight | 742.2 grams (Wi-Fi) |
| 756.1 grams (3G) | |
| Available Colours Availability | Grey, White |
