Leave it to laptop veteran Lenovo to make a tablet that's as comfortable with a pen or keyboard as it'll be with your fingers. The Android 3.1-based ThinkPad Tablet is a 10.1-inch slab that can work pretty much like most of today's Honeycomb tablets, but also allows you to add a $99 USB-based, full-sized keyboard and a digitizing stylus.
Like the HTC Flyer, the ThinkPad Tablet works with a digitizing pen that, unlike styluses used on traditional capacitive-screen-only tablets, can work on the screen even when your hand is resting on the touch display. It's also pressure-sensitive, which means you can vary the width of your drawing line by decreasing and increasing pressure on the screen, instead of selecting a different pen thickness. Even though there's a built-in slot ready and waiting for it, the pen doesn't ship with the $499 tablet; it adds $30 to the price.
The $99 keyboard portfolio add-on is also a dock and makes the ThinkPad Tablet look very much like a ThinkPad laptop, but with one significant difference. The trademark Trackpoint button is actually an optical control. Instead of gently pushing the button this way and that to move the mouse, you move your finger over the head of the button. It works rather like the touch buttons on today's BlackBerry devices.
This is actually the second Android tablet Lenovo's unveiling. It also has the more-consumer-friendly IdeaPad K1, which while roughly the same size, does not offer pen input or work with the keyboard dock.
Otherwise, the two tablets share a host of similarities. Both have traditional USB ports and SD card slots. Both offer Lenovo's proprietary Android interface overlay, which gives you quick access to core features, and there's a proprietary Android app marketplace. Preinstalled applications include Norton Mobile Security, Docs to Go, and free access to 2GB of cloud-based storage. Each 10.1-inch tablet also runs Nvida Tegra 2 processors.
There are, of course, differences. The ThinkPad Tablet is clearly targeted at a business audience. So where the IdeaPad is all smooth lines and curves, the 1.57-pound, 14mm-deep ThinkPad Tablet is all black and features squared off corners and more visible buttons. It includes two cameras, a back-corner-mounted 5-megapixel and a 2-megapixel camera on the front (same as the K1). Its screen resolution is a higher-than Apple iPad 1,280-by-800 pixels.
The ThinkPad Tablet will ship with 16, 32 and 64GB options, on Wi-Fi and 3G. In North America, it'll be available on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, but without a contract. Instead 3G will be sold via a variety of day-pass options. While the 16GB Wi-Fi model pricing has been set at $499, additional pricing details were not yet available
Like the HTC Flyer, the ThinkPad Tablet works with a digitizing pen that, unlike styluses used on traditional capacitive-screen-only tablets, can work on the screen even when your hand is resting on the touch display. It's also pressure-sensitive, which means you can vary the width of your drawing line by decreasing and increasing pressure on the screen, instead of selecting a different pen thickness. Even though there's a built-in slot ready and waiting for it, the pen doesn't ship with the $499 tablet; it adds $30 to the price.
View Slideshow See all (13) slides
More
This is actually the second Android tablet Lenovo's unveiling. It also has the more-consumer-friendly IdeaPad K1, which while roughly the same size, does not offer pen input or work with the keyboard dock.
Otherwise, the two tablets share a host of similarities. Both have traditional USB ports and SD card slots. Both offer Lenovo's proprietary Android interface overlay, which gives you quick access to core features, and there's a proprietary Android app marketplace. Preinstalled applications include Norton Mobile Security, Docs to Go, and free access to 2GB of cloud-based storage. Each 10.1-inch tablet also runs Nvida Tegra 2 processors.
There are, of course, differences. The ThinkPad Tablet is clearly targeted at a business audience. So where the IdeaPad is all smooth lines and curves, the 1.57-pound, 14mm-deep ThinkPad Tablet is all black and features squared off corners and more visible buttons. It includes two cameras, a back-corner-mounted 5-megapixel and a 2-megapixel camera on the front (same as the K1). Its screen resolution is a higher-than Apple iPad 1,280-by-800 pixels.
The ThinkPad Tablet will ship with 16, 32 and 64GB options, on Wi-Fi and 3G. In North America, it'll be available on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, but without a contract. Instead 3G will be sold via a variety of day-pass options. While the 16GB Wi-Fi model pricing has been set at $499, additional pricing details were not yet available
Lenovo Thinkpad Android 3.1 Honeycomb Tablet
ReplyDelete