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Android Portables

Lenovo Unveils Android ThinkPad and IdeaPad Slates 132

MojoKid writes "While many tablets are slimming down (and losing valuable ports), Lenovo's new ThinkPad Tablet is on the bulky side with the hope that business professionals appreciate it. The Tablet is a biz-oriented slate with a 10.1" panel, a Tegra 2 (1GHz) chip, and most importantly, a full-size USB port. Lenovo is also introducing a $99 Keyboard Folio case, which will wrap around the device to keep it safe, but also provides a full QWERTY keyboard and an optical trackpad. It features Android 3.1, access to Lenovo's app store, a 2MP front-facing camera, 1080p video output, Wi-Fi, 3G, 16/32/64GB of storage, and a 5MP rear camera. The company also introduced a consumer targeted slate called the IdeaPad K1, and it sports a 13.3mm thin form-factor that focuses on entertainment and consumption."
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Lenovo Unveils Android ThinkPad and IdeaPad Slates

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  • Then it may read barcodes. My company is stuck on ex-symbol, now-motorola MC50 and alikes, overpriced and underperforming for today's standards. We're seeking an alternative for them, but barcode reading on iPad and such devices are clumsy, not suitable for production. Hope that full-size USB can power devices.
    • by Intron ( 870560 )

      It may power them for a while, but the power is coming from the unit's batteries. Just factor battery life in when you look at the choices.

    • barcode reading on iPad and such devices are clumsy, not suitable for production.

      I don't think you are going to be much happier with the built in cameras on the new device then...

      The solution is to use a dedicated hardware reader, such as the Scanfob [serialio.com]. There may be others for the iPad as well, there are a number of choices for the iPhone that are integrated cases.

      The iPad does offer a USB port dongle but like you say it can't really power devices.

    • Try an HP slate w/ a bluetooth scanner. Ours runs Win7 and our ERP system.
  • MORE BULK! (Score:4, Funny)

    by sglewis100 ( 916818 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2011 @02:01PM (#36826892)

    Lenovo's new ThinkPad Tablet is on the bulky side with the hope that business professionals appreciate it.

    I think they will. I can't tell you how many professionals that have taken one look at my iPad, and said "nah, I could never use something like that. It's not bulky enough."

    • Agreed. Many people (like myself) want that weight and bulk. I look at many lightweight and thin phones and really notice the poor quality construction which is a by-product of keeping the weight down. I know it won't sustain much damage (which I'm prone to deal out) so it's usually off my list.
      • Seriously? You thought I was being serious? PS: The iPad may be lightweight and thin, but it certainly is not of "poor quality construction".
        • by rvw ( 755107 )

          Seriously? You thought I was being serious? PS: The iPad may be lightweight and thin, but it certainly is not of "poor quality construction".

          The iPad lightweight? Maybe compared to this [oldcomputers.net]. I think it's quite heavy.

          • Seriously? You thought I was being serious? PS: The iPad may be lightweight and thin, but it certainly is not of "poor quality construction".

            The iPad lightweight? Maybe compared to this [oldcomputers.net]. I think it's quite heavy.

            Which tablet did you recommend again? I didn't realize the iPad was such a bulky tablet.

          • by gorzek ( 647352 )

            Hey, I actually have one of those Compaqs... It's not as heavy as those laptops they put desktop Pentium 4 chips in. ;)

        • Even if he knew you were kidding, it's a valid opinion. Have you seen what your UPS delivery man carries around? I own an iPad (strictly to develop apps for it; my Xoom is much more capable for actual use), and I do indeed question its structural integrity, even if it isn't justified.

          • While you have a point re: field ready, ruggedized equipment - the article mentioned "business professionals". I was thinking more of the "man in suit" type of person, who really didn't concern himself with a rugged tablet the way a driver might.
        • by rhook ( 943951 )

          Just like the iPhone 4 the iPad glass tends to shatter when dropped. I would not call it durable.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBCpTRul5G0 [youtube.com]

          • by rhook ( 943951 )

            I forgot to mention that the ThinkPad tablet uses Corning Gorilla Glass, that stuff is hard to break when you're trying.

        • by mjwx ( 966435 )

          Seriously? You thought I was being serious? PS: The iPad may be lightweight and thin, but it certainly is not of "poor quality construction".

          Despite the fact you tried to make a joke, you did point out the truth. I know a company that put Ipads into cars in lieu of the semi-ruggedised laptops they were previously using, this lasted a month as the laptops had a life of about 18 months where as the Ipads had a life of about 2 weeks.

          They spent over $80K AUD putting them in, then another $30K pulling them out and re-installing the laptops. At least they didn't listen to the idiot consultant when they told them to take out the standalone GPS units

    • by odirex ( 1958302 )
      I'm sorry, but the iPad is far too thin. In all seriousness, it is incredibly uncomfortable to hold for long periods of time without an otterbox case or something similar adding a bit of bulk to the edges for better grip. Without it, I can feel it digging into my hands. It's also so smooth out of the box that my friend managed to drop it immediately at the apple store when he picked it up (luckily the anti-theft cable stopped it from hitting the ground). Metal back and glass front is super slippery if your
  • Pen input? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2011 @02:04PM (#36826922) Journal

    Does it have a capacitive finger-friendly screen that can also do pressure sensitive (512+ levels) pen input for more accurate stylus use or sketching?

    And "8 or so hours in ideal conditions" - man I hope that's not directly from the marketing department. If your marketing guys are hedging their words like that, they know damned well that it's going to go 3 hours under full use, and probably have everything turned of and in active sleep mode for 3 of the hours to get 8 hours of runtime.

    I've said it before - it's going to come down to software support. The OS and drivers are going to have to handle stuff seamlessly. Apple gets away with is 'cause they offer so little functionality, there's little to break/go wrong. I want to see this work, but I'm sure as hell not going to by the first version.

    • It does come with an active stylus. I can't find any mention of pressure sensitivity though.
    • Just did some searching, some places say it is an active stylus with pressure sensitivity, but nothing about the quality of it.
    • by Amouth ( 879122 )

      not sure about the pen but i do like this spec listing:

      "Display: 10.1" HD Glare with integrated camera 1280x800"

      "HD Glare" - finely someone accurately advertising glossy screens - that took long enough

    • Okay I'll bite on this because the way this is presented is a bit of a slanted statement. It's accurate, but disingenuous by what it implies. TCP/IP offers very little functionality, it only does one thing... and it does it really really well. Because it does it so well, it frees up developers to innovate on top of it. Therefore trying to say iOS offers little functionality distracts from the idea that despite this, it's doing very very well for businesses who want to easily expand on the product and pr

      • No, the iPad really is very limited. I own one,and I like it, btw - but it's far, far more limiting that even the Acer laptop I bought for less money. Still, I have it because the form factor works very well for a limited set of things I do. In fact, I like it so much, that I would need something significantly more compelling to switch to another device. Pen and pressure sensitivity is one area where the iPad does not meet my needs in certain functional areas of my work (and play, for that matter). I'm no

    • ThinkPad Tablet will have NTrig based pressure sensitive stylus.
      iPad2 also suffers huge battery life loss when playing games(a.k.a "under full use"). Those 10 hours are based on video playing at 65% of the screen brightness with WiFi on.
    • On their website they rather say "8 hours with WiFi on", which is not what marketspeak usually means by "ideal conditions". In practice, as far as hardware goes, this looks exactly the same as all other Honeycomb tablets already on the market - and they regularly get 8 hours of battery time with normal use, so this one should, as well.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Why Android tablets cost twice as much as a netbooks running Win7?

  • This tablet also has an SD card slot for storage.

    I don't understand why publications are so focused on presenting the varying built-in storage options but not even mentioning whether a memory card slot of some type is present. I'd much rather know if the device has cheap expandable storage than know how much the company is going to overcharge me for the largest built-in storage option.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Because to most consumers it's not as the importance as nerds place on it? If SD slots were so important the Xoom would have outsold the iPad yet it was a complete flop and no one cared.

      • Because to most consumers it's not as the importance as nerds place on it?

        If that's true, that's only because they don't know what it is.

        Most people, if told they they could get the 16GB tablet now and add another 16GB later if they need it, would consider that a nice feature that makes it so they don't have to spend the extra $100 on the 32GB tablet "just in case".

        Clearly it's not important enough for the average consumer to buy one tablet over another based solely on this feature, but that doesn't mean it isn't a great feature (or, more realistically, a horrible omission by the

      • Really? The Xoom? Surely it didn't have anything to do with the starting $799 price tag. Or the fact that the SD Card slot DIDN'T EVEN WORK! You picked the worst example you could find to support your point.
    • Because most of the time the external slot is difficult to use. Apps generally don't run from external cards, meaning you have to swap things back and forth. About the only thing you can usably keep on them is pictures and movies.

      External slots are a way to get production costs down, since no-one can command the bulk rates that Apple does on flash memory to embed in the devices.

  • Why wait? Just today, I finally broke down and joined the tablet craze by ordering an Acer Iconia 32GB tablet. Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 32GB flash storage, USB, HDMI, micro-SD slot, bluetooth, WiFi, 1280x800 10.1" display, Capacitive Ten-point Touchscreen, 2MP front camera, 5MP rear camera with flash Android Honeycomb.

    BONUS? Available now for $450

    Better late than never? Not so sure in this case. Lenovo has a lot of catching up to do to play in the same market as Asus, Motorol

    • Congratulations! I provision Acer Iconias for a project here at work. You won't be disappointed. Especially with the fully functional USB port.
    • All Honeycomb tablets have pretty much the same hardware specs. What differentiates is the form factor and, occasionally, bundled software.

      In this particular case - does Aces have the nifty keyboard with optical trackball? pressure-sensitive stylus?

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Why wait? Just today, I finally broke down and joined the tablet craze by ordering an Acer Iconia 32GB tablet. Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 32GB flash storage, USB, HDMI, micro-SD slot, bluetooth, WiFi, 1280x800 10.1" display, Capacitive Ten-point Touchscreen, 2MP front camera, 5MP rear camera with flash Android Honeycomb.

      BONUS? Available now for $450

      Better late than never? Not so sure in this case. Lenovo has a lot of catching up to do to play in the same market as Asus, Motorola, Acer ...

      The Iconia is a good tablet. I bought the 16GB version on sale for A$421 (yeah, we get shafted on price over here) and the only thing I've found wrong with it is the lack of 3G (but I accepted that when I bought it).

      Despite being made by Acer, it's actually well built.

      Also, $150 less then the cheapest Ipad (A$580)

  • So, Apple has a standard docking port for iPads. I hope the Android world can converge on a standard docking port as well.

    Clearly the ThinkPad Tablet must have some sort of docking port, since TFA mentions a clamshell keyboard case that docks with it. Does anyone know what this is?

    I have read that the Samsung Galaxy Tab uses PDMI [wikipedia.org] for its docking port; can anyone confirm that?

    I don't really care what the standard is; I just hope there will be one.

    P.S. The worst thing about the Motorola Xoom is the lack of

  • Why dont any of these tablets have handles? Seriously... I have a tablet and would just love something on the back or side to attached something a bit more grippy than flat smooth plastic. I've already lost one due to a slippery dry hand on a cool day.

  • The think pad has the same style for about 20 years now. Yes there were tweaks here and there slimmer lighter... But still the black dull matted plastic shape. I am happy the Lenovo Tablet follows that design.
    Businesses don't want noticly fancy they want the borring drab color system so they can look really good with it.

  • Lenovo has posted an excellent video showing off this tablet on YouTube.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXFexk6k39M [youtube.com]

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