Apparently, the whole world’s gone crazy for tablets (or, at least one of them). A tablet makes the perfect ultraportable companion for browsing the Web, checking e-mail, and watching movies on the go. If tablets represent the future of portable computing, they’ll need to become robust business machines, as well.
Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet has the body of a tablet but the head for business. The ThinkPad tablet helps power users and business professionals alike do more on the go, while managing to stay extremely portable even if it’s a bit heavy. With a starting price of $499 ($599 as configured), Lenovo’s first Think-branded Android slate isn’t perfect, but it is the best content creation tablet on the market.
It’s a big, tough tablet, and for some professionals that’s probably a selling point. Held in portrait orientation (the preferred view, judging by the direction of the logos and labels), it measures 10.2 inches tall, 7.2 inches wide, and 0.5 inch thick.
At 1.58 pounds (715 grams), the ThinkPad Tablet feels like the serious productivity slate it claims to be. Because of the extra width, we found ourselves making an effort not to type in portrait mode, since the weight distribution felt particularly imbalanced.
A front-facing 2 megapixel camera sits in the top right corner, with a 5 megapixel camera on the flip side. The back is covered in a nonslip matte finish tastefully emblazoned with the Lenovo and ThinkPad logos.
ThinkPad Tablet uses N-Trig’s DuoSense digitizer to allow for both pen and touch input. Also like the Flyer, the pen is sold separately, though in this case it comes for a slightly less insulting price of $30. In a cute touch, Lenovo topped off the pen with a red cap a loving throwback to the signature pointing stick you’ll find on any ThinkPad notebook.
Inside the box, you’ll also find two replaceable tips, so tiny you could easily toss them out with the packaging if you’re not careful. It also includes a single AAAA battery, which you insert by screwing off the red top. Rounding out the lot, there’s a thin string you can use to tether it to the tablet.
As far as pre-installed apps go, there’s not much you can do with the pen beyond the native note-taking app, aptly named Notes Mobile. You can also mark up PDFs and download drawing and alternative note-taking apps in Android Market, but it’s best if you know what to look for, since keywords such as “notes” yield results that include apps designed for the general pool of Android tablets in general, and not just ones with N-Trig DuoSense displays.
Android tablet makers are in a tough position. Android purists are always quick to criticize when a manufacturer monkeys with Google’s code or bundles in unnecessary software. The Android 3.1 installed on the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet is not for purists.
It comes with more than 30 applications preinstalled, ranging from big names like Netflix and Kindle to in-house productions, like SocialTouch (a messaging aggregator) and Lenovo App Shop. The best of Android 3.1 is still here, though. You get the official Android Market, along with Google’s mobile apps for Maps, Gmail, Navigation, Books, and Google Talk.
The celebrated Honeycomb Web browser is located literally front and center on the ThinkPad Tablet’s home screen, housed within an editable dashboard of common actions (watch videos, read e-mail, listen to music, and read books). Lenovo calls this central dashboard the Lenovo Launcher, and though we thought it was a useful addition, you have the freedom to delete it if you choose.
The standard configuration comes with a complete set of business software applications, including a full version of Documents To Go, Citrix Receiver, and a Computrace Mobile app that makes it possible to remotely freeze, wipe, track, or restore the tablet. McAfee Mobile Security comes pre-installed, which is a first for any Android tablet we’ve reviewed. There’s also a PrinterShare app for sending documents to any networked printer.
Many of the features are par for the course, such as an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, Mini-HDMI output, Micro-USB sync, Bluetooth 2.0, and a 1,280×800-pixel screen resolution. What puts this tablet ahead of the pack is the use of a high-quality IPS screen with excellent viewing angles and a rated battery life of 8.9 hours.
We can see where businesses might be willing to overlook the ho-hum performance in favor of those remote control features. However, if it’s just the SD slot and USB port you’re after, you could easily get the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and dock and spend about $50 less than you would on the ThinkPad Tablet plus keyboard case combo. Then, if you don’t even care about the ports, well, there’s not enough reason to plunk your hard-earned greenbacks down on something this poky.
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