Lenovo is bringing the pain with their new tablet

Hardware features are so yesterday

I am sure at least 10% of the 10s of thousands they sell will enjoy it.

Looks pretty nice, to me. I would love the digitizer on my iPad (I wish Steve liked styli). Over the years, Lenovo (IBM prior) has made some great computers. This looks like it keeps the tradition of the business-class look.

Unfortunately, my experience with android has been limited to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7'. It's not too bad, but it really pales next to ios. Of course, this is Honeycomb 3.1 as opposed to the Tab's gingerbread 2.34. So, I don't have enough experience on the android tablet os to judge.

Also, the stylus slot is key.

I will keep an eye for this. It could really be interesting.

Yeah, I agree with the lament of the direct downloads. Though, for me, a 10" tablet is pretty light; the 7" tab is great, but more limited.

What would be nice would be to test this out. Unfortunately, there's not too many places to do that. Maybe, Microcenter will get one? We'll see...

It probably will bring "pain" to those who buy it thinking they were getting an iPad like experience.

Does it come with a mouse?

I saw this a week or so ago. I think it (or it's successor) will have a place in the world next year when it gets Windows 8 and OneNote. I used a Thinkpad X41 Tablet before switching to Mac. OneNote is THE app for pen input. Putting that App on an iPad styled/sized tablet may finally make Bill Gates' vision a reality.

The Thinkpad brand still carries some weight, so I think this tablet is going to get a serious look from a lot of buyers. The pen input may appeal to a certain segment of the business market - a small segment based on sales of Tablet PCs over the past decade. I doubt that Andriod is going to be able to deliver a killer app that makes that segment jump at this device, but Windows 8 might.

Looks like a turd, smells like a turd.

i don't like it.

Skika said:

i don't like it.

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Well, I'm impressed. I hope it does well a nice digitizer would be nice for note taking on the iPad.

OMG LOL. It comes with "Pre-installed McAfee"

LOL

LOL. PRE-INSTALLED MCAFEE. ON A TABLET.

That's some truly funny stuff. You gotta love all the accessories they are trying to throw in with it (omg a stylus). I'm sure the tens of people (yes, 10s..) that buy this will come here and post about it.

Android works great for a week or two. That McAfee will come in handy.

srf4real said:

Android works great for a week or two. That McAfee will come in handy.

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Can you imagine if iOS can with virus/malware software pre-installed? Oh my god the whole world would be laughing at it on the news, etc. It'd be on every morning show across the country, on the evening news, and every blog would be calling for everyone to sell their Apple stock and probably people would sacrifice their children and kill their pets.

... And yet when Android does it, no one bats an eye. I guess it's just accepted that it's a novelty platform, spammed on any number of crappy devices (and a minority of nice devices), and no one is surprised that it's so insecure that it needs antivirus and antimalware software. ... On their phone.... And tablet..

LOL @ ANDROID

Don't confuse Android with stupidity of manufacturer. McAfee shouldn't be on anything period. its utter garbage. If Lenovo made a $Deal with McAfee to include it blame lenovo not android. If you use common sense then android is same as ios in terms of "malware". Look at PDF exploit on IOS

kalex said:

Don't confuse Android with stupidity of manufacturer. McAfee shouldn't be on anything period. its utter garbage. If Lenovo made a $Deal with McAfee to include it blame lenovo not android. If you use common sense then android is same as ios in terms of "malware". Look at PDF exploit on IOS

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I think you don't have a firm grasp of the reality of the situation. Google pulled over 93,000 scam ads and thousands of malware ridden apps in just the past year from the marketplace. Google depends on the users to police the marketplace and this philosophy just doesn't work.

Until Google decides to institute some sort of regulatory body to inspect apps prior to them entering the marketplace, the situation at Google and with Android-based phones will continue to worsen.

Pain
Suffering
Frustration
Dissatisfaction
In the end a trip back to the store to get a refund

Mac.World said:

I think you don't have a firm grasp of the reality of the situation. Google pulled over 93,000 scam ads and thousands of malware ridden apps in just the past year from the marketplace. Google depends on the users to police the marketplace and this philosophy just doesn't work.

Until Google decides to institute some sort of regulatory body to inspect apps prior to them entering the marketplace, the situation at Google and with Android-based phones will continue to worsen.

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Sorry. Don't agree. I'm not disputing the problem, just the solution. One of the major complaints about Apple devices is the iron-fisted control imposed in the App Store. Trying to find some middle ground, especially one that doesn't raise suspicions that the objective is to eliminate competition rather than improve the user experience, is, I think, futile.

On the other hand, Lenovo's "App Shop" combined with the enhanced security (i.e. active directory) of their devices offers an alternative. Those who buy a Lenovo (including corporations that purchase hundreds or thousands) should be able to monitor and police the content on their devices by limiting downloads to those curated by Lenovo. Since there are numerous alternatives in the hardware marketplace, this avoids the totalitarian Apple approach while providing the sort of reassurance and security needed by many users. If you buy a Lenovo you're (theoretically) assured that the apps you download are both "safe" and "useful."

P.S. The fact that the Android App Market has eliminated thousands of problematic apps would be considered by many to be a measure of success, not failure. That, after all, is what "markets" are supposed to do, i.e. eliminate less than ideal products.

jsh1120 said:

Sorry. Don't agree. I'm not disputing the problem, just the solution. One of the major complaints about Apple devices is the iron-fisted control imposed in the App Store.

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For the vast majority of the buyers, that's the least of problems, only to the internet geeks. The main reason you want to lessen the control of an app store is to encourage developers to make more apps, and we all know the number of available apps is not the problem of iOS.

Now there are system-level apps or those which use private APIs, or simply controversial in Apple's eyes, etc, but to most of end users, I doubt they matter much when the app store is absolutely flooded with apps.

Tarzanman said:

Saw this on in my Google+ incoming stream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXFexk6k39M

Lenovo has been making tablet laptops for years (with wacom digitizers).... so its hardly surprising that their new android tablet has quite a few features aimed at productivity.

-Has a "transfomer"-ish case/laptop dock available that includes an optical pad and keyboard
-SD card slot and SIM card slot
-full size USB port with USB host for flash card readers and built in drivers for attaching USB mice/keyboards
-External power dock which enables use of standard thinkpad laptop power cables
-Full digitizer touch screen for use with stylus... their note taking/handwriting recognition app looks very useful.
-IPS screen with Gorilla glass
-$530 with stylus

Their Android overlay doesn't look as 'snappy' as iOS, but I think many a folk would trade a few milliseconds of response for the freedom of moving files around without needing keep a laptop handy.

-EDIT-
Engadget has a demo of the stylus in use.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/20/lenovo-thinkpad-tablet-and-keyboard-folio-case-hands-on-video/

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Looks like a very interesting product.

() The legendary Lenovo keyboard quality is a major plus. To have it in conjunction with a purpose-built custom folio case adds to that advantage. (It will be interesting to see how well Lenovo has been able to preserve their keyboard quality in this system, but I suspect it was a high priority for them.)

() Storage and connectivity options are clearly superior to the iPad. Period. Yes, there are iPad workarounds. But that's exactly what they are. SD and USB support take advantage of industry standards and the approach doesn't ask users to trust "the cloud" to manage important data.

() Handwriting support (the most critical feature of a tablet) appears to be far better than the finger painting approach of the iPad. Yes, it requires a proprietary stylus, a minus. But from the looks of it, the enhanced functionality of the "pen" combined with built-in handwriting recognition is a huge advantage.

() Android is a double-edged sword. Far more customizable interface than iOS. True multi-tasking in place of the pseudo-multi-tasking Apple offers. On the other hand, it's not yet clear how "finished" Android 3.1 is. I'm guessing it resolves many of the issues 3.0 (otherwise known as Android's Vista) suffered from.

() Support for productivity (read "MS Office") apps appears to involve included Documents To Go software. That's the best available outside of native MS Office apps but it's not perfect. It will be interesting to see if the implementation is better than that found in iOS.

() The price point is another plus, especially in view of the fact that Lenovo is (apparently) including several custom apps (e.g. Docs2Go, unified messaging, social network, email) that are either extra cost or unavailable in the Apple environment.

() All in all, until Windows 8 tablets are available (and MSoft's track record with non-PC OS's is, ahem, less than sterling) this looks like the best implementation of a "laptop replacement" (or laptop augmenter) tablet.

I'm certainly not going to replace my iPad 2. The wealth of apps for kids for the iPad is still a huge advantage in my household. But if I were looking solely for a business oriented tablet, I'd have to consider the advantages of the Lenovo products.

There are lots of remaining questions. (One of the biggest is why there are two models and why the $50 price difference between them.) But Lenovo appears to have raised the bar.

fertilized-egg said:

For the vast majority of the buyers, that's the least of problems, only to the internet geeks. The main reason you want to lessen the control of an app store is to encourage developers to make more apps, and we all know the number of available apps is not the problem of iOS.

Now there are system-level apps or those which use private APIs, or simply controversial in Apple's eyes, etc, but to most of end users, I doubt they matter much when the app store is absolutely flooded with apps.

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Well, no, not just "internet geeks." I'd certainly agree that iOS has plenty of apps. But frankly I doubt there is an advantage in having 50 "tip calculators" rather than 10 available to me. On the other hand, I have at least a dozen choices of keyboards (with radically different functionality) in the Android environment. For the iPad I have, let's see....one.

There are undeniable iOS advantages. One of the most important for me personally is that there are hundreds of children's games and educational apps for the iPad. No such diversity in the Android ecosystem. But if I were a twentysomething w/o kids, that wouldn't matter to me.

My point is that "app availability" is a complex, not a simple issue. Thousands of apps designed for a phone that look like crap on the iPad is not, to me at least, a big advantage. If I had an iPhone, though, I might appreciate having the same apps on both devices. It all depends on the requirements and experiences of a particular consumer.

s15119 said:

Ummmm, the Lenova (sic) forum is down the hall and to the right

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Sorry, but comparison of the iPad to its competitors seems a worthwhile topic in an iPad forum. Of course, if such comparisons are uncomfortable for you, you can skip topics like this.

fertilized-egg said:

For the vast majority of the buyers, that's the least of problems, only to the internet geeks. The main reason you want to lessen the control of an app store is to encourage developers to make more apps, and we all know the number of available apps is not the problem of iOS.

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Totally agree. A lot of the geeks out there don't get that they are the extreme minority, and they are the only ones who care about stupid things like the "locked down Apple app store." My parents, my wife, my in-laws, all who own iPhones, have never complained about the app store. They are only concerned with the new app that makes them look bald or fat. Or something that lets them look up their ancestry, etc.

There's a reason that 95% of the population knows that you can buy "an iPhone" or "not an iPhone." Most people have lives, unlike us (haha), and don't spend all day debating stupid cell phones on the internet.

Geeks that buy Android devices because they truly think they are superior? The extreme minority. None of these devices are going to "kill" the iPhone.

jsh1120 said:

frankly I doubt there is an advantage in having 50 "tip calculators" rather than 10 available to me.

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Yes there is a very clear advantage. You're more likely to have more quality apps if you have 100 of them instead of 20, unless you have a super-competent developer who only develops for Android.

And as an Android user, I don't think you can dispute that iOS has a huge advantage over Android when it comes to the quality of apps in general. So at the end, not only you have more apps to choose from in iOS, but more quality apps to choose from.

jsh1120 said:

On the other hand, I have at least a dozen choices of keyboards (with radically different functionality) in the Android environment. For the iPad I have, let's see....one.

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Valid point, but luckily for iOS users the iOS keyboard, in terms of responsiveness, is better than any of the dozen choices. It's probably because I don't like Swype types or not even that big on SwiftKey.

jsh1120 said:

But if I were a twentysomething w/o kids, that wouldn't matter to me.

My point is that "app availability" is a complex, not a simple issue.

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Hogwash. It's a simple issue: iOS has more apps for twentysomethings, more apps for kids, more for designers, more for businessmen, more for grandfathers, and more for soccer moms, and with better quality.

The only thing it really lacks is keyboard and other OS and system-level hacks, and we haven't even talked about Cydia.

Thousands of apps designed for a phone that look like crap on the iPad is not, to me at least, a big advantage..

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That's demonstrably false. iPad already has thousands of apps designed with iPad-specific UI elements that look great on the larger screen. Pages and GarageBand on iPad don't look like it's been designed for a phone.