Lenovo's 3 New Tablets Pack Some SurprisesLenovo's 3 New Tablets Pack Some Surprises

Lenovo Takes On 7 Rivals: Tablet Faceoff

Lenovo announced three new tablets on Wednesday: two into an increasingly crowded Android tablet market, and one into the catatonic Windows 7 tablet arena. In addition to offering choices (a first in the still nascent tablet category), Lenovo points to differentiators like Launch Zone (its Honeycomb overlay), Netflix certification for the Android tablets, pen-based input, a host of pre-loaded Android apps, including security features, and a special Lenovo-approved App Shop that can also serve as a hub of private corporate applications.

On the surface, these seem like excellent tablets--not necessarily stunning in any way, but all of the requisite boxes are checked, and each tablet includes a pretzel-like twist or two. While many tablets have emerged from companies that have traditionally produced mobile smartphones, these come from one of the recognized leaders in laptops.

If anything will stand out for buyers in a market where the closest thing to iPad-like success happens during developer conference give-aways, it might be the resonance of a brand like Lenovo, its healthy sales channel, and whatever good will it has earned through its service and support. But let's not be overly generous; that is a wait-and-see situation.

The IdeaPad Tablet K1 and ThinkPad Tablet are Lenovo's Android devices. The former is aimed at consumers and the Thinkpad is aimed at the enterprise. Both run Android (Honeycomb) 3.1, both include the NVideo Tegra 2 processor running at 1.0 GHz, and both offer configurations for 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB of storage. Both support 1 GB of DDR2 RAM. In short, those specs add up to good, solid, screaming-fast devices.

Both are 10.1-inch devices with screen resolutions of 1280 x 800 (full HD); both tablets measure in at a thin 13.3mm and weigh about 1.65 pounds. Pretty standard fare here; by comparison, the iPad 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 are lighter and slimmer. Size-wise, the Lenovo tablets are about on par with the HP TouchPad (a hair slimmer and a tad heavier).

Finally, both Lenovo tablets include front- and rear-facing cameras (2 megapixels and 5 megapixels, respectively), the full fleet of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth options, and low-power graphics processors.

The differences between the IdeaPad K1 and the ThinkPad look fairly subtle on the hardware side. For one thing, the K1 doesn't have as many input options as the ThinkPad. The ThinkPad includes a USB 2.0 port; the K1 doesn't. The ThinkPad has a full SD card reader; the K1 has micro SD. Both support HDMI out, but the Thinkpad uses micro-HDMI, whereas the K1 uses mini-HDMI. But who's counting?

The ThinkPad display is an IPS (in-plane switching) display for 178-degree viewing angle, and has Corning's Gorilla Glass. The K1 doesn't, but the K1 is a 10-point multitouch display, meaning that when applications support that level of multi-touch, you can use all 10 fingers. Yes, I'm serious. Lenovo tried to get 12-point multi-touch so you can use a couple of toes, but that feature just wasn't ready in time (now I'm kidding). The ThinkPad Tablet is a 6-point multitouch device.

The K1 actually has two 5w speakers, while the ThinkPad has only one; the K1 also has a separate jack for microphones, whereas the ThinkPad combines its mic and headphone jack. The K1 also lets you take in sound intravenously. (Kidding again.) The point is that the K1 is meant to be more of a personal entertainment device.

The ThinkPad also comes with an optional digitizer pen, and accepts pen-based input, thanks to a partnership with N-Trig, and handwriting recognition software called Notes Mobile. You can export notes as a PDF, or for editing.

From a hardware standpoint, then, with a few minor exceptions, the K1 and ThinkPad tablets are standard Android hardware. But Lenovo has made a big point about software differentiation. Both devices support a range of software options, including what Lenovo calls Launch Zone. This is the Lenovo flavor of Android extension (think HTC Sense and other similar fare), and it creates five different (and customizable) zones: one to read, one to listen, one to watch, one for email, and one for the Web. It sounds a bit like Windows Phone 7 hubs, but we'll have to wait and see when units are ready to test.

Lenovo Takes On 7 Rivals: Tablet Faceoff

There's a Lenovo app called Social Touch that the company says will aggregate all of your social networks--for now, that's Facebook, Twitter, Google Calendar, and email. The device also comes pre-loaded with more than 40 apps--including Amazon's Kindle reader, Rovio's Angry Birds, Zinio, Adobe, and Netflix (Lenovo says that these are the first Android devices certified to stream Netflix). The theory here is that when people get their tablets, they just want to start using them--they've no desire to spend hours downloading apps. Good point.

What's more, Lenovo has created what it calls the Lenovo App Shop. These are apps that have been tested and validated for the Lenovo tablet--a nod to, among other things, some of the malware issues in the Android Marketplace, perhaps; but the company also said that it supports business apps, so corporations can privately have their own apps in a version of the store, just for employees. Essentially a company would buy application licenses, and distribute these to employees; Lenovo helps manage and meter those licenses. While we're starting to see the concept of a business-oriented app store emerge, this is the first vendor-supported version we've seen. Bravo.

From a security standpoint, the ThinkPad offers data encryption, SD card encryption, lost device wipe and disablement, Computrace monitoring, and a host of other security options. It also comes with Arc Sync, which includes 2 GB of cloud storage for free. The ThinkPad includes DataViz Documents To Go for viewing business documents.

With this tablet, enterprise customers get a great deal of what Lenovo offers with its notebooks, including the company's ThinkPlus Support, Tablet Protection, Imaging Services, and more.

The IdeaPad Tablet P1 also is aimed at business customers, but Lenovo says that its main target is likely to be small or medium-sized businesses. The tablet runs Windows 7 on a single-core 1.5-GHz Intel processor. It's a 10.1-inch device with 1280-by-800 resolution, a single front-facing camera (2 megapixels), and weighs a hefty 1.75 pounds (probably all of that extra Windows code). It's 14.5 mm thick and can run for 6 hours, likely because it doesn't include some of the low power consumption chip technology seen in other tablets.

It's a bit curious why Lenovo would bother with such a small market, but company representatives said that there is, indeed, a market for it. Lenovo wouldn't comment on its plans for Windows 8, but perhaps an early play into the Windows tablet game positions the company for such a transition. Or perhaps there are simply incentives coming from Microsoft. Having Lenovo as a tablet partner can't hurt.

The IdeaPad K1 costs $499 (32-GB model) and is available for order starting Wednesday, July 20, and ships in August. The ThinkPad starts at $479 (for the 16-GB model), and you can order it starting August 2, according to Lenovo. With the digitizer pen option, the price is $509, and the optional keyboard portfolio case is $99. The devices will be available through Office Depot and other retailers (including on Lenovo.com). A 3G version of the ThinkPad will appear sometime shortly after launch, Lenovo said. The K1 comes in black, white, red and brown; and the ThinkPad is just black. The IdeaPad P1 will be available in the fourth quarter of 2011.

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