Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet Reg Hardware Mobile Week Lenovo currently fields three Android tablets. The IdeaPad A1 and K1 are aimed at the general consumer while the third model carries the revered ThinkPad moniker and with it expectations of brick outhouse build quality, business-user friendliness and no-nonsense styling. Lenovo ThinkPad Android …
@PXG: I can plug my iPad into a Novation X-Station keyboard just fine using Apple's Camera Kit adaptors, one of which includes a standard USB .connection. You can connect any USB keyboard to it this way, but most sane people will just use the Bluetooth option. I've used a Microsoft USB keyboard with mine in the past, but I prefer Apple's Bluetooth keyboard. (I also have an Apple Keyboard Dock, but it's not one of their best designs: I prefer a landscape display orientation.)
iOS includes Apple's audio APIs, including some very good MIDI support. iPads are surprisingly good at music creation for this reason as developers get a lot of audio APIs out of the box.
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I didn't think the speaker was all that bad to be honest...
Granted, when tested against the now defunct HP Touchpad, the speaker sounds pretty weak, but on its own I found it plenty loud enough to listen to some background music or conduct a Skype call.
Maybe yours had a problem?
I agree that it's a bit hefty and the battery life isn't best-in-class, but if you think of it as a business device (which is where it's fairly squarely aimed), it does tick a hell of a lot of boxes - if your company is Android friendly of course. AD integration, remote wipe, secure corporate app market etc...
The keyboard folio does make it even bigger and heavier, but is lovely to type on, has an optical track point (think BlackBerry) and looks very smart and business-like.
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Until the price drop to £120 in the next of the yard sales.
Don't any of theses companies learn? or are they just as stupid as HP?
let's have a look at the specifications.....
Heavy..................... Yes
Thick....................... Yes
Overpriced............. Yes
Doggy software..... Yes
Useless Pen.......... Yes
Attractive................. Yes???
Well gentlemen I think congratulations are in order, as we have a Apple Killer here.
I actually own one of these and I am based in the UK.
As tablets go, this is the workhorse. Tough, sturdy and reliable.
It is a bit heavy and the battery isnt great, but if you need a tablet for work, then this is the one to get.
The pen (which doenst come as standard with all versions) is pretty good, especially if you like taking handwritten notes.
There is a folio case for it that adds a keyboard and optical mouse, it works very well.
The only annoying thing I have found with mine is that there are some apps on the appstore that do not work for this device, but thats a minor quibble - not the fault of Lenovo.
...wish to marginally justify the decision.
I got the 32gb/ 3G version (pen included) for £450from the usual online store suspect. The motivation was to have a repository for lots of pdfs, be able to annotate them avec le pen and not shrink in horror every time my 2 year old bashed the screen playing Monkey Preschool Lunchbox. So large+plastic = durable was over simplistic but worth a punt.
- Having had it for a few weeks, there are a variety of apps that work with the pen (pdf annotations, note takers and drawing packages) which still gets used.
- Battery life is OK with airport mode on & wifi enabled
- The Lenovo 'hack' for quitting applications on the fly is useful because android seems a leeetle flakey with lots of open applications.
- Screen good, lonely wimpy audio speaker rather bad. Microphone is fine.
So I'm happy enough on the whole.
Paris, for the ultimate orifice.
So, crap battery, old CPU (Tegra 3 is the new desire), dodgy Ntrig hardware (doesn't compare to Wacom), crap speaker, some apps that don't work (supposedly not Lenova's fault), heavy, ugly and 70 quid more than the basic iPad - I smell win! (well, for Apple at least).
And the apostrophe s is there purely for aesthetic reasons.
I have one. Me as well as many, many other owners of the WiFi-only version haven't had a functioning GPS yet -- six months after product launch. The online "support" staff just admitted in the last few days that it may be a hardware issue, but users have been saying for a while that adding a WWAN card and a SIM with an account instantly gives you a functional GPS. Lenovo seems clueless asd to what the problem actually is.
Also, the micro-USB port was not properly soldered to the board in some units, ditto for the power button. Lenovo has thus far refused to tell TPT owners which production runs had the faulty hardware. We just wait and hope ours doesn't break too.
The camera also doesn't focus properly. You can neither get Q-code scans nor landscape photos.
The bootloader is locked and the only bug Lenovo has been speedy in fixing was a vulnerability that gave us root.
Just google any of these problems and you'll see for yourself. Lenovo paid a lot for the ThinkPad brand, and there running it into the ground with this tablet and the lack of after-sales service.
Oh, yeah, one more that comes to mind. When I launch an app, fully half the time I get a force close. This is also a commonly reported problem that seems to have not been addressed by the OTA 2 and 2.5 updates rolling out in February and March.
On a positive note, the stylus does work well and is just about the only reason to have the TPT.
I didn't miss them, they just didn't manifest themselves on my review unit.
The GPS worked perfectly, ditto the camera (capturing a QR code is one of my standard tests). No problems to report with the micro USB port or power button either. In ten days of use I didn't suffer a single random reboot.
Maybe I was lucky with my sample, but I can't comment on things that are not there, no matter what the internet scuttlebutt.
WTF is with manufacturers building devices with shoddy GPS functionality these days? Both my Transformer Prime and my PlayBook have naff GPS, in fact the best GPS device I have is my ancient Nokia N95 that I use as a bicycle computer, it gets strong GPS reception INDOORS and fixes almost immediately, come to think of it, so did my N96 and N900.
I've had my 16GB 3G version with the folio keyboard since UK launch day (pre-ordered from Lenovo)
We trialled it with users and now it lives with me because nobody else wants to use it.
All I get is cries of how they'd prefer an ipad or a smaller laptop. For me it works quite well...but only quite well. It should be better for the money. The USB host thing would be nice but the USB copy utility is cumbersome so plugging in a USB stick and opening a document is not as easy as it should be. The folio keyboard is nice but the bulk it adds just makes you wonder why you didn't pick up your laptop. The stylus is intermittent in operation and not as useful as it sounds...that said the handwriting recognition on the bundled notes app is pretty good.
Docs to Go is only just good enough for a quick edit of something...just...pretty much the same functionality as wordpad and only intermittent compatibility with MS office documents. Please someone port Libre Office to Android !
I want to love it...I have never regretted buying something with the Thinkpad logo on before...I use and love Android on my phone...but this isn't quite there and not truly deserving of the Thinkpad brand.
A pat on the back and 5 days later, we get TheReg review of av-test.org's software tests on Android antivirus/antimalware software:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/07/android_anti_malware_tests/
"Packages that detected more than 90 per cent of the Android malware thrown at them included Droid security software from Avast, Dr Web, F-Secure, Ikarus, Kaspersky, Zoner and Lookout."
Which go on to show that McAfee is currently bottom of the class... not that the software companies are happy with av-test.org's test methods, but they never are.
A pat on the back should arise, not simply for doing something, but for doing something really well - with integrity, and showing technical wisdom or insight.
I guess that McAfee paid them decent money per unit - McAfee want $30 per year for their app - and this is more important to Lenovo than customer security, satisfaction and repeat business.
As so often, free Avast product would seem to have been a better choice for the customer.
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