The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 is a Windows 8 tablet with a 10 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, an Intel Atom Clover Trail processor, and a dual digitizer which lets you use your fingers or a pressure-sensitive pen to navigate the Windows 8 environment.
Lenovo also makes an optional keyboard dock which has a TouchPoint-style pointing stick in the center.
Lenovo’s new tablet is expected to hit the streets this month for $649. But I got a chance to check one out in person a few days ago.
The tablet has a sturdy plastic case that’s easy to hold. It’s also pretty light, at 1.3 pounds.
There’s a slot in one corner of the tablet where you can tuck the digital pen when you’re not using it. This isn’t just a plastic stylus… it’s a plastic “pen” with some digital guts that let you do things like hover a mouse cursor by waving the pen near the surface of the tablet without touching it.
If you’re wondering why the ThinkPad Tablet 2 has a higher starting price than some other Windows 8 tablets with Clover Trail chips, you can thank that pen and the active digitizer that works with it.
The tablet has 2GB of RAM, up to 64GB of storage, a 2MP front-facing camera and an 8MP rear camera. It has a full-sized USB port and a micro HDMI port.
Unlike the keyboard docks that are available for some tablets, the optional ThinkPad Tablet 2 keyboard is basically just a Bluetooth keyboard designed for use with this particular tablet. That means it won’t extend your battery life.
Lenovo hasn’t announced a price for the keyboard yet.
Lenovo will offer models of the ThinkPad Tablet 2 with optional enterprise features such as fingerprint scanners or cellular capabilities. But those won’t be available on the $649 model.
What you will get on even the cheapest version of this tablet is the full Windows 8 experience, with support for both “modern” UI apps downloaded from the Windows Store and for classic apps designed for earlier versions of Windows.
linux?
Is it available now in the market ? … or .. when will it be available ?
Does the keyboard have a true TrackPoint that moves in all directions, or is it just one of these Blackberry-style things that’s really just an extremely tiny touchpad?
So the only thing in this “hands on” that we can’t learn from lenovo’s own spec sheet is that the plastic is sturdy. Is that the only subjective judgement you had to make about the whole thing? Wow, great hands on…
It doesn’t look like it but can you fold the tablet onto the keyboard while it’s attached? What’s the battery life of the keyboard? How is it charged.
My corporate experience with Lenovo has been very good. I also prefer the nub mouse to one of those space wasting touch pads. What does the keyboard weigh? There’s one negative with this tablet – the screen resolution is appalling – as Linus Torvalds has pointed out for Windows PCs in general.
What’s wrong with 1366 x 768 on a 10″ screen?
Nothing really, but some people think there’s a bigger difference than there actually is between HD and FHD.
FHD will of course look better when put side by side but on such a small screen HD still will look sharp and as long as the other specs, IPS, color saturation, etc are good then it’ll be perfectly fine to use for most people.
Some people just don’t want to settle for anything less than the best though, even if you have to put them side by side to really see the difference.
Is the Bluetooth keyboard sold separately? I always wanted a wireless keyboard with a trackpoint for my HTPC.
Given that the keyboard doesn’t have a battery and therefore is much lighter than keyboard docks for other Win8 tablets, how stable is the whole thing?