Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet: Productivity tablet done right
The Android 3.1 Honeycomb Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet is now available for sale abroad. I hope this hits Philippine shores. It is the productivity tablet done right. The ThinkPad Tablet has a 1280 x 800 multitouch display, 1GB of memory, front- and rear-facing cameras and a NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor, full sized USB ports and SD card slot. The 16GB model is priced at $499, a 32GB version a 32GB version for $569 and a 64GB option for $669. Basic specs and price-wise, the ThinkPad Tablet is on par with the Apple iPad 2 and its Android competition. Most Android tablets which match iPad pricing do not fare very well, and while the ThinkPad Tablet is targeting a more limited market, I think it will do very well in its target market.
Like the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, the ThinkPad Tablet has a detachable keyboard. When not in use the tablet can fold over the keyboard so it can be carried around just like a laptop. You can attach a physical keyboard to the iPad too, but this is designed more like a desktop keyboard and is not as handy to carry around. So if you want a Tablet which can double as a laptop, the Transformer, which has been selling well, and the ThinkPad Tablet are your best bets,
The Transformer is cheaper than the ThinkPad Tablet at US$399, with the keyboard the price is US$549. While the ThinkPad Tablet starts at US$499, with the keyboard it comes in at US$599, reducing the gap to just US$50. You can also add a stylus to your ThinkPad Tablet for another US$30.
The ThinkPad Tablet comes with 25 pre-installed productivity, security and entertainment apps which include includes Good Technology's Good for Enterprise mobile app suite, Cisco AnyConnect secure VPN client, Absolute Software's Computrace Mobile device tracker, DataViz' Documents To Go, Printer Anywhere's PrinterShare and McAfee Mobile Security. This is clearly a tablet target at the mobile professional.
If you are looking for a tablet, which can also replace your laptop this is the one. The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet will not challenge the iPad 2 in sales, and is not designed to be an iPad 2 killer. But for the mobile professional, this looks like the best tablet in the market.