Lenovo Windows 8 ThinkPad Tablet 2 - Tablet + dockable Keyboard Combo

[bloodycape]

799 is with the keyboard if I am not mistaken, and I would think the pen would be standard seeing as there is a silo, or else it be a bit odd for some that there is this empty slot.

[Bronsky]

My main notebook at work is a Thinkpad X301. I am a big fan of the brand and love the service, which is run by IBM here in the US. But, I have not been overly impressed with Lenovo's tablet efforts. IMO, Dell's Latitude W8 tablet is a superior design to the Lenovo. Removable battery, Wacom pen, replacable battery and folding keyboard. I doubt that it will be any more expensive than the Thinkpad. Plus, Dell enterprise service is decent.

[bloodycape]

Not sure how Dell how Dell business for the regular consumer, but my boss has a Dell business notebook that had speakers went out, and Dell sent out representative to repair it on site, two days later. But, I think he called a special line as he a professor at a university.

[Kazy]

At any rate, we'll learn more on Thursday at Intel's Clover Trail event.

[e-schreiber]

An atom netbook costs $200-300. An atom tablet should cost no more than $600.

A netbook with Atom N600 starts at about $250, but it ships with Win7 Starter Edition, 0.3MP camera, 1Gb RAM, traditional HDD and some "thickness". We still don't know for how much the future Clover Trail Atoms will sell. Maybe there won't be any netbooks for less than $300 once Clover Trail comes out.

These new detachables are thinner (which a lot of people demand) and have better configuration than the current crop of $250 netbooks. So a $700 price tag for a consume-grade detachable with Atom CPU, Wacom digitizer and keyboard-dock included isn't terrible. And $800 for its business-grade counterpart seems fine too -- especially if it does include MS Office (seems to be the case with the TPT2). However, if any of those OEMs start milking the consumer with "optional" pens and keyboards, then that will look like a rip-off.

BTW, if the press begins (justly or not) to complain about price, the OEMs will be forced to issue coupons left-and-right and by the summer those things will sell for peanuts.

I don't think Lenovo would sell the TPT2 without the Pen. That would be strange.... After putting Wacom technology inside the device, the cost of the Stylus itself is marginal. Someone pointed out that its keyboard-dock doesn't have a touchpad. I'd rather have both the touchpad and the tracking-point, but I'd tolerate the loss of either if I got the silo.

It will be easier to pick a tablet once complete official info comes out. Maybe Thursday at the Intel event?

[Rommie2k6]

A netbook with Atom N600 starts at about $250, but it ships with Win7 Starter Edition, 0.3MP camera, 1Gb RAM, traditional HDD and some "thickness". We still don't know for how much the future Clover Trail Atoms will sell. Maybe there won't be any netbooks for less than $300 once Clover Trail comes out.

RAM is dirt cheap these days, I can grab another 8GB for $30-ish (I just did a few months back)... so big deal!!! The price of a traditional HDD (250-320GB) and a small eMMC SSD (32-64GB) is not that much different these days. Clovertrail performance is basically the same as Atom N2600 series released last year, which is basically the same as the initial Atom CPUs released in circa 2009. If you do any research, you will realize that Atom CPUs have not improved (in terms of performance) over the last 4 years. Choice of OS is irrelevant, I can install whatever version I want. This is Windows, not Android or Apple... we are not held captive to the OS that comes with the hardware. And nobody is going to give a **** about the camera, those are fluff.

These new detachables are thinner (which a lot of people demand) and have better configuration than the current crop of $250 netbooks. So a $700 price tag for a consume-grade detachable with Atom CPU, Wacom digitizer and keyboard-dock included isn't terrible. And $800 for its business-grade counterpart seems fine too -- especially if it does include MS Office (seems to be the case with the TPT2). However, if any of those OEMs start milking the consumer with "optional" pens and keyboards, then that will look like a rip-off.

So how did you jump from $250 to $700 and decide it is reasonable? The cost price of an Atom tablet is not that much higher than an Atom netbook. What else is added? An additional digitizer layer, maybe a higher resolution screen... that's it. And I do not need a "bundled" MS office for crying out loud, I have my own version of it.

[JoeS]

I don't think Lenovo would sell the TPT2 without the Pen. That would be strange....

I agree, but equally strange is that they explicitly state that the stylus is optional: Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 (see lower right of page)

I'm hoping for some deep Lenovo coupon discounting. Fingers crossed.

[Kazy]

Lenovo has a huge chance of sales going on at any given time, as well as semi-permanent offers like the B&N discount, so it's got that going for it.

[e-schreiber]

So how did you jump from $250 to $700 and decide it is reasonable?

I think you are right about the RAM. That thing is dirty cheap! But like I said, we don't know the prices of upcoming netbooks with Clover Trail Atoms. Netbooks below $300 might go completely extinct in October. And you're not taking into account the fact that the guts of a full-blown netbook computer are being miniaturized to fit inside a super thin slate. And that slate will run a full-blown OS! That shrinking requires expensive cutting-edge tech.

The use of Wacom also increases the price tag considerably. Once, someone here told me that the N-trig digitizer costs about $200 per machine and its Wacom counterpart costs about $300. I find these numbers very high (are those estimates correct???), but if they are right, that would add a lot to the cost of a Tablet PC.

It's possible that some "milking" will take place here, as we're going through a tablet fad and OEMs might get greedy, but I find it unlikely as prices of Tablet PCs have always being high. Besides, we saw the Q550, Slate 500 and Slate 2 sell for $800+ upon release! Those were tablets with N-trig and without a keyboard-folio! Perhaps, when compared against netbooks, the price tag of $700 looks fishy.... It's hard to tell without all the facts and specs.

Yet, one thing is for sure: when compared to a $500 iPad, an $800 detachable Tablet PC with a real OS, Wacom digitizer, keyboard-dock, Military toughness, IO ports and MS Office (which many need), is a tremendous steal! My advice to those with tight budgets is to wait till the coupons start popping up in the Spring and Summer!

I agree, but equally strange is that they explicitly state that the stylus is optional: Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 (see lower right of page)

Bastards! Are they really gonna sell Pens as a $50 optional accessory?!?! That's criminal!

[Sandiegosd]

Yet, one thing is for sure: when compared to a $500 iPad, an $800 detachable Tablet PC with a real OS, Wacom digitizer, keyboard-dock, Military toughness, IO ports and MS Office (which many need), is a tremendous steal!

Agreed. I'm even secretly suspecting that Lenovo wouldn't even give us all these for $800, possibly by charging the pen for $50 extra or by not including the keyboard
Anyway a TPT2 with full win8 OS for that $800 is already a Christmas present i'd desperately hope to get this year