Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet Review Discussion

[Jamison Cush]

 

Editor's Note 11/7/11:

This review has been updated to reflect the launch of Netflix for Android 3.x devices. 

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Listen to the market analysts, and they'll tell you that tablets are the next device to sweep the enterprise. In fact, a survey of stakeholders by Model Metrics found that 22% of businesses had already deployed tablets, while the rest, 78%, plan to do so by 2013.

Despite the coming tablet wave, the enterprise has been a difficult nut for tablet makers to crack. Just ask RIM, which is sitting on a huge pile of unsold PlayBooks. And while Windows 7 tablets have found their niche inside certain vertical segments like insurance and real estate, and Windows 8 will shake things up in 2012, the Apple iPad is still the most popular tablet amongst the business sect.

Lenovo is hoping to change that and is expanding its respected ThinkPad brand to include an Android Honeycomb tablet. The aptly named "ThinkPad Tablet" sports similar specs as a half dozen other 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablets, but Lenovo differentiates its offering with N-trig active pen support and full-sized ports. Will that be enough for the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet to make it in the business world?

Read the full content of this Article: Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet Review

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[thatcomicsguy]

Found a video featuring this tablet used for artwork.

http://buylenovothinkpad.com/used-le...d-for-drawing/

It looks pretty good; that N-trig system seems okay.

I'm not clear, though. Can you run Photoshop on these things?

Just a little bit further now. A physically larger tablet, (at 12" or greater screen), and the ability to run pro-level art programs without a hitch, and iClone tablets will be the "It" tech for digital artists.

It's about time!

[Jamison Cush]

Found a video featuring this tablet used for artwork.

It looks pretty good; that N-trig system seems okay.

I'm not clear, though. Can you run Photoshop on these things?

A little further and a physically larger tablet, (at 12" or greater), and iClone tablets will be the "It" tech for digital artists.

It's about time!

I believe Adobe offers Photoshop extensions for Android, but no full version. Mobile tech will have to come a long way before I can handle a resource hog like Photoshop.

[thatcomicsguy]

I believe Adobe offers Photoshop extensions for Android, but no full version. Mobile tech will have to come a long way before I can handle a resource hog like Photoshop.

It seems fairly likely at this point. I can almost see the design and marketing teams rubbing their hands together in glee as they envision the next two or three product cycles. That is. . .

1. Tablet use becomes wide-spread in enterprise operations.

2. Users complain that they need a stylus because their finger pads are getting raw and they can't take accurate notes.

3. More devices like this Lenovo and the Samsung S.7 appear with active styluses, (and hopefully) are adopted in numbers capable of sustaining such a market.

4. Users become attached to them due to their comfort and addictive qualities, (people, I swear, have invisible umbilical cords running to their portable devices these days. Kinda creepy how people stand around now, zoned out, playing with their thumbs in the middle of city streets. But if living among the legions of pod-people leads eventually to a decent art tablet, then I suppose I can endure with a little less disgust than otherwise.) Ahem. . , what was I saying? Right. So users will no longer want to go back to their laptops and desktops. They'll want to do everything on their portables. But they can't due to hardware and OS limitations, so. . .

5. Tablets capable of doing real work appear. And that means real art programs.

6. Somebody, in an overzealous moment, green lights a tablet with a high-quality 14" or maybe even a 15" screen, (soon to be discontinued, but not before the market is flooded.)

7. Artists rejoice as drawing slates are suddenly awesome, thin, light-weight and affordable on the used and refurb market.

8. I wake up and realize that steps 6 and 7 never happened. Still. . , we're moving in the right direction. I think at the very least we can expect Wacom and copy-cat companies to bring a decent slate to market for an exorbitant fee.

[Bronsky]

This slate, with the front keys removed, a Wacom digitizer (N-Trig if there is no option), Tegra 3 quad-core CPU/GPU, Thinkpad folio keyboard, running Windows 8 is probably as close to my dream slate as I am likely to find in the next year. Hopefully, Lenovo will make the hardware upgrade sometime early next year, adding Ice Cream Sandwich OS and I will do the rest with W8 beta.

[MattMc]

This tablet is on my short list, though I am still waiting for the promised 3G. (Toshiba has no plans for a Thrive with 3G?) The keyboard folio sounds like it is high-quality, but $100 seems a bit pricey if it indeed has no additional input ports while using the only USB 2.0, and has no booster battery as in the Asus Transformer!

[Jamison Cush]

The 3G ThinkPad will be hitting the market soon, if it's not already available. In fact, Lenovo sent me a 3G ThinkPad for the review. Regarding the Thrive, I have not heard any rumors indicating a 3G version.

Another good option might be the Acer Iconia Tab A501. I am about to publish the review, and it has a great screen and full-sized USB, in addition to AT&T HSPA+.

[sketchyd]

I believe Adobe offers Photoshop extensions for Android, but no full version. Mobile tech will have to come a long way before I can handle a resource hog like Photoshop.

Photoshop touch just came out for Android and it supports pressure sensitivity! AWESOME. Just downloaded it and yes, i can confirm that i am getting pressure sensitivity on my lenovo thinkpad tablet. Up to 16 layers by the way.

[Reuven]

I own the ThinkPad tablet and generally love it. There is one problem though: when you connect it using the HDMI port to a TV, Netflix streaming doesn't work. I send in the first unit I bought, they replaced it with a new unit. I tried it with 2 different HDMI cables - no luck.
I hope they will fix it somehow soon.

[cmenice]

There are a lot of reports that it's quite sluggish in performance. Are you guys experiencing that or any issues.

I was very excited about Adobe Ideas vector app, but it turns out it doesn't support pressure sensitivity. It seems like Adobe really dropped the ball on export methods for these apps too.

I'm interested to see how the lenovo thinkpad tablet plays out.