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DEAL WATCH: Keurig K-Express | 22% off $69.99

Keurig has changed the face of coffee, and snagging one of these for less than $70 is a solid deal. Read Review

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  • Introduction

  • Front

  • Back

  • Sides

  • In the Box

  • Handling

  • Screen

  • Indoor & Outdoor Use

  • Legibility

  • Reflectance

  • Screen Size & DPI

  • Blacks and Whites

  • Color Gamut

  • Battery Life

  • Controls

  • Connectivity

  • Battery Life

  • Reading Books

  • Buying Books

  • eBook Formats

  • Newspapers & Magazines

  • Music & Audio Controls

  • Music & Audio Management

  • Music & Audio Battery Life

  • Video Controls

  • Video Management

  • Video Formats

  • Internet Video

  • Video Battery Life

  • Email

  • Web Browsing

  • Internet Apps

  • Other Internet Features

  • Apple iPad 2 Comparison

  • Asus Transformer Comparison

  • Amazon Kindle Fire Comparison

  • Conclusion

  • Introduction
  • Front
  • Back
  • Sides
  • In the Box
  • Handling
  • Screen
  • Indoor & Outdoor Use
  • Legibility
  • Reflectance
  • Screen Size & DPI
  • Blacks and Whites
  • Color Gamut
  • Battery Life
  • Controls
  • Connectivity
  • Battery Life
  • Reading Books
  • Buying Books
  • eBook Formats
  • Newspapers & Magazines
  • Music & Audio Controls
  • Music & Audio Management
  • Music & Audio Battery Life
  • Video Controls
  • Video Management
  • Video Formats
  • Internet Video
  • Video Battery Life
  • Email
  • Web Browsing
  • Internet Apps
  • Other Internet Features
  • Apple iPad 2 Comparison
  • Asus Transformer Comparison
  • Amazon Kindle Fire Comparison
  • Conclusion

Introduction

Front

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Back

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Sides

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In the Box

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Included in the very environmentally-unfriendly mess of cardboard and plastic that is the box for the {{product.name}} is a charger, a microUSB cable, an individually packaged US-specific plug to mount on the charger, and assorted documentation. There's also a tablet in there, but you probably already guessed that.

Handling

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One thing users need to be aware of is the fact that this thing is heavy. Not only that, but the tablet itself is huge as well. Couple those detriments along with the fact that the tablet is a half-inch thick and a bit angular, and this tablet ranks up there with the most difficult to hold that we've reviewed thus far. If you plan on using this for a long time, you will have a little bit of arm fatigue, depending on your forearms' endurance.

Screen

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The {{product.name}} is built around an 8.625 x 5.325 inch IPS LED backlit LCD displaym with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Aside from the IPS screen, this is about par for the course as far as tablets in this price range go. The IPS screen enables users to have a fairly wide viewing angle, but there's only a very small chance that this would become a big deal unless you were showing your friends something on the screen.

Indoor & Outdoor Use

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LIke most tablets with an LCD screen, the {{product.name}} does not fare so well outdoors. Because LCD screens require a backlight to make their image seen, direct sunlight often drowns out the light emitted by the tablet itself, resulting in a picture that is difficult to see at best (especially considering the high reflectivity). Tablets with LCD screens typically disappoint here, and the {{product.name}} is no different.

NOTE: The images above are shot with a variety of lighting sources, which may cause some color shift.

Legibility

The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet produces a crisp, legible picture much like any other tablet with its resolution, even if its animations are a little stuttery. Below you can see for yourself, using our incredibly nitpicky use of a microscope to show you how your image will look.

There’s only very minimal “stair-stepping” indicative of resolution problems, but very little that you’ll find distracting. Overall a good score here.

Reflectance

Similarly, the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet does nothing to set itself apart from other LCD-screened tablets, as it has an extremely reflective screen. Though it has a high peak brightness to combat the intensity of direct sunlight, the reflectiveness pattern is incredibly distracting and annoying, so do what you can to avoid direct light on the screen.

Screen Size & DPI

With the commonplace screen size of 10.1 inches and the equally commonplace resolution of 1280 × 800 pixels, the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet, you should not want for a bigger screen. The resolution also nets the ThinkPad Tablet a DPI (dots per inch) of 149, while not the best in the world, is not too far behind what other tablets in its price range and size give us.

Blacks and Whites

Tablets typically fall short of competing with TVs in terms of contrast performance, but the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet falls very short by virtue of its disappointingly high black level. If you’re wondering why a high black level is bad, know that a low black level is important for a high contrast ratio, and more accurate lighting in your pictures and movies. Because the deepest black it can produce is 0.6 cd/m2, the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet’s contrast ratio is severely narrowed, even though it has a very high peak brightness.

Color Gamut

Like most tablets, the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet disappoints in color gamut, with significant color error when matched up against the rec. 709 standard. Most notably, it shifts blues to a more cyan-insh color.

Battery Life

When Lenovo shipped its flagship tablet, it did not include a very good battery. Providing users with just over 5 hours of video playback or eBook reading, the battery is firmly in the “bad” category for tablets. Perhaps it’s due to the big screen, but for whatever reason, this tablet will leave you high and dry on long trips.

Controls

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The {{product.name}} can be operated much like any other tablet can through the capacitive touchscreen. Things like tapping to open files and apps, pinch to zoom, and flick to turn a page/switch homescreens all work on the {{product.name}}. In addition, there are physical volume controls, a physical power button, and four other buttons on one side of the tablet, including a back button, a home button, a browser button, and an auto-rotate on/off button.

The controls on the top right side of the iPad body: volume, lock and power.

Connectivity

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Quite possibly the biggest things that sets the {{product.name}} apart from the rest of the pack is the fact that it is fairly versatile with pieces of office equipment. Not only can it export video and other media via HDMI, but it can also hook up a peripheral like a keyboard or mouse using the hidden full-USB port. This is very beneficial, as the tablet comes with a word processor, as well as other office programs pre-installed.

Here we see a Lightning dock in its natural habitat.

If you have a data plan through AT&T or Verizon, you can also elect to buy the 3G version of the {{product.name}}, which can access the 'net anywhere there is an adequate signal. Users who are accustomed to smartphones should note that this tablet is not very portable at all, so this unit won't be quite as big a help as a smartphone could be on the go.

Battery Life

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When Lenovo shipped its flagship tablet, it did not include a very good battery. Providing users with just over 5 hours of video playback or eBook reading, the battery is firmly in the "bad" category for tablets. Perhaps it's due to the big screen, but for whatever reason, this tablet will leave you high and dry on long trips.

Reading Books

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Reading books on the Amazon Kindle app is a relatively simple experience, outlined in our piece: Kindle Explored. If you don't like the interface, you can always download a new app via the Android Market.

The iBooks program offers a range of controls for font and text size

Buying Books

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Buying books with most apps on the Android Market will be very similar to that of the Kindle app, so be sure to check it out if you get the chance.

Books can be purchased on the iPad through the iTunes store

eBook Formats

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One of the best things about Android is that if you ever find yourself hindered by a file format problem, or if you don't like the app you use to lpay back media of any kind, there are replacements on the Market. While the {{product.name}} only supports a handful of formats natively, you can always add other readers to expand your format support.

Right out of the box, the {{product.name}} supports .pdf, .azw, MOBI, and .txt files. There are absolutely more, just no coherent list of them anywhere.

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Newspapers & Magazines

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Certain apps like the Kindle App will allow you to subscribe to newspapers and other periodicals on your tablet, read much like eBooks.

The New York Times is available on the iPad through their own app

Music & Audio Controls

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Because the {{product.name}} essentially runs a re-skin of Android 3.2, it has a very clean-looking and functional music playback platform. All of the buttons computer users are accustomed to are there, and you can sort and sift through your stored music in several different ways. Should you want to create a playlist, you can do that as well.

The iPod app shows the cover art while playing music

Probably the best thing about Android systems is that if you do not like any aspect about media playback or apps, you can simply download another! Check out the Android Market if you are unsatisfied by the stock Android player.

Music & Audio Management

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Music can be transferred via USB or downloaded via the WiFi connection, and will be displayed in one of several ways in the music management screens after tapping the "music" icon. You can sift through album covers via a cover flow, read your music in list format, or arrange your songs by another way (album, artist, etc).

Audio files can be sorted by title, artist, album, genre or composer

Music & Audio Battery Life

Video Controls

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The video controls available to the {{product.name}} are the same exact controls available to all Honeycomb-running tablets. Though once your title starts playing, the controls fade away very quickly (so as not to disturb your view), you will notice that you have available to you a scrub bar to skip through your title, volume controls, and a play/pause button.

Video Management

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Your stored videos will appear in the "gallery" app next to your imported/taken photos. Once you tap on them, you can play them back using the standard media player if you want.

The gallery is used to navigate videos, and only offers thumbnails

Video Formats

Internet Video

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Installed onto the {{product.name}} is a YouTube app, which will allow you to browse all the internet hit videos. Additionally, the Android Market has numerous other apps, as well as Adobe's Flash software, so you should be all set for internet video adventures.

Video Battery Life

Email

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Email on the {{product.name}} works in much the same way as it does on every other Android 3 tablet out there, so there are no surprises here. Users of Gmail will note that there is very good support for their client of choice, especially when it comes to accessing a bunch of information at once.

The iPad email app is basic, but adequate for most users

Web Browsing

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The web browser of Android 3 is very much like Google's prolific Chrome browser, complete with all the standard functions like multi-tabbed browsing, bookmarks, thumbnailed pages, and flash support. Users should be able to make full use of the browser and keyboard with no issues.

The iPad boasts a fully featured Safari web browser

Internet Apps

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Because the {{product.name}} is a Google-blessed tablet with full access to the Android Market and the full suite of Google services, the {{product.name}} is virtually unencumbered by anything other than your wallet. Really, any Android tablet with these capabilities will be very good with apps if you know what to look for. Be sure to check out the Android Market for descriptions of popular apps if you're still on the fence.

Other Internet Features

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Also loaded onto the {{product.name}} is a cavalcade of bloatware, complete with redundant functions (like 3 video players) and anti-spyware applications that don't seem to do much at all. Though this is nothing new, we greatly prefer our tablets to be void of these apps, as they do little more than clutter your home screen and apps page with things that you don't necessarily want.

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Apple iPad 2 Comparison

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Device & Specs

From a hardware standpoint, the two tablets are very similar, but there is a clear advantage to the iPad 2 over the {{product.name}} in form factor and weight, which makes a difference in extended usage situations. Both have very similar guts, similar screens, and similar memory.

Screen

While the {{product.name}} can technically produce a brighter screen than can the iPad 2, it falls seriously behind in terms of color and contrast performance. Though tablets aren't really the platform for media that a cinephile would demand, if you're looking for picture quality, the iPad 2 is your best bet. Both screens are highly reflective, so they're both similarly bad at handling direct sunlight.

Battery

The Apple iPad 2 absolutely trounces the {{product.name}} here, offering 2-3 more hours of battery life than does the {{product.model}} depending on your main function.

eReader

Because both tablets have access to the same apps, we'll side with the iPad 2 here, as it is not only easier to hold, but has a better battery to boot. This makes the eReader experience much improved for all you marathon-readers out there.

Internet

iOS 5 and Android 3 have comparable internet features, but only the {{product.name}} has the Google suite of applications and services available to it, giving it a productivity edge. Still, different tablets work better for different people, so the only way you will know for sure is to mess around with one yourself!

Asus Transformer Comparison

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Device & Specs

Most obviously, the biggest difference in device is the fact that the Transformer was built around being able to use a keyboard that connects to the machine to augment its natural performance, while the {{product.name}} is simply a tablet. We'll leave it up to you what you'd like more in a tablet, but the Transformer is slightly lighter, and less blocky.

Screen

The {{product.name}}'s screen does not quite perform as well as the Transformer's in terms of color gamut, contrast, and reflectivity, but don't take that to mean that either are great, or that the difference is huge; the comparison is largely academic.

Battery

The Transformer has a better battery life, made even longer by the optional keyboard accessory that carries its own battery as well.

eReader

Because the Transformer has an easier-to-hold form factor and a better battery than does the {{product.name}}, users looking for a longer reading session will find that the Transformer will probably suit them better than the {{product.name}}.

Internet

Because both tablets are Android 3 devices, they have similar internet capabilities, and the differences between the two are negligible, as they both have full access to the Android Market.

Amazon Kindle Fire Comparison

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Device & Specs

The Fire is a much smaller device, and as such, much lighter too. The grippy back casing makes the Fire easy to hold, unlike the smooth casing of the huge and heavy {{product.name}}. Beyond that, the {{product.name}} has more memory, but more sluggish controls, if that makes any sense.

Screen

The screen of the Kindle Fire is much smaller, 7 inches, but much brighter and about as reflective. It's a bit better in sunlight than the {{product.name}} is, but the difference isn't too huge.

Battery

The Kindle's battery allows over an hour longer use than does the {{product.name}}, so users who want to use their tablets for a longer period of time will probably want to go with the Kindle based on battery performance.

eReader

On form factor alone the Kindle Fire is the better eReader, but Kindle owners with Prime are also granted the ability to loan and share eBooks, something the {{product.name}} cannot do. Hands-down victory for the Kindle here.

Internet

Here is the one area in which the {{product.name}} shines in comparison to the Kindle Fire. Because the Fire does not use an official copy of any Android OS, it does not have access to the full Android Market, nor can it run the suite of Google applications, which clips its wings significantly.

Conclusion

It's no surprise to us that one of the major computer producers has released a tablet under the name of its iconic laptops, but what is surprising is just how bad the {{product.name}} is. Relatively speaking, the battery and screen performances aren't too far off the "average" range for tablet performance, but little things like the accelerometers lagging significantly, as well as frequent crashes and severe battery drain while asleep make the {{product.name}} a less than ideal purchase.

To its credit, the {{product.name}} does offer the full range of Android and Google apps, which is a big plus for anyone considering buying an Android tablet. Forgoing this sort of advantage really clips your wings, so to speak, when you decide to use your tablet on the go, so this is a very important thing to pay attention to.

If you can find this tablet on a firesale, it may not be such a bad investment if you would like to use peripherals that require a USB port, but if that's the case, you're probably better off going with a Toshiba Thrive instead. Beyond that small advantage, there is very little reason to get the {{product.name}} over another Android 3 tablet.

Meet the tester

Chris Thomas

Chris Thomas

Staff Writer, Imaging

@cthomas8888

A seasoned writer and professional photographer, Chris reviews cameras, headphones, smartphones, laptops, and lenses. Educated in Political Science and Linguistics, Chris can often be found building a robot army, snowboarding, or getting ink.

See all of Chris Thomas's reviews

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