In what has to be one of the most extravagant product launches I have witnessed in India (for an electronics brand), Lenovo recently announced a comprehensive range of tablets in India. Straddling almost every price point, Lenovo aims to be a significant player in this segment which in India is currently dominated by the likes of Apple and Samsung in the high end segment.
In the low end, affordable segment, there are players like Olive, Reliance, Beetel and the likes which have their own tabs in the sub 15k range.
Lenovo’s tablets range however starts from 15k mark and go up to 45k. We will now take a look at each of these tablets starting with the entry level model going up to the premium ones.
IdeaPad A1
The entry level, mass market oriented A1 is a smart looking 7 inch tablet. Announced just last month, Lenovo has been quick to bring it to Indian shores – just days after the US launch. The device has a 1024*600, 7 inch display and as expected, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The processing bit is handled by an ARM Cortex A8 chip (1GHz TI OMAP 3622. The version launched in India gets 16 Gb of memory.
We are perplexed as to why Lenovo has not decided to bring its entry level version that comes with 8GB of memory. This can be sold at a lower price and could help Lenovo gain some momentum in at the low end segment. Anyway, the tablet supports memory expansion using microSD cards.
There are two cameras on the device; a 3 megapixel one at the rear for photos and a low resolution camera at the front mostly for video calls. Note that this is a Wi-fi only model so any “calling” you do would be over Wi-Fi. The K1 can be yours for 14,990 and is expected to land in India by the end of this month.
IdeaPad K1
This is the more serious contender in the highly competitive mid to high end segment. The IdeaPad K1 is a full sized, 10.1 inch tablet that runs Honeycomb, Android’s, tablet specific OS. The tablet is quite a looker and has a curved back and is available in multiple colors (although the front is black). The K1 would be made available in two versions with the lower priced 32 GB Wi-Fi version priced at 29,500. The top of the line 32 GB 3G model has been priced at Rs.33,900.
The specs of this device is quite similar to the Motorola Xoom with the same Nvidia Tegra 2 chip doing the number crunching inside. The ones we saw yesterday though were running Android 3.1. The K1 packs in a 2 megapixel front camera and a 5 megapixel main camera at the rear.
Thinkpad Tablet
Next up is the only corporate/enterprise offering from Lenovo. Obviously marketed under the ThinkPad brand name, the device is a chucky looking device that features a 10.1 inch display. It runs a customized version of Android Honeycomb. The device comes with a ThinkPad Tablet Pen which lets users jot down notes which automatically convert to handwritten text and even draw pictures. The tablet boasts of a 2MP front-facing camera for video calls. The corporate intention is made clear by the presence of secure e-mail access support for VPN.
The ThinkPad tablet also has an optional keyboard accessory that makes it look quite like a ThinkPad notebook.
This device comes in a wide price range with the base version starting off at Rs. 29,500 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi version moving up to the 32 GB 3G version priced at Rs. 41,900 and the top-of-the-line 64 GB 3G version which could be yours for a cool Rs. 46,900.
