Pros:
*Dual digitizer: capacitive touchscreen & N-trig Stylus
*Great (but not excellent) battery life
*Full USB Port on top of the regularly expected HDMI out and micro USB.
*Full sized SD card slot (mine is currently occupied with a Class 10 32GB PNY card)
*Excellent keyboard dock available
*It can be rooted.
Cons:
*Rear camera software is lacking, poor image quality. Front camera is so so.
*GPS locked into asia ntp pool (Good luck getting a signal in the US; fixed w/ root)
*Single, fairly quiet speaker which is easily accidentally muffled.
*API for USB Game controllers was for some reason omitted from the device.
Middle Ground:
*While the build quality is solid, the tablet is a little chunky and a bit heavy. It can be held in one hand, but not nearly as comfortably as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Xoom, or an iPad. The IPS 1280 x 800 display is very easy on the eyes, but gets washed out pretty easily in sunlight, which was expected given this technology. Pretty responsive tablet, though the lock screen seems to get stuck at times, and usually it takes more than one swipe to unlock the device.
Some excellent software exists to take advantage of the Stylus, just don't bother with what Lenovo offers stock on the device. Applications such WritePad Stylus (goo.gl/73Tm6) or Quill (goo.gl/8B4r1), both available on the Android Market, should be delivered stock with this device. Both Apps take full advantage of the N-trig sensor, and have a "Pen only" mode so the palm of your hand does not create unwanted lines while writing with the stylus. I can only hope more developers will enable this functionality as these apps have completely replaced my need for pen and paper. Still, not a wide variety of applications are available yet to take advantage of the extra hardware here, so it remains a bit of a niche market.
I am a device owner, and when I own a device it really has to be a poor product for me to not find ways to like it. Perhaps this is a flawed way of going about my review, but that is why I'm mentioning this now. When I first got my ThinkPad Tablet, I can say I did consider returning it. It was bulky, and the primary purpose that I bought the tablet for, note taking, was not that enjoyable. After digging around reviews of other apps to write with, and coming across Quill and WritePad stylus, my concerns over note taking were gone. Oh and it still weighs less than a text book.
Other main features that people buy tablets for: web browsing, media playback, email, games etc. are all great on this device. They work well, maybe no better than any other tablet out there, but they work.
Overall I recommend this tablet to anyone, particularly Students and note taking Business men and women.
The Breakdown
-
Design
7
-
Display
8
-
Camera(s)
5
-
Speakers
6
-
Performance
8
-
Software
9
-
Battery life
9
-
Ecosystem
7
-
Dock
9
