Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb tablet ready for pre-order

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | August 23, 2011, 5:44am PDT

Summary: Are these the tablets that enterprise users have been waiting for?

Lenovo ThinkPad tablets powered by the Android ‘Honeycomb’ OS are available for pre-order.

Why do I mention this? Because these could very well be the best tablets available.

Starting at $499 for the 16GB WiFi-only model, these tablets are packed with features:

10.1-inch multitouch 1,280×800 display featuring Gorilla Glass
1GB RAM
NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
Dual camera
SD card slot
8-hour battery life
Mini HDMI
USB 2.0 host with micro-USB slot
Built-in encryption and security (including SD card)
Anti-theft and remote disable
2GB cloud storage
Optional digitizer pen
Lots of apps

For $569 you get 32GB or storage and 3G, while $669 buys you 64GB and 3G.

These are some sweet-looking tablets!

Estimated ship date is August 28.

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Lenovo ThinkPad, Lenovo Group Ltd., Tablets, Notebooks, Operating Systems, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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This thing will be great with Windows 8!!!!

gomigomijunk 24th Aug

I'd love to erase this thing and put Windows 8 on it. That would totally rock.

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RE: Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb tablet ready for pre-order

Badgered Updated - 23rd Aug

Starting at $499

um... no. The HP Touchpad fire sale should have told them something.

And is it just me, or does that commercial-ish thing look like a 1st year student made it?

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Exactly right Badgered

toddybottom Updated - 23rd Aug

@Badgered
The only way to compete against the iPad is to spend $300 to build a tablet that you then sell for $99.

This will not sell well until it is sold at a loss by Lenovo. That is my prediction.

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RE: Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb tablet ready for pre-order

jgm@... 23rd Aug

@toddybottom This is for the enterprise, not primarily consumers.

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How about some nice 'wait and see'?

Robert Hahn 23rd Aug

@jgm
I agree with you that enterprise customers are unlikely to be interested in a discontinued product that's being footballed at fire-sales prices.

That said, Hewlett-Packard is a $100 billion company. They have as much staying power as anybody. If they would bail on the tablet business, the question becomes... who wouldn't? Apple won't because they're kicking butt. But would you, right now, acting as a fiduciary for your company's money, recommend buying a fleet of tablets from anyone else? After what just happened with HP?

I suspect this is a terrible time to be launching a new tablet aimed at "the enterprise." Those guys are shell shocked right now. They don't know whom to trust or what to believe. Just last month, Apotheker was up there talking about putting WebOS on everything from phones to high-end servers. Now it's discontinued, or out looking to spend more time with its family. Sure, the Lenovo guy says that he's different. But as Zimmerman once said, "money doesn't talk, it swears." If they lose their shirts on these things, out they'll go.

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RE: Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb tablet ready for pre-order

Muzhik1 23rd Aug

@Badgered, from what I've read, the Touchpad was using such cheap and out-of-date parts that they still probably made money at $99.

I'm beginning to wonder if the $99 Touchpad will be the "Clue" moment in the pad market. Yahoo! had an article (with clips) on the top 5 movie flops that became hits. #1 was "The Big Lebowski" ("Dude!"). #3 was "Clue". It was such a failure that at a time when films on VHS tapes sold for $99 (!) (Yes, kiddies, and that was when $99 was real money), "Clue" was marked down to $19.95. Everyone with a VHS machine bought a copy, and other studios had to have two or three films that sold at that price point. To make a long story short ("Too late!"), now films on VHS go for a dollar at the Goodwill and DVDs go for $5 in the clearance bin. But it all started with the $19.95 "Clue."

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RE: Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb tablet ready for pre-order

timiteh 23rd Aug

At least Apple cannot sue them because of these tablets design >:-)

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RE: Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb tablet ready for pre-order

AdnanPirota 23rd Aug

@timiteh what do you mean it looks a lot like an iPad ?! It is rectangular computer device isn't it ?

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RE: Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb tablet ready for pre-order

cboquin 23rd Aug

Sweet looking tablets, great buy, etc, etc. Let's see what ya'll think in a few months, what the early buyers think. It offers a lot, but whether it all REALLY works like it should, when it should is to be seen.

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RE: Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb tablet ready for pre-order

Badgered 23rd Aug

Why do I mention this? Because these could very well be the best tablets available.

You say that almost like you've had your hands on one.... have you?

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You will be annihilated

Robert Hahn 23rd Aug

This is like watching Federation starships go up against the Borg. It's sad, really. As the USS Hewlett-Packard goes hurtling out into space, a smoking ruin, here comes the Lenovo to take its place. Oh well.

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RE: Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb tablet ready for pre-order

Muzhik1 23rd Aug

@Robert Hahn, yes, but don't forget: the USS Lenovo has Android. IOW, DATA! And we all know what happened to the Borg Queen when she tried to mess with Data.

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Buying this tablet

KACarter07 Updated - 23rd Aug

I own an iPad 2 and love it ... I think this tablet, however, is an even better fit for me ... Better camera to capture the drawing board from a meeting and then incorporate into a meeting recap note with handwriting recognition, I am able to view the training videos that use flash and a lot more ...really like what Lenovo is doing ... stop copying and create a tablet that serves a market ...