Lenovo demos ThinkPad tablet running Windows 8, we go hands-on
Yes, another Windows 8 tablet. After getting hands-on with some new devices from Acer, ASUS and Samsung, you might already having trouble telling one device from the other. You might even say the same about Lenovo, which is showing off an early-stage tablet here at Computex. The difference? We can't remember the last time we saw even a Windows 7 slate by Lenovo. So when the company trots out one running Win8, it doesn't just feel like a mandatory upgrade from one OS to another; it feels like Lenovo entering a new category.
That tablet you see up there won't go on sale for awhile -- heck, it doesn't even have an official name yet. But we were still able to get a feel for the design and basic specs after handling it for a few minutes. If you're a ThinkPad fan, a Windows fan or both, even, head past the break for a preview of what's to come later this year.%Gallery-156994%
For the sake of this walk-through, we're going to call this the ThinkPad Tablet -- we assume no one will think we're talking about the Android slate with the same name. As you can see in those hands-on shots, it stays true to the aesthetic you'll see on the company's ThinkPad laptops, with a soft-touch black finish that's resistant to both smudges and scratches. As it happens, that surface also makes it easy to cradle the tablet in landscape mode, which can sometimes be unwieldy, depending on the particular tablet. A Lenovo rep on site wasn't able to confirm the weight, but nevertheless, it feels light, and also thin, at 9.7mm thick.
Though Lenovo won't say much about specs, we do know it's running some unspecified Intel Clover Trail processor, and the battery is expected to max out at 10-plus hours on a charge. Taking a tour around the device, we may as well begin with that 10.1-inch screen, whose 1366 x 768 resolution seems pretty standard for a Windows 8 tablet of this size. On board, you'll also find a pair of 2- and 8-megapixel cameras, as well as micro-HDMI and a docking connector, which suggests peripherals are on the way.
That's all we can say for now -- we weren't permitted to hold the tablet after our video opp concluded -- but we'll definitely be back with more details about the device as we learn them.
Zach Honig contributed to this report
