Computer manufacturer Lenovo today announced its first family of tablets, including the IdeaPad Tablet K1 for consumers, the ThinkPad Tablet for business customers and the IdeaPad Tablet P1 for home and office use.
The K1 and ThinkPad tablets will come running Android Honeycomb (3.1), while the IdeaPad Tablet will run Windows 7.
The IdeaPad Tablet K1 looks to take on the iPad with a number of consumer features. Notably, the K1 comes optimized to stream Netflix. Lenovo is billing its tablets as “the first Honeycomb tablets certified for Netflix.” With HDMI output and digital rights management (DRM) built directly into the IdeaPad and ThinkPad tablets, Netflix members can watch movies and TV shows streaming from Netflix directly to a big screen TV.
On the inside, the IdeaPad and ThinkPad tablets feature Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core mobile processors. Both the K1 and ThinkPad tablets feature 10.1-inch screens and weigh in at 1.63 lbs and 1.65 lbs, respectively.
The ThinkPad Tablet allows users to view and edit Microsoft Office documents with the preloaded Documents to Go app by DataViz. Or they can jot down notes that automatically convert to handwritten text with the optional ThinkPad Tablet Pen.
The IdeaPad Tablet P1 is a true tablet PC and comes running Windows 7. The 10.1-inch IdeaPad P1 features a 1.5GHz Intel processor as well as preinstalled Office suite.
Lenovo also will launch its own applications market, the Lenovo App Shop, which will feature content and applications that have been tested and optimized specifically to run on the company’s line of tablets. The App Shop also will support enterprise applications and a private corporate application store.
The 32GB model K1 is priced at $499 and can be ordered in the U.S. starting today through select business partners and retail stores nationwide or online. The product will be generally available in the U.S. in August and generally available worldwide during the third quarter of 2011.
The 16GB ThinkPad Tablet is priced at $479 without the digitizer pen, and at $509 including the digitizer pen, for Wi-Fi models. The 32GB ThinkPad Tablet (Wi-Fi model) with digitizer pen is $589. There is also an optional keyboard portfolio carrying case available for $99.
Lenovo said that it will offer ThinkPad tablets with 3G connectivity at a later date. The ThinkPad tablet can be ordered in the U.S. starting Aug. 2 through business partners or online.
The IdeaPad Tablet P1 will be available in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Lenovo IdeaPad K1:
