Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb Tablet – Does Android Do the Trick?

This is a Guest post by Andy G. If you want to write guest post for TecRux, read our guest post guidelines.

It is hard to imagine that just two years ago there were no tablet computers available in the stores, at least not to speak of. Right after the first iPads from Apple started shipping, suddenly the whole world goes haywire and every single company that is into computer and multimedia technologies has at least one such product in development. One of these companies seems to be Lenovo, a company that is known for the former IBM line of laptop computers, the ThinkPad. Incidentally it is the ThinkPad name that makes it impossible for Apple to trademark the “Pad”.

Lenovo already exists for almost thirty years, but became a household name after they acquired IBM’s PC company division in 2005 for almost two billion dollars. It is a China based IT oriented corporation that operates with revenue of about 16 billion dollars annually.

A tablet is actually nothing new for Lenovo, they had already a ThinkPad laptop computer with the tabled touchscreen function, a really good laptop that had a touchscreen that could be swerved and looked like a simple tablet when closed. The computer ran on Windows 7 and was actually not a real tablet, but a regular laptop PC. When this whole craze about tablets launched, it was a given that Lenovo will produce one of their own, they had the technology already and manufacturing also, the only real surprise was that they will base the tablet on the Android OS Honeycomb, the 3.0 version tailored towards tablets, not smartphones.

The leaked specifications do not surprise, it is what all high-end tablet computers nowadays have to offer, in order to compete, the 1280 x 800 HD resolution multi-touch 10.1 inches wide-screen, Android 3.0, Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, Wi-Fi, USB, HDMI, even 3G, but no Bluetooth – surprisingly, up to 64GB of storage, optional keyboard case, but also very interesting “true pen support”. Business related software is supposed to be offered with it, anti-theft measures and remote wipe capability, as well as some sophisticated IT integration. 1080p playback capability and HD camera are almost expected nowadays, but there is no real confirmation on any of these informations as of today.

At this point it is really hard to say, since that all that is known is from unconfirmed and apparently leaked sources. The true competition will then be the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which is really something to be beaten and is already out. Nevertheless, ThinkPad is the only technology that has been NASA approved for use on the Space Station, therefore if a tablet is making it into outer space, it will most likely be the Lenovo ThinkPad tablet.

The choice to go Android was probably a sound one, not only is already a vast multitude of applications available and most of them are free, but the new 3.0 Honeycomb version is geared towards tablets and complements the platform perfectly. In a few months there will be dozens of high-end tablets flooding the market and it remains to be seen which one will appeal to the broad crowd the most. The idea to implement the “true pen support” may be the real plus, if Lenovo can land someone like DHL or FedEx to use these on a large scale, they will clinch the required sales numbers instantly.

Guest post by Andy G. Andy G works for Bravofiles. Get the latest drivers for your PC from here.