Lenovo Officially Unveils Windows 8 ThinkPad Tablet

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By Jane McEntegart
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Lenovo takes the cover off its Windows 8 slate offering.

With Windows 8 just a few months away from its retail launch, hardware manufacturers are preparing to launch a slew of new products running the operating system. Though the OS will run perfectly fine without a touchscreen, Windows 8's touchy-feely Metro UI does work better on the hardware it was intended for. This week, Lenovo took the wraps off of the ThinkPad 2 tablet, which will launch this fall.

The ThinkPad 2 packs a 10-inch 1366 x 768 IPS HD display, an Intel Atom processor, an 8-megapixel camera in the back and a 2-megapixel camera up front for video calling, micro-HDMI, NFC, a fingerprint reader, and a pen. There's also going to be optional 3G/4G, and Engadget reports that AT&T's LTE network will be the ThinkPad 2's home in the United States. Of course, there's also the obligatory dock, which adds a little more functionality and can be purchased along with tablet. In the ThinkPad 2's case, the dock will bring HDMI-out, an Ethernet port, and three USB ports. In addition to this dock, there's also a keyboard peripheral. 

Unfortunately, Lenovo didn't mention pricing for the tablet, the dock, or the keyboard, but we do know it's going to launch in October alongside Microsoft's won Surface tablets. Though Microsoft hasn't released an official spec list for the Surface, we do know it will come in both Intel and ARM flavors with the former packing an Intel Core i5 CPU.

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23 Comments Comment from the forums
  • daglesj
    If it costs over $500....

    Will be a lot of nice $2-300 tablets this xmas that wont have Windows 8 on them to compete against.
    Reply
  • chumly
    Why are they still using Atom processors? This thing is going to be garbage next to an iPad (not an Apple fan).
    Reply
  • daglesj
    2GHz+ Atoms with dual core and HT are fine for what this thing will do.

    You going to do HD video transcoding on it then?
    Reply
  • sync_nine
    chumlyWhy are they still using Atom processors? This thing is going to be garbage next to an iPad (not an Apple fan).But then again it's not about hardware but about optimization of software.
    Doesn't it make you wonder why windows phone 7 is single core and still outperforms most dual core (or better) android based phones?
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    daglesj2GHz+ Atoms with dual core and HT are fine for what this thing will do.You going to do HD video transcoding on it then?No they will not. Don't be me wrong. I love my little 1st generation Atom netbook. But there are VERY real problems with the architecture that would make the experience on Windows 8 unbearable... Unless they are using an Atom that will do out of order instruction processing they should have gone with Brazos as the TDP is fairly close and you would have had a better processor and graphics...


    Optimization only goes so far. Part of the Windows Phone experience is because of the nature of the ARM architecture being ideal for that type of use.
    Reply
  • daglesj
    jacobdrjNo they will not. Don't be me wrong. I love my little 1st generation Atom netbook.
    You are referring to the old first gen which were 1.6Ghz single core. Yes painful.

    I've been installing 7 and 8 on the current dual core 2.1GHz Atoms and it works perfectly.

    Things have moved on since 2008.
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    daglesjYou are referring to the old first gen which were 1.6Ghz single core. Yes painful.I've been installing 7 and 8 on the current dual core 2.1GHz Atoms and it works perfectly.Things have moved on since 2008.My brother has a 2nd gen 2 core 4 thread Atom and I also have a 1.8 Ghz 2nd Gen desktop Atom for my WHS2011 box. They are fine for what they do, but a tablet interface requires absolutely fluid UI to be accepted. AFAIK the out of order issue has not yet been addressed in the current Atom generation.
    Reply
  • daglesj
    So some form of GPU is in order?

    I guess we'll see.

    Cost will be the biggest issue I fear.
    Reply
  • kawininjazx
    I had an Atom in a netbook, even with an SSD and 2GB of memory, video playback was horrible.
    Reply
  • tntom
    daglesj2GHz+ Atoms with dual core and HT are fine for what this thing will do.You going to do HD video transcoding on it then?
    I understand where you are coming from. But the point of Win8 x86 is not to be equal to an iPad. And once we start seeing some great productivity apps taking advantage of Win8 this will seem very outdated fast.

    In my mind nothing with Atom should be priced over $400 especially when it is minus: Keyboard, Mouse, Optical Drive, and highres display.
    Reply