Lenovo IdeaPad K1 - A Consumer's Tablet

Overview and Design

A Tablet For the Consumer

One half of Lenovo's dual-pronged approach to the tablet market, the IdeaPad K1 is meant for the consumer who wants quick access and instant social gratification. As Lenovo's second consumer market offering after the LePad that enjoyed a China-only release, the K1 is the one half of the new tablet range, apart from the enterprise-centric ThinkPad Tablet. Despite not being one of the earlier releases, the K1 makes up for the delay with not only a custom interface but also a software package that makes the OS easier to use.

Being one of the later Android tablet releases, Lenovo skipped past the initial Android tablet operating systems such as Froyo (2.2) or the first-generation Honeycomb tablets. Using Android version 3.1 on the K1 allows the device to skirt past previous issues, resulting in a more refined user interface, USB connectivity, as well as resizable widgets and less wireless LAN issues. It also comes with a two-cell battery that promises much longer battery life as compared to the first-generation tablets.

Design Aspects

Built with a 10.1-inch LCD screen that is surrounded by a particularly thick black bezel, the IdeaPad K1 offers users a pretty chunky profile to grip, despite being only 13.3mm at its thickest point. Weighing in at a pretty hefty 750g, the IdeaPad is one of the larger, if not the largest tablet that's available on the market today. Comparing it to other tablets that are of a similar screen size, the IdeaPad K1 is the heaviest amongst its contemporaries, even the Motorola Xoom by 20g. This makes it slightly harder to hold the tablet without assistance for longer periods of time.

Being the mainstay of a tablet, the display is as equally glossy as with other tablets and fingerprints are obviously seen without an anti-smudge screen protector. However, it is vibrant and offers a large 170-degree viewing angle as well as a 1280 x 800 resolution in a 16:10 aspect ratio, allowing it to display full-sized 720p videos and movies without resizing.

However, we can't help but notice that it also has a better build quality too. Despite the rear plastic add-on to its otherwise matte aluminum body, the slight bulk and weight does impart an impression of robustness. If this is the case with the IdeaPad K1, we wouldn't mind a ThinkPad Tablet that has the same weight but with even better feel. As the only tablet which offers a two-cell battery at the point of writing, we would imagine that the IdeaPad K1's added bulk is the result of this improvement.

Connectivity features right out of the box are rife on the IdeaPad K1. Not only is there a proprietary data cum charging port that is USB-based, the tablet also offers a mini-HDMI output port and a headphone jack on the bottom of the tablet. However, we did not particularly like the fact that we had to use a paperclip to push the microSD flap out even when this is considered to be a security measure against data theft.