Remember that U1 tablet/netbook hybrid that was seemingly put on hold by Lenovo? Well at this year’s CES, Lenovo had finally unveiled the long awaited device(s).
For starters, Lenovo plans to sell the half-inch thick standalone tablet –the LePad Tablet – for $520. In a variety of different colors such as scarlet, white, and brown and black textured leather, the LePad tablet runs a Android 2.2 based OS. This LeOS is simply a Lenovo spin-off of Android Froyo. A 1.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor does all the processing in tablet mode, backed by 1GB RAM and a maximum of 32GB flash storage. Also, the display resolution for its screen is set at a wide 1280 x 800 pixels.
The U1 dock itself will ship with a 1.2GHz Intel CULV i5-540UM, which I assume comes with some Turbo Boost capabilities. The storage found on the U1 will be 10-fold greater than the amount that can come with the tablet alone – or in simpler terms, 320 GB. 2GB of RAM comes standard, which seems a bit cheap on the part of Lenovo when you find out that you will have to pay $780 for the shell alone. Oh, did I mention that the shell comes with one USB port and one HDMI-out port?
The LePad Tablet (left), U1 Hybrid Shell (right)
There is one (potentially) nice feature that comes with once you connect the tablet and shell together. Lenovo promises that the U1’s Hybrid Switch technology will allow users to have a “continuous web experience”. But in all honesty, “continuous web experience” could mean everything, or it could mean noting – we don’t know yet. Still, keep your fingers crossed for some feature that might make the U1 shell absolutely worth the $780.
And yes, the devices together amount to grand total of about $1300 – assuming the prices are accurate. However, these devices will first be available to the Chinese market in the next months, so this is the price there. No info on US/European pricing for now or on a landing estimate, but rumors say it won’t happen before Android 3.0 HoneyComb will finally hit the market. So it might take a while…
In the end, I could conclude that the LePad tablet itself does seem like decent tablet worth considering, but whether or not the U1 shell will sell remains questionable. Also see the hands-on video below , from Joanna at Engadget.
Sources: gizmodo.com, gottabemobile.com
