Initially posted this review under the white K1 Amazon listed before but this is the unit that the review covered:
Let me first say, I'm doing this review to help those people, like I was, who have been sitting on the fence waiting for a good option apart from the Ipad 2, so I apologize for the lengthy review.
I do have access to an Ipad 2 (when my daughter is not hammering away at it) & I must say that I love it, but being an android phone user, could not get comfortable with the iTunes thingy & the plain old icons interface. However, for a not so technical user, I think the Ipad is the best Tablet choice out there.
However, apart from liking what I had seen of the Android Honeycomb OS, I was also looking for an Android Tablet with connections (hdmi out, sd card slot, etc.) so that ruled out my early favorite, the Galaxy Tab 10.1. After looking & trying the rest I settled on either the Toshiba Thrive, which is fat, but really has a nice feel in your hands, & the Asus Transformer, which has a nice screen & that keyboard dock. Eventually ruled out the Thrive as I couldn't get over the washed out graphics on the screen & the power problems in sleep mode. So it was the Asus..... until I stumbled on an article on the Lenovo Ideapad K1 which grabbed my attention the very night I was going to order the Asus here on Amazon. (Sorry Amazon!)I decided to check it out at Office Depot the next day as it was rumoured they had it on display but not stocked.
Now, I usually buy all my big electronic purchases from Amazon but I couldn't let this one pass since Office Depot only had one in stock. I'm not sure how they've had these tabs on sale for a few days now since Lenovo only officially launched this product Wednesday, but I went to look at a display unit I heard they had & boy, I liked what I saw.
The Good:
Firstly, the screen. It's really nice. Just as good as the Ipad, IMO, but just below the Samsung. The screen has a sharpness to it that reminded me of the old Sony Wega TV's..... nice.
Looks! Kinda look like the Samsung Tab and I like the curved edges.
Netflix!! What more can I say, apart from it runs flawlessly here.
Apps! Apps already included on this Tablet would cost you extra dollars &, for what I need, is mostly ones I can really use, like Documents To Go, Print Share, etc. Not much of a gamer, but Angry Birds is preloaded along with some other neat looking games.
Connections. Hooked the tab to my 50" Plasma via the micro hdmi out (you will need to buy a micro hdmi cable here from Amazon) & it recognized it right away. My daughters played Angry Birds using the connection & now I'm not sure if they can go back playing it on their phones lol. I opened the micro SD slot but have not inserted a card as yet. However, trying to access this slot was something else till I finally read the manual & deduced (not exactly spelt out) that you need a small twisted paper clip to push in the hole beside the slot to push the slot cover open to reveal the drive.
Honeycomb 3.1. Not unique to the Ideapad but it runs really nice on this tablet without too many glitches. I like the Lenovo unique small menu launcher on the desktop that seems to be the only tweak to Honeycomb that Lenovo did to this OS.
Build. Definitely a solidly built unit. It's Lenovo & although it's my first from this brand, they're usually known to build solid units. But the solidity comes at a price (see Cons below)
Cons
No good accessories. Normal for a new device. The Lenovo case was awful & def not worth the $35 being asked for it. Will wait for Amazon availability of cases for this Tab.
Weight. Although it's not much heavier than most tablets in unit measurement, it feels heavier. Maybe it's the aluminum edges or the glass (IPS) screen but this is one of the heavier tablets I've felt. It's not as heavy as the Xoom but still has that same feel of the Xoom, that feel of holding a cold metal tray in your hand. This doesn't bother me as, same with the Ipad, I prefer having these tablets in a case anyway, for feel & security.
Powering On. Noticed a couple times I've had to do a restart of the Ideapad to wake it up from sleep mode. Happened at least 4 times the first day of usage but it's 3 days now & haven't been happening since. I noticed when I added a secure login pattern, it hung on the startup screen the first couple times as well but seems to be working okay now.
Headphone Jack Position. Small annoyance, but positioning it by the power connector, IMO, was not a good idea, but you can overcome this by turning the tab around so it positions the outlet to the top, but then you will have to get used to the volume up/down buttons are now on the opposite side.
In summary, I waited a longtime for a good Ipad alternative & I'm pretty confident that I've found it in the Lenovo IdeaPad. I'll update this review after a few more weeks of using the tablet, especially since I've discovered a dead pixel on startup today, but not noticeable in Honeycomb.
6 MONTH UPDATE:
After 6 months of using this tablet I felt the need to update my review. I have been a little disappointed with the performance at times with the stock browser which crashes on certain websites. Lenovo does update the firmware every month or so but I've found the last update to have been a downgrade more than an upgrade as my K1 seems to be more laggy since. Some have seen improvements as per the Lenovo forum which I find useful .
The headphones jack positioning continue to be a real irritant, especially after getting a case for this thing which also makes you notice the weight of this tab even more. But with all these constraints in mind,I have not regret the purchase as it's used everyday but I would probably take away half a star for Lenovo's inconsistent firmware upgrade & sketchy support for this tab. I still do look at my daughter's Ipad2 with slight envy & convinced that it is still the best tablet on the market due to it's stable OS & quality of apps that's available to date. But, for me, the K1 is one of the best Android tabs out there along with the Samsung Galaxy & Asus Transformer, with the latter being the best value for money once the K1 is on the market for over $400. For those wondering if a tablet is necessary in their lives, I can only say that I find myself using mine mainly for personal use but it's been loads of fun using. I would still say this is a buy at this time especially if you can grab one below $400, anything over that, I would suggest looking at the much vaunted Ipad 2.
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