Lenovo is having a hard time keeping its secrets under wrap. Details from the company have leaked regarding its newest tablet-in-the-works, not the consumer-friendly Le Tab but an enterprise-geared ThinkPad Tablet, or Think Slate.
The details come from a Lenovo slide presentation outted by ThisIsMyNext, which uses the terms ThinkPad Tablet and Think Slate interchangeably.
In addition, details about Lenovo’s super-thin ThinkPad X1 laptop also are hitting the Internet.
The ThinkPad Tablet, if the PowerPoint holds, will run Android 3.0, or “Honeycomb,” be powered by a Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and offer the option of a stylus-not unlike the HTC Flyer tablet, as ThisIsMyNext reports that N-Trig makes the touch screens for both tablets. It’ll come in 16-, 32- and 64GB options and feature a 10.1-inch, 1280 by 800 IPS capacitive display-with pen input. It will measure 0.55-inches thin (the iPad 2, for context, measures 0.34 inches) and weigh 715 grams. (A Lenovo slide stacking the ThinkPad Tablet against its competition puts the iPad at 680 grams, though the iPad 2, according to Apple, weighs just 601.)
Also on board will be USB 2.0 and Micro USB slots, a mini-HDMI port, a full-size SD card slot and WiFi connectivity.
“Throw in the 3G and 4G connectivity options that are mentioned and we’re pretty much sold on this thing being the mother of Honeycomb tablets,” ThisIsMyNext editor Joanna Stern wrote.
Over Honeycomb, Lenovo has fashioned a user interface it’s calling the Lenovo Family UI, which Stern said looks a lot like the Skylight interface Lenovo created for the LePad.
Given the ThinkPad tablet’s intended market, it’ll support Cisco System enterprise software, security solutions from Symantec, McAfee and Computrace, device data encryption, SD card encryption, and the ability to manage policies remotely and wipe or disable the tablet should it go missing, along with a host of other features sure to please most CIOs.
Finally, addressing the tablet-versus-laptop deployment question, there’s also the option of a “booklet” dock, a sort of screen-less laptop form factor that the tablet slides into, becoming both the screen and the brains for a laptop user experience.
While no carrier partner is named in the materials, the tablet slated to begin shipping to the United States in July priced at $499.For those who want to lighten their load but aren
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t ready to trade a laptop for a tablet, Lenovo reportedly also has an answer to the MacBook Air in the works. Tech site AnandTech picked up a listing by a Swiss distributor, confirming Lenovo
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s channel distributors
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plans for a 21.5mm-thin ultraportable called the ThinkPad X1. It
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s set to run Intel
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s 2.5GHz Core i5-2520M CPU, the same
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Sandy Bridge
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technology that
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s in Lenovo
’
s 34.6mm-thick X220.
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Let me say that again,
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writes AnandTech
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s Jason Inofuentes in an April 25 blog post.
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Lenovo managed to grow the screen and pack the same processor into a device one-third less thick.
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Images on the site show the notebook opened completely flat. While Lenovo may have been unable to whittle the X1
’
s thickness down to the MacBook Air
’
s 17.3 mm, there
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s no denying that this super-svelte notebook will barely make itself known in a carry-on bag.Additional leaked specs include a 13.3-inch, 1366 by 768 Gorilla Glass display, a 160GB SSD card slot, 8GB of RAM, an SDXC (secure digital extended capacity) card reader and, perhaps best of all, some super-duper new battery technology.According to a slide picked up by AnandTech, Lenovo
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s new battery is designed to last three times as long as a typical notebook battery, has built-in diagnostic tools to determine battery health and, with RapidCharge technology
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will charge 2.5x faster than previous ThinkPad batteries, charging 80 percent in 30 minutes.
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Another slide showing battery warranty offerings includes the X1, the E220 and E420, but also something called the X Slate. The site guesses that this is
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presumably Lenovo
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s upcoming Honeycomb based tablet offering
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-which makes the ThinkPad Tablet moniker sound a lot more like a place holder.