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IFA 2011. Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell and a Drawing Board

Lenovo

During the exhibition Lenovo demonstrated three tablets, one of which Lenovo IdeaPad K1 is already available in stores, the second solution Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet has been announced, but cannot be bought as of now and the third offering A1 is a new model in its own right.

Lenovo IdeaPad A1

This is an entry level tablet from Lenovo and to my mind it is the most lackluster and uninspiring tablet of the manufacturer.

Body materials: glossy plastic
OS: Android 2.3
Platform: 1 GHz
RAM: NA
Memory for data storage: 16 GB
Interfaces: Wi-Fi (b/g/n/), Bluetooth 2.1 (A2DP), microUSB (USB 2.0) jack for charging/synchronization, a 3.5 mm jack for headsets
Screen: 7"capacitive TFT with the resolution of 1024x600
Camera: 3 MP and a frontal 0.3 MP
Navigation: GPS chip

Doesn't it resemble anything? In terms of characteristics this model is close to the original Samsung Galaxy Tab launched last year. Lenovo is not planning to sell this tablet for premium prices. A1 is a budget solution for $200. This offering will hit the shelves in September. The only question is why Lenovo wants to introduce this outdated 7" tablet?

The question is even more urgent, because Lenovo boasts two more attractive solutions in other categories – multimedia IdeaPad K1 and ThinkPad Tablet for business users. Here you get accessories for external devices and the dock station.

Lenovo IdeaPad U300s

Apart from the new tablet Lenovo showed several laptops with the main interest generated by Apple Macbook Air, sorry, U300s. It is very thin and resembles the market leader in this category developed by Apple.

To my mind the laptop looks fine with austere shape and nicely matched colors. It is really thin (14.9 mm). Once again (similarly to new Acer products) I have to mention that we see some steps forward design wise. On the other hand Lenovo should keep to its roots and follow the style of ThinkPad inherited from IBM.

The laptop comes equipped with latest generation Intel Core processors (i3, i5 and i7), features 4 GB of RAM and SSD storage. The screen has the resolution of 1366x768 and the weight must be around 1200-1300 g.

In the US the model will cost $1196.

Toshiba

Employees of Toshiba must be very cautious, or before they lost all samples at exhibitions, because now security measures are so strict that it even looks funny. I have not seen such an awful pavilion of a leading manufacturer for a long time. All Toshiba products at IFA 2011 are locked and placed in brackets. Such serious measures are not only for tablets as you can still keep them in hands and take pictures, but the new ultra thin Toshiba laptop was also in brackets, so we could not open it. May be you had to be lucky and come across an employee responsible for breaking the chains. It was not my day and I saw this laptop only in the glass box.

Later on I went to MediaMart in the centre of Berlin and studied all Toshiba tablets. They did not generate too much interest in the store, at least no one used chains to protect them from theft.

This laptop looks like Air and its characteristics are similar to those of Acer and Lenovo. The brand is different, the build and materials must also be different, but we cannot discuss much before the test of the actual sample.

AT200 tablet shown at the exhibition and available in stores attracted my attention with its back cover made of hard and rubberized plastic. Different colors are offered as well. This 10" tablet is surely not a clone of iPad. Features are standard: 10.1" screen, Android 3.1 and nVidia Tegra2 platform.

By the way Toshiba hurried so much that at the event were no brochures about new products and it was so dark inside. Below look at pictures of the tablet and ultra thin laptop.

Dell

Dell had a huge pavilion competing in size with that of Acer. Moreover, Dell managed to fill in the gaps with furniture – tables and chairs turned the pavilion into working areas to try new models. It was a truly great idea.

At the same time there was not much to look at. Unlike rival companies Dell brought no mobile devices. The only exception was Dell Insprion Duo, which I have not seen before, but this model is not new anyway.

Boogie Board

I was walking around pavilions and bumped into a drawing board. I started drawing and came up with the human figure.

Then I pressed the button and the figure was erased. An employee came over and said that the board can be installed in different locations. You can put it inside a folder or a desk.

He also mentioned that drawing can be made not only with the special pen, but with nails. I tried and it worked!

Then he showed a more upscale solution. It can be connected to the PC and all drawings end up in the computer. I think it is a useful gadget indeed.

The junior model will cost less than $50, while the top of the range solution will set you off for more than $100. I like this drawing board!

Then I saw a beautiful case for the «phone»*!

*we mean Apple iPhone 4 here, because other models are of no importance nowadays due to the deadly influence of Apple fans

And one more piece of beauty!

I also found weird cases where you can draw with felt pens.

There was a beautiful picture with the elephant and the girl said it was graphic sample on Apple Macbook Air 11. I did not understand anything, but the elephant was nice.