Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 review: A new Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich tab
Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 is the latest Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet set to hit the market. A short review
Lenovo’s new IdeaTab S2109 tablet is to sport a position between the high-end and low-end tablets in the market. We have top-notch tablets like Apple’s iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Also we have lots of low-end (both in price and display size) tablets such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 and the new Google Nexus 7. IdeaTab S2109 can be put in the middle of these two extremes. The new Lenovo tablet comes for around $400. However, it is a decent tablet with enough features than Asus’ much-touted Transformer Pad TF300, which is priced just at $379.
Design and features
The IdeaTab S2109 comes with the dimensions of 9.7 x 7.3 x 0.35 inches. It weighs just 1.28 pounds that further adds attraction to the Android tablet from Lenovo. Compared to the Transformer Pad TF300, the IdeaTab tablet is both lighter and thinner. What is more exciting with the S2109 is its iPad-size 9.7-inch touchscreen. The device’s rounded plastic body is strong and it has a grey finish look. Along the edges, you can see Power and Volume buttons, a microUSB port, microHDMI ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD slot.
The new IdeaPad tablet guarantees high and sound. Lenovo shows off four speaker grilles on the rear corners as the unique features of the tablet. The speaker grilles tout SRS logos and the device has some SRS Trumedia audio enhancements for better music. Lenovo ensures room-filing voice from the tablet, when most others tablets only produce very low sounds.
When it comes to the screen, the Lenovo tablet mounts a 9.7-inch 1024 x 768-pixel display. Yes, compared to the iPad original and iPad 2’s 1,280 x 800 pixel displays, the S2109 does better. But, a comparison with the new iPad 2048 x 1536-pixel Retina display, the Lenovo tablet’s display is quite bad. The tablet further has a 1.3-megapixel front camera for helping you make video calls. Unlike most other tablets, the IdeaTab misses a rear-facing camera. But, it is no more a factor that may hit sales of the device, because people largely don’t use tablets to take images or videos.
For network connectivity, you only have Wi-Fi that is compatible with 802.11b/g/n networks on the 2.4GHz band. Yes, there are Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS as well on the device. The tablet is to come out in two memory versions; 8GB and 16GB, plus a microSD slot that you can use to expand its memory. The base model is priced at $399 and the 16GB premium version has a price of $449.
Firmware and processor
On release, the IdeaTab S2109 will run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Several apps and programs will run the operating system. It is not clear when the tablet will get the upcoming Jelly Bean update. Going by the performance aspects, the tablet is to tout a dual-core 1GHz Cortex A9 CPU with 1GB of RAM. Of course, the tablet lacks a quad core processor and so it is underpowered when compared with both the Transformer Prime TF300 and Google Nexus 7, which are powered by Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core chipsets. The tablet is to mount a powerful 24.8Wh battery, which will offer up to 10 hours of video playback.
Sum-up
Though somehow shabby in specs, the Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 is known for its low price factor. The rich multimedia tablet will pose some threat to Apple iPad and Asus Transformer Pad TF300 at least in some markets in the world. Customers, who look for a decent tablet for an affordable price, can go for the IdeaTab S2109. Lenovo will soon start shipping the tablet in global markets.
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