Best 2012 Lenovo K1 Ideapad 130422U 10.1-Inch Tablet (Black)

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.5 x 10.4 inches ; 1.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0051OKCHG
• Item model number: 130422U
  

By : Lenovo
Price : $359.99

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Introducing the IdeaPad^® Tablet K1 — view the web as you’ve never seen it before.The 10.1" IdeaPad^® Tablet K1 is an attractive Android 3.1 mobile entertainment device that's uniquely optimized for enjoying music, movies, apps and the web on the go, for users that want to enjoy great multimedia without limitations.

• An entertainment tablet that runs Android 3.1
• Optimized for the web with Flash, full DRM and instant data syncing

Lenovo IdeaPad K1
PRODUCT FEATURES AND ATTRIBUTES

• A mobile entertainment device with a 10.1” multi-touch display
• Ultraportable; just .52" thin ; weighing only 1.65lbs, with aluminum rear-casing
• Optimized for the web; full support for Flash content, complete Digital Rights Management (DRM) so you can legally download ; store movies, plus instant syncing of your photos, music and videos with a dedicated online storage space
• Lenovo App Shop and the Android Market ensure ready access to thousands of useful apps

KEY SPECS

• NVIDIA^® Tegra™ 2 T20 1.0GHz Processor
• Google Android 3.1 operating system
• 10.1” HD (1280x800) display
• 1GB DDR2 memory, 32GB SSD storage
• Integrated Bluetooth^® and 802.1 b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity
• Micro SD card reader, Mini HDMI connector ; docking port
• Integrated front (2M) ; back (5M) mounted webcam

INSPIRE CREATIVITY

• Slim and eye-catching design with a black textured cover.

GO THE DISTANCE

• Ultraportable; just .52" thin and weighing only 1.65lbs
• Integrated Bluetooth^® and Wi-Fi connectivity for internet on the move

CAPTIVATE AND ENTERTAIN

• Integrated front (2M) ; back (5M) mounted webcam
• Full support for the latest Flash content
• 10-point multi-touch for an unmatched touch — screen experience
• Instantly syncs photos, music and videos with a dedicated online storage space for easy sharing across multiple devices, or with the wider world through integration with popular social networking sites
• Digital Rights Management (DRM) allows you to legally download ; store movies on your tablet in every available format and watch them later — anywhere, anytime
• SocialTouch^® allows you to manage all your social networking engagements on sites like Facebook^® and Twitter^® on a single, easy-to-use interface
• A range of addictive games like Angry Birds and Galaxy on Fire 2 THD
• Lenovo App Shop and the Android Market ensure ready access to thousands of useful apps

DO MORE OUT OF THE BOX
Start your tablet experience right when you open the box. More than 30 popular apps — including ones that you would typically have to pay for like Documents To Go^® — are already preloaded onto your device. Also take advantage of everything Android has to offer with the Android Market and the Lenovo App Shop, which contains apps tested specifically for Lenovo tablets.
DO MORE ENTERTAINMENTOne of the first Android tablets with full support of Flash so you can enjoy your favorite online videos and websites or buy and rent your movies and TV shows with Digital Rights Management (DRM). With a true 10.1" (1280x800) HD display you can enjoy your HD movies and videos to their fullest. And with the HDMI connection, you can view them on your other HD displays in full 1080p.
DO MORE SOCIAL NETWORKINGConnect to your entire social networking empire with Lenovo's breakthrough and exclusive SocialTouch app. Video chat with your circle from anywhere in the world with the front and back mounted webcams.
DO MORE CLOUD SHARINGIntegrated cloud storage (2GB free) is designed to make it easy to share your photos, videos and files with friends and family whenever you like.

Technical Details

• Google Android 3.1 operating system, NVIDIA® Tegra? 2 T20 1.0GHz Processor
• 1GB DDR2 memory, 32GB SSD storage
• 10.1? HD (1280x800) display
• 802.1 b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity, Integrated front (2M) ; back (5M) mounted webcam

 

Lenovo K1 Ideapad 130422U 10.1-Inch Tablet (Black)

 

Customer Reviews

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.

I wanted a tablet to read professional journals and preprints (like those on [...]) and to keep me entertained on flights. For the most part, the Ideapad K1 fits the bill.
Right out of the box, most apps will work, including the documents reader. If you received one of the earlier shipped models, however, the promised Netflix app is missing, and many market apps will be unstable (I tried Google Sky). You need to perform an update which will provide Netflix and stability fixes (Google Sky works very well now).
The included documents reader is a definite bonus for this tablet. For example, I'm able to read Office (Word, Excel, etc.) attachments on e-mail. I can download PDFs and read them comfortably. The PDF rendering speed is pretty zippy, fast enough that I'm not distracted by it while reading. For small-font, double-column text that's popular in many professional journals, it's easy to find a screen orientation and zoom level for comfortable reading. Panning around a zoomed-in PDF page is intuitive and smooth.
The reception of the built-in wifi receiver is not as good as my laptop or IPhone. Typically, the signal strength on my Ideapad is 1 bar below my other devices. The signal strength icon is not just cosmetic; when the signal strength appears as 1 bar or below, web page loading and app downloads slow down considerably.
I've also noticed that the wifi receiver can perform better or worse depending on the network. So far I've been connecting consistently with Wireless-G (802.11g). My Ideapad has played well with home and hotel networks, but it's been hit-or-miss with airport networks. At one airport, my laptop performed fine with fast webpage loads, but the Ideapad struggled. At another airport, there was no discernible difference in performance between Ideapad and laptop.
One attractive feature of the Ideapad is that it has hardware DRM capability, which means that (in principle) you can download rented movies to watch offline, say, on an airplane. However, I have yet to find an app that will actually allow you to cache movies for offline viewing. The included mSpot movies app appears to support only streaming, as does Netflix and movies on the Android Market (which you have to watch via YouTube). I'm hoping that offline movie capabilities will appear soon.
It's worth mentioning that the tablet has a built-in GPS and compass, so that augmented reality and navigation apps will work. The GPS capability is strangely missing from the product description on many sites.
As is common for Android tablets, the Google mail and calendar integration is easy to set up.
Overall, I'm very happy with the Ideapad, but then my expectations were minimal. I needed a good documents reader that could entertain me while traveling, and it's almost there. The only feature I'm missing is the ability to cache rented films for offline viewing.