Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 tablet bigger, brawnier than S2109
The Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet steps it up from its predecessor, which means it may also cost more.
Lenovo left a lot of room to improve its IdeaTab S2109, and so far the tablet's successor, announced today at IFA 2012, is a step up.
In a nutshell, the 10.1-inch Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 Android tablet promises a larger screen, a better processor, and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera. That camera comes with autofocus and LED flash; fingers crossed it captures crisp, detailed images.
It also gets a bump up from Bluetooth 3.0 to Bluetooth 4.0, which means it'll be able to pair up with compatible devices with a tap. Though larger than its predecessor, the IdeaTab S2110 weighs the same: 1.3 pounds.
The tablet's screen jumps from the 1,024x768-pixel resolution of the previous model -- a 3:4 ratio -- to a 1,280x800-pixel resolution this time around, a 16:10 ratio. Lenovo promises 420 bits of brightness on its IPS display, 178 degrees of visibility, and support for 10-finger touch.
Inside the shell rests a 1.5GHz Qualcomm 8060A dual-core processor, replacing the S2109's 1GHz dual-core OMAP 4430 processor.
For ports, we see a Micro-USB port (type AB,) a Micro-HDMI post (type D,) a SIM card slot, and a 3.5mm audio jack. There's also 1GB of LP-DDR2 memory, and two levels of internal storage: 16GB or 32GB. The 1.3-megapixel camera, a carryover from the S2109, shoots video in 720-pixel HD. If it's the same module as the S2109, we're looking at basic Webcam-quality stuff.
One area of disappointment is that Lenovo is launching the slate with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Though it's understandable that the S2110 could have been in the pipeline too long for Lenovo to upgrade the tablet to Android 4.1 JellyBean, it's still disappointing to see the product already behind at launch.
In addition to the IdeaTab S2110, Lenovo is peddling a keyboard dock that it claims will double the tablet's battery life, giving it 20 hours of juice in one go. The dock will also sport two USB ports and a three-way SD card reader in addition to its full keyboard.
Lenovo hasn't released pricing details yet, but we're probably not going to see the $350 price tag we got with the previous version. Frankly, if the tablet doesn't outperform others in its price class, it's value is questionable anyway. We'll see if Lenovo has learned that hard lesson.