Best Out There with these specs
By Kodak McClain Nov 13, 2011 | 1 out of 1 found this Lenovo IdeaPad A1 7" 2 GB Wi-Fi Black Tablet review helpful
Pros: GPS, bluetooth, sound, quality, size, price
Cons: battery, lag, edge sensing
After what seemed like forever waiting for a 7" tablet that was designed to be a tablet, with a capacitive screen, GPS, bluetooth, a camera (this has two) and all of the standards (not requiring cell service) for an affordable price (and not being a ...China wanna be), I thought I finally hit gold with the A1. I actually pre-ordered this directly from Lenovo prior to common availability. Well, to sum it up briefly, it's tons better than any China Wanna Be of any size, but only ties with a converted B&N Nook.The processor lags compared to Nook. If surfing the Market or the web, you're really never quite sure if you hit the back button because of the lag. Kinda annoying when you discover you’ve lost you're search or closed out of a program because of this.Although the resolution is the same as the Nook, the quality and light sensing of the Nook is by far superior.The touch sensing is equal to the Nook. At times it is very sensitive - unless it's edge sensing. Like the Nook, it sometimes gets a bit persnickety.The cameras aren't to compare to today's phone standards, but this isn't a phone and wasn't designed as such. They do the job exactly as I would expect them to.The GPS rocks. Plain and simple. No data/ Wi-Fi required as long as you use a locally installed Nav program. Lenovo includes a limited (one state) nav program just for this. If you hotspot your phone for a data connection, you can use Google's Navigation which is also included.Bloatware? I wish all devices came like this. A few of them can actually be removed without root. It only came with the standard Google apps (including Market), Lenovo’s Market (awful), the Nav app, Kindle, a help program, eBuddy (one stop social networking), Documents To Go, iheartradio, and mSpot Movies. That's it! Koodos to Lenovo for this.Battery life? Nook takes this, too. Constant use is about 5 hours and charging takes forever - even when directly plugged onto an outlet verses a PC charge.Speakers? A1 takes the trophy. By far. Really good and loud sound - which is great for audiobooks!Design. The Lenovo wins. It feels a lot more sturdy than the Nook. And the back doesn’t pop off like the Nook’s does. The microSD slot is a lot easier to access. The volume buttons react better because of a slight bump in the buttons that make them easier to push.As a side note, the A1’s hard buttons (menu, home, back) only light up if you touch them. Considering the black frame, and incredible unlikelihood that the user is psychic, I feel that was a pretty poor choice of design. At least it has them, though.So in summary, if you're looking for tablet to read, check the news, watch videos in a hotel room, listen to stuff, or took look cool in office meetings as you record them, then the A1 is perfect for the price. If you don't need the stable bluetooth, GPS, decent speakers, and a microphone, save the $50 and go with the rooted/hacked Nook Color.FAQs: No there is no standard size USB port - just the micro. No there is no HDMI port. No it will not be upgraded to Honeycomb. This is a single processor device that can not support it correctly. Being a former user of Honeycomb, I haven't missed it. You will NEED to replace the standard Launcher with another like Launcher Pro, ADW Launcher, or Go Launcher EX. The included Launcher is EXTREMELY slow. The review was written on my Lenovo A1 tablet. Read more Less
