Lenovo IdeaPad K1 Review

Lenovo IdeaPad K1

Review Summary:

Lenovo IdeaPad K1 distinguishes itself with a decent build quality, excellent battery performance, and Netflix support. It's a good tablet. But some design issues and a mediocre screen prevent it from being a great iPad alternative.

Pros

• Has Netflix
• Solid build quality
• Great battery performance
• Nice Honeycomb tweaks

Cons

• No USB input
• Mediocre display and speakers
• Too much bloatware

Lenovo IdeaPad K1 Full Review

 

How does one market a Honeycomb tablet effectively when there are half a dozen others just like it already on the market? According to Lenovo reps, that was the challenge Lenovo engineers recognized when developing the IdeaPad K1. So, in an attempt to distinguish the K1 from the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola Xoom, and other Honeycomb tablets, Lenovo added a custom skin, a boatload of apps, and perhaps most notably, Netflix support.

But is that enough? Other Honeycomb tablets have user interface tweaks, and Netflix has been available on the iPad for more than a year. In addition, Honeycomb tablet sales have been lackluster, especially in the face of the market dominating iPad 2. It seems Lenovo has to endeavor to not only differentiate its tablet, but also convince buyers the K1 is an excellent buy. Let’s find out if the company succeeded.

BUILD & DESIGN

The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 is a 10.1-inch tablet that, when viewed from head-on, looks exactly like its 10.1-inch cousins. The only distinguishing feature on the display is an oblong button on the right side that functions as a home button when tapped and takes screenshots when pressed for a few seconds.

The IdeaPad has a sturdy aluminum border that extends to the back, and houses two stereo speakers in a thicker portion on the bottom. The rest of the back is sheer plastic and it contains a five-megapixel rear-facing camera along with a photo flash. The plastic has a bit of bounce to it, but it is securely in place and not removable like the Toshiba Thrive’s back panel. The K1 is available in three colors: white, black, and red.

Only two of the K1’s four sides house ports and buttons. There is a proprietary charging connector on the bottom, next to a 3.5mm audio jack and microHDMI port. The on-board mic, power button, volume rocker, orientation lock switch and a microSD card slot are on the left side.

There is no USB port, so you can’t take advantage of Honeycomb 3.1’s USB hosting feature without an adapter. Also, the microSD slot cover is secure, and can only be opened by pressing the pinhole next to it, and that requires a thumbtack or other fine point. It’s annoying and unnecessary.

Overall, the K1 has a good build quality, buttressed by the aluminum border and back panel portion, which also makes it a bit more grip-friendly than the sheer plastic tablets and all-aluminum iPad 2.

Lenovo IdeaPad K1 specs:

• Android Honeycomb (3.1)
• 10.1-inch diagonal widescreen, 1280 x 800 resolution with 10-point multitouch
• NVIDIA Dual Core Tegra 2, 1GHz
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB, 32GB or 64GB internal storage
• Front-facing 2-megapixel, rear-facing 5-megapixel webcams
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Micro HDMI, microSD, 3.5mm audio input, proprietary charging connector
• 10.4 x 7.4 x .5-inches
• 1.7 lbs
• Ships with AC adapter, docking connector to USB male cable, pin pointer for microSD card release
• Price at Launch: $499.99 (32GB)

Display and Speakers
The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 display suffers from the same quality issues as theToshiba Thrive, Motorola Xoom, and virtually all other Honeycomb tablets before it, sans the Galaxy Tab 10.1. (Samsung’s Honeycomb slate has the best overall display, for my money anyway.) Compared with the iPad 2, which has fewer pixels per inch (132 to 150), the IdeaPad’s display is not nearly as bright or nearly as crisp. As with other Honeycomb tablets, the picture has a blue/green tint that is not nearly as pleasant as the iPad’s magenta hue. Viewing angles are acceptable and match the Thrive’s output, but given that the IdeaPad supports Netflix, I was hoping for a display that at least matches the iPad 2 for watching movies.

Unfortunately, it’s much the same with the speakers. In addition to being poorly placed on the back of the device, where they direct sound away from the user (which, to be fair, is not a problem unique to this particular tablet), the output is subpar. Bass is non-existent and the volume maxes out at a very low level. Headphones go a long way to curing the issues, but even with ear buds, the sound is a bit tinny and does not sound nearly as full as it should.

PERFORMANCE

The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 sports the same NVIDIA dual-core Tegra 2 processor as every other Honeycomb tablet we’ve tested to date. It also ships with Honeycomb 3.1, and the tablet is reasonably responsive with snappy performance and smooth transitions. Crashes were infrequent, but I've had the custom Lenovo widgets fail on me a handful of times, and some of the more demanding Android apps unexpectedly quit or refused to start up. Lenovo applied some relatively heavy tweaks to Honeycomb – heavier than other manufacturers have done to date – and I suspect there are still bugs that future updates will suss out.  

The browser was extremely stable in my testing, and Flash support, superb. Videos loaded quickly and completely, and I was able to swiftly hop from one point to another in the clips without much delay.

The Lenovo Honeycomb tablet took 25 seconds to power up from a cold stop, which is a bit faster than some other tablets. Both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Thrive took approximately 30 seconds. The IdeaPad also had an impressive battery life, lasting 5 hours and 54 minutes while constantly streaming video with the screen brightness maxed out and Wi-Fi on. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 lasted only 4 hours and 39 minutes with the same test. However, the Tab 10.1 has a much brighter screen than the IdeaPad. The Toshiba Thrive, which has a screen comparable to the IdeaPad, lasted 4 hours and 25 minutes.

Looking at our benchmarks, the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 tablet’s performance matches other tablets in its class. Having used every one of these devices, I can safely say the differences between the best and the worst tablets in this chart are very difficult to discern in real world use.

Quadrant measures CPU, 3D, and memory performance. Higher numbers are better.

Sunspider is a Javascript benchmark for measuring browser performance. Lower numbers are better.

Apps
The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 is the first Honeycomb tablet to support Netflix, and the app comes pre-loaded on the device. Netflix support is arguably the most important differentiator between this and other Honeycomb tablets, but it’s hard to get too worked up about it. After all, Netflix has been available for the Apple iPad for more than a year.

Still, a major drawback to all Honeycomb tablets to date has been the lack of movie streaming and entertainment options, and Netflix goes a long way to balancing the scales between Honeycomb on the IdeaPad and iOS. Also pre-loaded is an mSpot movie rental app, and Google movie rentals are available through the browser, though I suspect a dedicated Google Movie app will arrive sooner rather than later. Also, the IdeaPad has an HDMI output (cable not included), meaning users can stream Netflix from the tablet to a large HDTV. That function is only available on the iPad through a $39 accessory cable.

The IdeaPad also launches with thirty or so additional apps. Some qualify as bloatware in my estimation, including PrinterShare and Norton Security, but there are some goodies like Angry Birds HD and Documents to Go. There is also Lenovo Social Touch app and widget, a one-stop hub for all email, Facebook, calendar, and Twitter content and contacts. The single widget provides a nice alternative to the potential clutter of multiple widgets, and there are settings to filter messages for work, home, and oddly enough, “commute.” But it’s buggy at launch and needs a little work before it becomes my own personal social hub.

Of course, additional apps are available through both the Android Market and a Lenovo App shop. Lenovo claims its app shop has only apps designed for the large tablet screen, and none of the poorly-sized smartphone apps found in the Android Market. 

Operating System
Lenovo applied a few tweaks to Android Honeycomb, perhaps more than any other manufacturer to date. Overall, the additions smooth out the experience, and one in particular addresses a frequent complaint I’ve had with Google’s tablet operating system.

Manual app management in Android is a hassle. There is no easy way to close out background apps as that function is buried in a Settings sub menu. In all fairness, Android is very good at managing apps and memory on its own, but I like having as much control over my device as possible, which Android otherwise provides – it's why I prefer Android to iOS.

Lenovo solves this by allowing users to close out apps through the Recent Apps list in the System bar on the homescreen. It’s a simple and effective tweak and I can’t see why Google didn’t include it as a native feature. 

Other Honeycomb additions include a favorite apps wheel accessible through the System bar that can be called up from anywhere, either in an app or out of one; and a quick-start quadrant on the homescreen called the Lenovo Launch Zone with shortcuts for the web, email, music, movies, pictures, eBooks, and device settings. The quadrant is customizable for apps, colors, and transparency. Both are decent additions, but the Launch Zone seems a bit redundant given that users can simply group the same shortcuts together on the homescreen manually.

CONCLUSION

There is one reason to choose the IdeaPad over the other Honeycomb tablets on the market, and that’s Netflix. There are cheaper Honeycomb tablets with similar specs (ASUS Eee Pad Transformer), Honeycomb tablets with better hardware (Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1), and Honeycomb tablets with more inputs (Toshiba Thrive), but none can stream Netflix as of August 2011.

The 32GB IdeaPad base model costs $499 at launch, which is the same as the 16GB iPad. The iPad has a better display and speakers, and it’s thinner than the IdeaPad; iOS also still retains a huge app advantage over Honeycomb. Ultimately, however, any choice between the iPad and IdeaPad boils down to user preference between iOS and Honeycomb. Lenovo’s Honeycomb tweaks improve the operating system slightly, but won’t change the minds of Apple diehards.

While I like the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 design and build quality, the missing USB input is a glaring oversight. I think some form of USB should be standard issue on all Honeycomb tablets considering the operating system’s USB hosting feature. And while it’s not that big a deal, the covered microSD slot is just an irksome design flaw. I shouldn’t need a thumbtack to access it.

Overall, the IdeaPad K1 is a good Honeycomb tablet in a crowded market. It offers more or less the same experience as the Xoom, Thrive, Iconia Tab, G-Slate, and a handful of others, but with the important addition of Netflix. Give it a look if you want an iPad alternative.

Pros Has Netflix Solid build quality Great battery performance Nice Honeycomb tweaks

Cons No USB input Mediocre display and speakers Too much bloatware