Hey gang, Valkor here. The folks at Lenovo have come at TOV strong and have tossed us some serious tech to play with; not complaining because thus far, everything meets or exceeds our expectations. Their latest gizmo to hit the Val-Cave is TOV's first in-house tablet - the IdeaTab S2110A. Will Lenovo score big or does their reign of awesomeness finally come to an end? Check it out!
On the outset, the S2110A offers up a sleek design with a black on the backside complete with the "Lenovo" name and silver lining on the edges. The face of the tablet is set with a 10.1" display and a 1.3MP front facing camera. At the top of the device you have your power/hold/wake up button and microphone. On the left there's a mini HDMI port, headphone jack, and SIM card slot (in case there isn't any WIFI or it's much too costly). On the right there's the volume controls, and finally at the bottom you have the mini USB port used for transferring data, docking to the keyboard (more on that later), and also for charging the device. The controls for the tablet are mainly touch-base that's set in the display. Not bad, but there were times I was reaching/wishing for a dedicated "Home" button. Internally the S2110A runs off of a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core 1.5GHz processor working with 1GB of RAM, running Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3. The 10.1" display is HD with a resolution of 1280X800 IPS LCD.
We were given the chance to take the optional keyboard for a run, which docks at the mini USB at the bottom of the tablet, giving the S2110A the look of a laptop when closed. It's a full QWERTY keyboard, with a touchpad, and left/right buttons. The keyboard also sports an SD card slot as well as two USB ports. If you're the type of person who does a lot of typing/texting/tweeting/Facebook updating, then you'll want to shell out the additional 80 bucks for this add-on.
I spent more time than I had expected with the S2110A – especially during the Hurricane Sandy outage. Overall, the tablet is filled with hits and misses; however I'll let the TOV Breakdown tell you all about it.
The Bang:
First up the S2110A is very sleek, very slim, and very lightweight; it's easy to carry around even with the additional weight of the keyboard attachment. When switched on, the on-screen display looks pretty impressive with its bright screen and sharp colors; reading comics and websites wasn't too big of an issue. And while not perfect, I also enjoyed watching a flick or two on the device; the colors are a bit washed out and noticeable, but not completely unwatchable. The optional keyboard is a great add-on and while I didn't have much of a need for it, I can see its usefulness. Not only is the keyboard cool, but the fact that you can add more memory from an SD card and a USB drives? That's a bonus right there! Finally, I didn't get much use out of the camera so I'm not gonna add or dock points off the score because of it. But it's there and from the few pics I did take with it, the rear facing obviously looked the best.
The Slack:
When I said the S2110A was hit and miss, the misses weigh pretty heavy, but don't overshadow the hits by much. Some points might seem nitpicky, but for the most part these are imperfections that hold the tablet back from being awesome. First up, while the display looks good, the animation of navigating the menus is very choppy. It could be the OS or it could be that the device needs more RAM. I'd say it definitely needs more RAM to smooth things out. That drawback alone hinders the device from competing with the big boys. Next is the power button, which is set way too flat at the top of the tablet. You will fumble just to switch the device on or to wake it up. Next I really miss having a dedicated home button; it simply makes getting out of apps, games, videos, and browsers, so much easier than having to deal with the touchscreen button. Finally, and this is coming from watching vids on the Note II… not really impressed with video playback. I know I said it was nice, but it could be a whole lot better.
Lenovo's IdeaTab S2110A is available now and while it isn't as impressive as Lenovo's previous efforts that have found their way into the cave, it's still a solid attempt at a decent tablet. If you're serious about your visuals, then you may want to look elsewhere. But if you want a simple, yet effective tablet that will not only get the job done, but also have an awesome keyboard add on? Then the S2110A is the one to get. And out of TOV 5 stars, I give the S2110A a 3.
