There is no self-respecting PC manufacturer out there today that doesn’t boast at least one tablet among its inventory, or in the very least hasn’t announced plans to release one. Lenovo has just released the Android-running ThinkPad Tablet to complement it’s ThinkPad range of business-centric laptops. The product design of the tablet maintains the same look of the laptops although it isn’t as thin and light as, say, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad 2. Uniquely the tab comes with a stylus pen ready to jot down notes, make annotations, or simply to sketch out ideas. In terms of user interface design the ThinkPad Tablet adds a couple UI design flourishes of its own onto that of Android Honeycomb. The most obvious is the user interface design of the homescreen, which features a Launcher widget in the middle with shortcuts to ‘Watch’, ‘Email’, ‘Listen’, ‘Read’, and a globe at the core which links to the web browser. This gives users, new ones particularly, quick access to arguably the most used functions on a tablet apart from video games.
What are some other user interface design flourishes of the Thinkpad Tablet?
Another user interface design novelty with regards to Android is the App Wheel. This can be activated by clicking on the icon at the center of the bar at the bottom of the homescreen’s user interface design. Doing this brings about a carousel-like wheel of a user’s favorite apps to the right of the user interface design. Other than that the user interface design is largely unchanged from Honeycomb, unlike the completely new user interface designs of the Amazon Kindle Fire or the GridOS. Arguably the most appealing part of the Thinkpad Tablet is that it comes pre-loaded with all manner of apps that makes this tablet a better all-rounder out-of-the-box than even the iPad. However there are a number of usability issues, such as poor AVI video playback, which hold it back from being an all out hit. Business users will be more than satisfied with the built-in apps, stylus and the extra ports.
