Lenovo's ThinkPad Tablet: An Android Business Slate

Lenovo has customized the Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) experience by including a few add-ons and several preloaded apps. One of the added features we particularly liked was the App Wheel which provides easy access to apps without cluttering the screen with icons and without launching the full application listing. You can customize this App Wheel to include apps of your choosing.

Lenovo also places the Lenovo Launcher front and center on the main home screen. This launcher has four panes (Watch, Email, Listen, and Read) that can be customized to your liking. In the middle of the panes, you'll notice an icon for the web browser. To customize the Lenovo Launcher, press the gear icon on the left side of the widget. The Lenovo Launcher also provides easy access to the Android settings menu on the right side of the widget. 

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Lenovo says it put a lot of effort into making the tablet ready to go as soon as it's turned on. To that end, Lenovo has included plenty of preinstalled applications with the ThinkPad tablet. Some of the preloaded apps include Documents to Go, Netflix, MyScript Notes Mobile, Nuance's flexT9 virtual keyboard, Absolute software, Citrix Receiver, McAfee Mobile Security, Angry Birds HD, and more. If you don't like or don't want some of these applications on your tablet, Lenovo makes it possible for you to uninstall them using the Settings menu.  Good news for those of you that are bloat averse.

Lenovo also includes its own Lenovo App Shop with the ThinkPad tablet. According to Lenovo, this store is designed to take the uncertainty out of the Android Market by vetting applications for validity and usefulness as well as to help users avoid any apps that could contain malware or viruses.

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Using the tablet's pen (sold separately), we felt the interface was very accurate and responsive. We primarily used this pen with the included MyScript Notes Mobile application. With this application, you can use the drawing pen to keep your information as it is written or use the conversion pen which will convert your handwriting into digital form. You can organize your notes into different notepads and share individual pages of notes via email, Bluetooth, Picasa, and more. 

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