Manage updates with the Download App
The tablet market is quickly dividing into two camps: those competing against the iPad on the high end, and budget-minded products that compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire.
Priced as low as $199, the Lenovo IdeaPad A1 tablet clearly falls in the latter category. In fact, the spec sheet on this 7-inch tablet reads like the antidote to every complaint against the Kindle Fire. Lenovo's tablet packs more storage, more features, and offers a larger app store than any other tablet we've seen at this price.
So, is the Lenovo A1 the new king of budget tablets?
Design
The Lenovo A1 looks and feels an awful lot like the original Samsung Galaxy Tab from 2010. The paperback book-size tablet measures just under a half-inch thick and weighs 14 ounces.
Aside from the chimed Lenovo logo staring you in the face at the top of the screen, there's really not much to visually distinguish this tablet from any other 7-inch slate made in the last two years. The back is covered in a glossy black plastic that scuffs at the slightest provocation. Also, the backlit Android navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen only seem to light up after you touch them, somewhat defeating the purpose of lighting them up at all.
Another annoyance with the A1 is that Lenovo has locked the home screen orientation to portrait mode. It's not a big dilemma, but it can be annoying when you exit a landscape-designed app and are forced to reorient the tablet in order to navigate around.
For all of my peeves, Lenovo did make some great design choices on the A1. Just like the Apple iPad, the A1 employs a physical volume rocker and screen orientation lock switch on its left edge. As basic as that might sound, it's a feature you will not find on the Kindle Fire. Another convenience is the microSD memory expansion slot on the bottom edge, alongside the Micro-USB charging port and an integrated speaker.
