The showdown: Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

The challenge

We have two dazzling Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablets for a comparison here – Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet. The first one is a 10.1-inch consumer friendly tablet, which is known for its thin and light body. The second one, also a 10.1-inch device, is more an enterprise friendly tablet. What makes the tablets unique is that once mounted on respective keyboard docks, Galaxy Tab 10.1 and ThinkPad Tablet are two ideal laptop replacements. Without any surprise, we can count the tablets as two chief Android tablets in the market now. Galaxy Tab 10.1 is actually a successor to the company’s iPad 1 challenger Galaxy Tab 7. Get through the comparison to see which one is the best tablet for you.

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Comparison attributes

Portability

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is with a thin and light body. The device is up with a dimension of 6.71 x 9.69 x 0.43 inch and a weight of just 1.32 lbs. On the other hand, Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet has hit the stores with a dimension of 7.2 x 10.2 x 0.6 inch. The tablet weighs at 1.6 lbs.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 wins with less width, height, density and weight.

Display

Both Galaxy Tab 10.1 and ThinkPad Tablet are with the same display size and resolution. The tablets sport TFT active matrix touchscreen displays with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. However, ThinkPad’s display features IPS technology.

Winner: Tie. Both devices are with the same display technology.

Software

Samsung and Lenovo produced the tablets to run on Google Android’s tablet-customized version Android 3.0 Honeycomb. The tablets now play on the latest update to the software, Android 3.1 Honeycomb.

Winner: No winner. Both tablets run on Android 3.1 Honeycomb.

Camera

Lenovo ThinkPad mounts a 5-megapixel camera in the rear panel and 2-megapixel camera in the front for video chatting. Galaxy Tab 10.1 features only a 3-megapixel camera in the back and 2-megapixel camera in the front.

Winner: Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet wins with a 5-megapixel camera in the rear panel.

Multimedia

As far as the multimedia aspects are concerned, Galaxy Tab 10.1 outdoes ThinkPad Tablet. Galaxy Tab 10.1 is with microphone and stereo speakers, and it supports almost all media files. ThinkPad has a NVIDIA Tegra 2 T20 GeForce ULP for better multimedia experience. It supports MP3. Both tablets feature Adobe Flash for a great and smooth web browsing experience.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Memory

You have 32GB built-in memory inside Galaxy Tab 10.1 that has 1GB RAM and 32GB ROM. ThinkPad Tablet, in the meantime, is powered by 16GB internal memory and 1GB RAM. But the tablet has a microSD slot for memory expansion up to 64GB.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Connectivity

Galaxy Tab 10.1 offers Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, GPS and Google Maps. ThinkPad Tablet also has Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G connectivity options.

Winner: Tie.

Price

Samsung sells Galaxy Tab 10.1 for $499. Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet is priced just at $479. In U.S., Verizon Wireless sells Galaxy Tab, which is one of LTE compatible tablets on the carrier.

Winner: Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet.

Keyboard docking facility

You can mount both Galaxy Tab 10.1 and ThinkPad Tablet on compatible keyboard docks. The devices become better replacements to laptops if you mount them on the docks. Also in help of the feature, ThinkPad has taken name as a key business tablet; Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a leading consumer tablet, at the same time.

Winner: No winner.

The Verdict

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a successor to Galaxy Tab 7, the first Android tablet. The South Korean technology maker unveiled its 7-inch Galaxy Tab in 2010 to fight Apple iPad original. The second generation Galaxy Tab came into existence in the middle of the year in an open combat with Apple iPad 2, which hit stores in March. Lenovo’s ThinkPad Tablet does not enjoy this tradition. It is just a new tablet on Android Honeycomb. Therefore, Galaxy Tab 10.1 stands much ahead of the Lenovo tablet in name and fame. Most of customers, who wish to soak up the maximum Honeycomb experience, will indeed prefer Galaxy Tab 10.1 to ThinkPad Tablet.