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Design The 10.1in. ThinkPad Tablet 2 has all the branding you'd expect, including the familiar black styling with the ThinkPad logo (complete with red dot above the 'i') on both the front and back, plus a red tip to the digitizer pen that sits in a slot on the top left edge of the chassis. The 10.1in. Atom-based ThinkPad Tablet 2 is thin (0.98cm/0.39in.) and light (600g/1.3lb with mobile broadband), and comes with Lenovo Keyboard and docking options. (Image: Lenovo)As ever, the design of the ThinkPad Tablet 2 is thoughtful and the build quality excellent. This is a thin and light tablet, measuring just 26.26cm (10.3in.) wide by 16.4cm (6.5in.) deep by 0.98cm (0.39in.) thick and weighing 585g (1.29lb) if you opt for the Wi-Fi-only model (600g/1.3lb with mobile broadband).The Tablet 1 feels extremely comfy in the hand — not only because of its trim dimensions but also because of the backplate's smooth, grip-friendly rubbery finish. Another more subtle feature contributes to the Tablet 2's satisfying feel: the left short edge is no further away from the screen than the right one, but its outer section is finished in rubber. If you hold the tablet in landscape format in your left hand, this small section, no more than a centimetre deep, affords a more comfortable rest for your thumb than the plastic finish that forms the screen bezel. The overall feel is of a tablet we'd be more than happy to carry in our bag or hold in the hand for a couple of hours if necessary. Although you'll have to learn to live with its reflective coating, the Tablet 2's screen is impressive. A 10.1-inch IPS panel supporting five-finger multitouch with a (standard) resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels, it's sharp and bright, and offers good viewing angles. That said, it's no match for the latest iPad's 2,048 by 1,536 pixels in a 9.7in. screen — that's a pixel density of 264ppi compared to the Tablet 2's 155ppi. Windows 8 in 'modern' mode looks superb on the Tablet 2, but desktop mode is difficult to navigate by touch with the default 100 percent scaling factor like the Laptop Keyboard Cover . The screen's 16:9 aspect ratio does mean that the on-screen keyboard is reasonably comfortable to use though. Our one issue with the Tablet 2's build quality it is that it's difficult to extract the digitizer pen from its slot on the top left edge of the chassis. You have to get a fingernail along a short ridge on the pen itself and prise it out upwards. We'd prefer a spring-loaded mechanism. Features The x86-based ThinkPad Tablet 2 runs (32-bit) Windows 8, with the mobile broadband model getting Windows 8 Pro.The processor is the same dual-core 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z2760 Dual-Core found in other Atom-based Windows 8 tablets like the Asus VivoTab and Dell Latitude 10. You get 2GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, with storage expansion available via a microSD card slot. Dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth (4.0) are both present, while the top-end model, as already noted, supports mobile broadband (HSPA+). The ThinkPad Tablet 2 also supports Near Field Communications (NFC) and includes a GPS receiver and other Compatible Parts . Next to the microUSB, under a hinged cover, is a standard USB 2.0 port. We plugged in an ordinary USB mouse, a standard keyboard like the Dell Inspiron N5010 Keyboard and a USB stick, all of which worked fine. On the top there's another hinged cover, beneath which you'll find a microSD card slot and — if your model supports mobile broadband — a SIM card slot. On the bottom there's a Mini-HDMI connector and a proprietary connector for an optional docking unit. Lenovo sells a dock for £80 (inc. VAT, £66.67 ex. VAT; US$100) offering three USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet (RJ-45) port, a full-size HDMI connector, audio in and out jacks and a power connector.
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