Lenovo A1 Tablet/Reader

[cfrizz]

Does anyone know what the preinstalled apps are on the A1?

[DreamWriter]

In a Lenovo A1 user's guide that I found somewhere online it mentions these apps:

Lenovo App Shop
Browser
Calculator
Calendar
Camera
Clock
Contacts
Email
ES File Explore
Gallery
Music

There are probably a few more.

[cfrizz]

Thank you DreamWriter.

[emilikins]

By Blossom
It's hard to know the percentage here. We have so many different sales taxes that can be charged. It could be anywhere from 9.68% to 9.8% It's crazy! the Nook would be $273.28 that doesn't include shipping but that the price I was quoted with TN tax.

I think off Lenovo's site, the tax should be the same all around, because I think it's based off where they're at, not where you're at. I could be wrong. I should dig up my deleted email with the old order quote to see the percentage, or do the darn math ;-) I didn't like paying the tax on my HTC, but I did get at good price and don't regret it. I'd probably have some regret with the $299 tag, but I lucked out.

As for A1 apps ... I just checked the site, and of course there isn't as much info there as there used to be. I remember awhile back, when I was visiting it constantly, there was a list of pre-loaded apps, one of which included a movie maker (why would you want that on a 7-inch?!), but I can't seem to find that page anymore. However, it was difficult to tell if it was for both the K1 and A1, or just the K1. At the time, their product pages seemed to combine those two with some info splitting.

Without knowing all the circumstances surrounding delays and conflicting information, I'd say Lenovo's marketing team needs to be replaced, because they're missing the boat here. I don't expect them to sell the tablet at a loss to beat Amazon (there's nowhere it make up that loss for them), but if they'd been aggressively pushing those items out, keeping customers and retailers up to date on progress, and not been all rollercoaster on the prices (and ship dates), they could really push "you can have Amazon and MORE." Bring the price down as much as they can bear and then push it as a "real" Android tablet.

[emilikins]

Did the math. Lenovo charged 7% sales tax.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by emilikins

Did the math. Lenovo charged 7% sales tax.

Thanks usually with Sales tax you get charged the percentage for your state. Sales tax is very high here due to we have no state income tax.

[ScotiaBurrell]

Originally Posted by =X=

The flyer is a good choice especially at that price, I wasn't going for one when they had a $499 price tag.


Btw many folks believe dual core is better than a single core. Here are some benchmark that prove otherwise.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4463/t...flyer-review/8



=x=

Does the dual core effect the battery time?

[LoganK]

Originally Posted by ScotiaBurrell

Does the dual core effect the battery time?

It depends on a lot of factors, but, in general, dual core often doesn't mean significantly reduced battery life and may improve battery life.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by ScotiaBurrell

Does the dual core effect the battery time?

What logan said. Generally multi cores are more efficient, but not because they are multi core but because they are smaller and require less power to operate. It also depend on the manufacture and how they bundle the cores.

An example is Nvida T3. It's sold as a quad core but has five CPU. The main CPU (the fifth) runs the majority of the processing and is the most energy efficient. When an intensive load is put on the CPU the rest of the CPUs kick in and distribute the load. So in effect it's acting as a single core until it needs assistance. This makes it very efficient and is done outside of the OS.

That is a different design from most PC that try to continually load balance all applications(threads)

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by LoganK

It depends on a lot of factors, but, in general, dual core often doesn't mean significantly reduced battery life and may improve battery life.

It is kind of like engines. If you have a 8 or 12 cylinder engine, you will use more gas than a 4 or 6 cylinder engine. Sometimes the big engines on the expensive cars can actually cut off several cylinders when they aren't needed to become more economical. In past wars, there have been cases where cars have had cylinders blocked and the valves stopped to make them economical because of gas shortages. Yes it made the engine jumpy but the engine used less gas.

If you have two outboards on your boat (two motors are required for certain boats at sea for emergencies) you can run one more economically than two at the same speed. You just need the two to run faster.

I have read where some new computers will not use the second core if not needed and some have essentially 2 cores where 1 of the cores is smaller as well as slower, requiring less power, but will allow you to do things that don't require a lot of horsepower, and then when you watch or edit a video or play a game you can get the full horsepower of both or all the cores.

Usually also when you are multitasking I think the multiple cores might separate out the tasks. I have never been sure about how that works though.

[LoganK]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

It is kind of like engines. If you have a 8 or 12 cylinder engine, you will use more gas than a 4 or 6 cylinder engine. Sometimes the big engines on the expensive cars can actually cut off several cylinders when they aren't needed to become more economical. In past wars, there have been cases where cars have had cylinders blocked and the valves stopped to make them economical because of gas shortages. Yes it made the engine jumpy but the engine used less gas.

The car analogy is nice but somewhat inadequate in this case. It is probably easiest to just link to the high-level [link=http://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/tegra_white_papers/Benefits-of-Multi-core-CPUs-in-Mobile-Devices_Ver1.2.pdf]nVIDIA paper on multi-core devices[/link].

Usually also when you are multitasking I think the multiple cores might separate out the tasks. I have never been sure about how that works though.

Most Android applications are multi-threaded, meaning the programmer separated out the tasks intelligently (you pretty much have to in order for your application to be responsive). Once you have more than one thread, the operating system can assign tasks to each core to keep them busy.

Then you have the system functions (like running the radios) that are each discrete tasks.

And then there is multitasking, which on Android generally means background services (since you can really only run one activity at a time) such as checking email, playing music, and synchronizing your contacts. These can also be farmed out to cores.

So there is this huge list of "to do" items that Android has to deal with, and multiple cores means there are more assistants on hand to chug through the list.

[Lula Ribeiro]

Seems that the $199 (A1 16 Gb, black) deal at lenovo and at amazon is gone.

It is offered at amazon (marketplace, 3rd part seller) for $229, and for $249 again at lenovo. $229 for the 2Gb version.

However, as I payed $249 for the 16Gb black at lenovo, I asked a refund of the difference, when it was selling for $199 and I see the 50 bucks have already been credited to my credit card.

So, for those who complain about lenovo costumer care, this is good news.

[stockoneder]

Hi all,

I got my Ideapad A1 16gb 4 days ago for $213 from Lenovo. It is pretty impressive coming from the kindle 3. It is a nice reader and flips pages way faster than the kindle. Need to read in the shade unlike with a kindle though. Screen is pretty sharp and clear. Netflix streaming movies play great. Wifi works great. Screen is pretty responsive but not as good as ipod touch. Only has a micro sd slot and not a regular sd slot. Battery seems to last 7 to 8 hours with mixed use. Android 2.3 OS easy to use and have had no crashes, freezes or lockups. Worst part is the GPS. Super slow to acquire location and that is with wifi. Without wifi I haven't got a connection yet. So basically the gps is useless.
email app is very nice and easy to use.
Super easy to get my kindle books over wifi from amazon after installing their app. And now I can get all the free epub books out there without converting them to mobi with
calibre software. I installed the free moon+ reader for the epub books. Works pretty good with lots of options to customize.
Browsing the net is pretty fast but due to 7" screen size it takes some work to see content
on webpages. Lots of zooming and resizing. Think 10" pad would be way better for the internet. I would take this over a straight kindle any day. Way more versatile.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by stockoneder

Hi all,

I got my Ideapad A1 16gb 4 days ago for $213 from Lenovo. It is pretty impressive coming from the kindle 3. It is a nice reader and flips pages way faster than the kindle. Need to read in the shade unlike with a kindle though. Screen is pretty sharp and clear. Netflix streaming movies play great. Wifi works great. Screen is pretty responsive but not as good as ipod touch. Only has a micro sd slot and not a regular sd slot. Battery seems to last 7 to 8 hours with mixed use. Android 2.3 OS easy to use and have had no crashes, freezes or lockups. Worst part is the GPS. Super slow to acquire location and that is with wifi. Without wifi I haven't got a connection yet. So basically the gps is useless.
email app is very nice and easy to use.
Super easy to get my kindle books over wifi from amazon after installing their app. And now I can get all the free epub books out there without converting them to mobi with
calibre software. I installed the free moon+ reader for the epub books. Works pretty good with lots of options to customize.
Browsing the net is pretty fast but due to 7" screen size it takes some work to see content
on webpages. Lots of zooming and resizing. Think 10" pad would be way better for the internet. I would take this over a straight kindle any day. Way more versatile.

Great Review! Did you try to use the GPS inside or outside? Did you try it in the car?

[stockoneder]

I tried both. When inside I could get it to work over my wifi and then took it outside and walked about 200 yards and it worked fine. I tried it once in a car and it never connected after trying for about 1/2 hour. Another time I got a connection started at my house and started driving. It lost connection after about 5 or 6 miles and I never got it back and I ended up using the car gps to find my destination. Tried just awhile ago in my house and couldn't get connection in about 15 minutes. The gps sucks(at least on mine).