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Score: 7/10 (Average)
ProsNice design, great gaming performance, keyboard docking provides excellent typing experience and doubles battery life. | ConsLenovo's custom skin bogs down the Android experience, poor screen resolution, far too overpriced. |
Lenovo is hoping to compete with Asus’ Transformer line of Android tablets with the IdeaTab S2110. While the S2110 is not a bad Android tablet, its price-point is too high for the specifications it brings to the table and you can get higher end products that are similar to the S2110, but offer a better user experience.
Design/Build Quality
One of the high points of the S2110 is its design. While it may not be the sleekest or sexiest 10-inch Android tablet on the market, it’s simple, looks good, and gets the job done nicely. My only real issue with the S2110’s design was that it is a fingerprint magnet. The screen picks up a great deal of fingerprints in a matter of minutes and the back of the device, which is made of plastic, tended to attract it’s fair share of fingerprints as well. Aside from this minor complaint, the S2110 looks and feels like a nicely design piece of tech.
Hardware
Powering the S2110 is a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor. In our testing, we received a Quadrant Benchmark score of 4664. Although it does not have the faster processor on the market, launching applications and playing games was a very smooth experience. Even graphically intensive games such as Frontline Commando ran great on the S2110. One of the things you will notice right away with the S2110 is that swiping through your home screens and app drawer is a very laggy experience. This is due to Lenovo’s skin that is layered over Android 4.0 (more on that in the Software section of the review).
The S2110 has a lackluster screen resolution
One of the downsides to the S2110 is its screen resolution. The S2110 has a pixel resolution of 1280 x 800 with 149 ppi (pixels-per-inch). While text is easy to read and colors look fine, pictures look very blurry and app icons look quite fuzzy. While a resolution of 1280 x 800 looks good on screens that are 7-inches and lower, it is not very suitable for a 10-inch form factor
The S2110 also provides dual cameras. There is a rear-facing 5MP camera with LED flash, capable of recording 720p HD video, and a 1.3MP shooter on the front. Neither of the cameras will blow you away, but both take decent looking images
and are nice additions to the tablet. While I did not find myself using the rear-facing camera all that often, it is a nicely added extra.
and are nice additions to the tablet. While I did not find myself using the rear-facing camera all that often, it is a nicely added extra.
Lenovo promises around 10 hours of battery life and 20 hours of juice when the tablet is in it’s keyboard docking station. In my testing of the device, I got around 8-9 hours of use with about 18 hours when the S2110 was inside it’s docking station. Overall, I was very pleased with the battery performance of the tablet.
The keyboard feels exceptional to type on
One of the biggest selling points of the IdeaTab S2110 is it’s optional keyboard docking station. The keyboard provides a surprisingly comfortable typing experience. I was a bit worried at fist that the keyboard would feel cramped to type on, but keys are spaced out very nicely and provides a very comfortable typing experience. The keyboard dock also adds 2 full USB ports and a full sized SD card slot to the S2110. One of my favorite aspects of the docking station though, was that it can double the tablet’s battery life. When the docking station is charged, acts as a second battery for the S2110 and, in our testing, extended the battery life up to 18 hours of use.
Software
Android 4.0 layered with Lenovo's custom skin
The Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 is running on Android 4.0 ICS. While 4.0 is not a terrible version of the Android OS, it is marred by Lenovo’s custom skin they have layered over it. I’m not sure why, but the skin that Lenovo layered over Android makes swiping through your home screens and applications an incredibly slow process and bogs down the entire experience. Most of this is probably due to the 3D cube transition effect that Lenovo is present on your home screens and application drawer. You can disable this effect, but it does not make the process any faster. The S2110 is also loaded with an incredible amount of bloatware. Such applications include Vendetta Online, Amazon, Audible, Zappos, Solitaire, News Republic, Evernote, and more. While some of these are useful to have on the device, none of them can be uninstalled from the device. They will always be there to eat away at your precious internal memory.
Thankfully, Lenovo does have some widgets that I found to be quite useful. For example, Lenovo's weather widget displays the current temperature in your area. Tapping on the widget will expand it a touch to reveal a 3 day forecast for the weather in your area. Lenovo's note taking widget displays your latest notes you have taken. Tapping on the widget also expands it an allows you to type a new note without having to actually leave your home screen. While it doesn't sound like the most exciting feature out there, I actually found it to be quite useful in my day to day use of the device.
Final Verdict
The Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 is not a bad Android tablet. It has a great design, good processing power, and an excellent keyboard docking station. Unfortunately, it’s price point is far too high for the features it brings to the table. On Amazon.com, the Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 with the keyboard docking station is selling for $499. You can currently pick up the Asus Transformer TF300 with it’s keyboard docking station for only $438.98. The Transformer TF300 offers more
powerful processors, a higher resolution screen, Android Jelly Bean support, and more for less money. If it was priced lower, the Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 would be a great competitor in the convertible, Android tablet market. Unfortunately, it's high price point makes us wonder why you would purchase it when you can get higher end devices that are very similar to the S2110 for less money.
powerful processors, a higher resolution screen, Android Jelly Bean support, and more for less money. If it was priced lower, the Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 would be a great competitor in the convertible, Android tablet market. Unfortunately, it's high price point makes us wonder why you would purchase it when you can get higher end devices that are very similar to the S2110 for less money.
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