Lenovo IdeaPad K1 Review

Last Updated on March 29, 2020

For those of you who don’t know this company; Lenovo was formed by the acquisition of IBM’s former PC division, so their roots are in personal computing. They are the market leader in PC technology in China and the fastest growing PC company across the world, moving into the West. They are the company that brought us the famous Thinkpad™ and the Ideapad is their next step technology in tablets.

Tablet PC Features

The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 features an Nvidia Tegra 1.0GHZ core processor and runs on the Android 3.1 operating system. Through its extended storage you get 32GB of SSD storage and a gigabyte of memory, plenty for downloading and watching movies, games and videos. Connectivity is available through a micro SD card reader, integrated Bluetooth, and a mini HDMI connector and docking port. This is definitely an entertainment friendly tablet, with fully integrated Flash and true HD resolution on its 10 inch screen. In addition you get 2GB of dedicated and integrated cloud storage space, great for sharing all your photos and videos with friends and family. This is a light tablet, 1.65 pounds and only half an inch thick, so it is comfortable to use. It is also durable with an aluminium rear casing and the slight texturing gives you grip.

Tablet Usability

The Ideapad is pre-loaded with a lot of useful apps you would normally have to buy. Although Angry Birds is hardly a business app, it is fun to have it, but the “Documents on the Go” app is probably the most useful! The tablet also has a GPS feature, helpful for the business and travelling user. Also included is digital rights management (DRM) so that you can download in any format and watch anywhere, legally! You have two cameras, a 2megapixel at the front and a 5 megapixel webcam at the back. Lenovo have an application built in called SocialTouch® which allows you to access all your social networking sites from one interface and Lenovo have included a small menu launcher on the screen which improves the use of the Honeycomb system. You do need a micro HDMI cable to connect your Ideapad to your HD TV but it works well when connected. In order to access the micro SD slot you will need a paperclip to press the tiny button to open the drive!

What Customers say

Customers are most impressed by the screen quality of the Ideapad and are very positive about the clarity and sharpness of viewing. You do need to make sure you have upgraded to the latest firmware updates, Lenovo bring them out regularly. Customers suggest setting brightness yourself, as sometimes after hibernation the tablet defaults to 0 which is basically black! Customers have deleted and upgraded and installed a variety of apps, all without trouble and report that Netflix is a particular favourite and works well. The Ideapad holds its charge reasonably well, top battery life is around 8 hours, less when watching movies and it is recommended not to let it run down completely. Lenovo support has varied from very efficient to a bit haphazard.

Overall Verdict

For its price point this is a good value tablet with additional features not available from competitors. The 32GB makes it a great entertainment tablet and its connectivity options are good. It has a solid feel and good screen resolution. Lenovo need to improve their customer support, but this seems to be better in recent months and their firmware updates are improving the user experience significantly.