Thinkpad Tablet - The Actual Review (part 1): Physical form and construction

This series of reviews will focus on a single aspect per part.  The final part will sum up what I think.  In this first part the focus is on physical form and construction.

Positive

• The Thinkpad Tablet seems indestructible but not chunky.  When you hold it, it feels solid but at the same time it is sleek enough not to feel like a clunky, chunky, brick.  And by all accounts, it is indestructible or, at least, designed to withstand more than any normal range of destruction.
• It looks good.  Business, black, characteristic red spot on the digitiser (stylus) and it feels comfortable in the hand.
• There is a USB port!  Amongst other useful connection sockets, the USB port stands out as a very useful addition.  While the world is slowly moving to less of the physical connections that come with plugging things in, that wireless world is not quite here yet.  In perhaps 5 to 10 years time, when data can be stored and transmitted in huge quantities via the Internet, there will be a sharp drop off in external hard drives and USB storage, but until then, USB is still the common format of choice for physical file transfer.
• The mini HDMI (and other standard ports) are also great.  This is even more true for an education setting where it is helpful to be able to connect your device to projection or TV systems to share media with your class.  An HDMI to VGA adapter would be necessary in most cases (since schools have VGA cable connections to most projectors) but that is the price of being cutting edge, as the Thinkpad Tablet certainly is.  Being able to connect a standard SIM card is also a bonus (for the 3G model) as you can connect on the go, between wireless networks - great for working on the train or bus on your way to the office.
• My colleagues to whom I showed the Thinkpad Tablet felt that no extra case is necessary which is very unlike most tablets.  If you take the iPad as en example, the first thing most people do is to buy a case to go with it!  The Thinkpad Tablet is certainly secure enough without a case, though for style or convenience a keyboard folio is a good option in my opinion.
• I found the screen width great for viewing complete web pages.  While the tablet feels a little narrow, in the landscape position, this is something that I could get used to.  As a notebook in the portrait position, I'm not a fan.
• Good battery life seems fine for all day use.  I didn't notice any sharp drops in the indicator which seems fairly well calibrated to the actual charge remaining.

Negative

• The buttons on the front face seem unnecessary as they are never used, at least not by me!  I found that I only used the volume buttons and the on/off/wake/sleep button.  
• For typical use, I don't think this device was made to be used while docked.  It is too narrow when vertical and feels a bit odd to view because of this.  An extra inch to inch and a half would go down well.  That's not really a problem though, because it is designed as a mobile device of course.
• In landscape, the already small height is cut off even further by the menus.  This is also something that a regular user is likely to adjust to, but it's nicer to have something feel right straight from the word go.

Bonus

As a recent iPad user, despite my former resistance, I thought it would be interesting to throw in a small comparison with my iPad 2.  It's important to note that the Thinkpad Tablet is aiming to accomplish some things which the iPad doesn't, and vice versa.  

There is no question that the iPad looks nicer from a cosmetic point of view, with the buttons feeling better and more usable, and it is thinner.  However, the Thinkpad Tablet is by far the more reliable bet if you want a tablet to last in a school bag or playground.  Also, as soon as you put a case on the iPad - absolutely necessary for most people - then you have lost the good looks.  The iPad also fails the connectivity test as there is no way to expand your physical memory or connect to USB peripherals.

That's all for now, next time I'll look at interaction with the device in a bit of detail.

I was hoping to write these as a short series of reviews in the week or so following my demo of the Thinkpad, but busy home life with the new baby is taking more time than I expected.  I'm also writing this review in a bit more depth than I planned to.  At least the process is thoroughly enjoyable, and hopefully this extended review will be useful for educational facilities considering the mass roll out of tablet devices in their school.  

I'm excited about an opportunity

At the recent learning at schools conference (learning@schools) in Hamilton, New Zealand, I had a lengthy chat with Nick from Lenovo.  He impressed me with the technology which he was representing, and we've set up a demonstration test period of a month during which I will put one of their Android Thinkpad tablets through it's paces.  I am now at the stage of huge anticipation at the arrival of my demo model.  Here's the product tour which has more of a business flavour but gives you the idea:

It will be useful to give you some background info...
...about myself so that you know the perspective I'm commenting from. I teach at a co-educational, decile 8, state secondary school and have been in my current position for 8 years.  I am an electronics and physics teacher but have experience in teaching science, maths, and physical education.

I also coach and practice parkour, and am physically active on a daily basis.  I run, cycle, and walk more than many others I know.  Having an active and vigorous lifestyle, I was attracted to the rugged build quality of the Lenovo products and I am keen to see how they perform in practice.

I am also on our school's e-learning committee as an active member, and have presented a number of times on new technology, assisting with the professional development of other teachers.  You can see a recent video presentation I gave on the use of Twitter as a classroom tool here.

What is my experience with tablet devices?
At the beginning of 2011 I purchased a cheap Android tablet to experiment with in class.  The functionality of that device was severely limited due to it's earlier Android 1.6 operating system and low resolution screen.  The low resolution and overly small 7 inch screen meant that I could only write a small amount on the space available - not enough to be really useful.  Sharing was easy via wireless network, and searching for data online was also easy.  However, the versions of Android prior to 2.2 didn't want to connect to large networks that required a proxy and this made it almost useless at school until we changed to an open system recently.

Differentiated learning
Being a highly adaptable teacher who is super keen on differentiated learning, I envision using tablet computing as a way to meet the needs of individual students in an easy and fun manner.  My ideal use is to be able to walk around the classroom using a tablet to help individuals with their particular questions and ideas.  For example, I want to be able to quickly search the Internet for great resources and demonstration videos to speedily view.  This will demonstrate quality search skills (or at least as quality as I can make mine) and how to filter the masses of information available online in an effective way.

As physics is often about solving problems, I also hope to be able to use a tablet to record the problem solving process that I demonstrate using a screen capture video tool and audio recording.  Currently I can do this using an interactive whiteboard and CamStudio.  An example of the process is here.  The ability to quickly and easily record an answer to every single individual question, tag/label that video recording for ease of searchability, and then upload it online where students can easily access the answers they require, is incredibly powerful.

The more that I can make myself rewindable, the more access that students will have to improve their learning skills.

Why Android?  What about iPads?
I like the attention to detail and innovation in design, but I struggle to make Apple work with the sort of creativity and innovation that suits me.  Due to their strong restrictions on sharing media (I believe this is a result of privacy protection for the big music/movie companies that sell through iTunes), Apple makes it harder than I like to share other media, including the media that I create and distribute for free.  I'm not going to bash Apple here because I think they suit a lot of people, but for higher level education and encouraging true innovation I'm leaning much more towards Android and other open source devices.

So what's coming on this blog?
Expect to read about my experiments, my reflections on the Thinkpad tablet, and any constructive criticisms that I think will help improve the development of the device for future educational use.

As always, I encourage plenty of comments and conversation surrounding my writing.  I value your feedback and would love to hear of any experiments that you think I should attempt while I have the tablet.  Please share this blog with your networks so that we can all get the most out of this opportunity!

Thanks for your contribution!

Sam