Lenovo wants to be the first to market with Windows 8 tablet in October

Shawn Knight

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Lenovo will reportedly be the first manufacturer to market with a Windows 8 tablet. Insiders at the company have told The Verge that Lenovo plans to release a Windows 8 tablet as soon as Microsoft releases the OS – and they believe that will happen in October.

The unspecified tablet is said to utilize an Intel chip but specifications beyond that are unknown at this point. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that all new Windows 8 tablets have to be based on new hardware. Existing tablets can be Windows 8 certified so long as they meet the guidelines outlined in Microsoft’s hardware requirements list.

CNET believes that Lenovo’s first Windows 8 tablet could be the IdeaPad Yoga, a prototype device that first showed up at CES 2012. This hybrid notebook / tablet feature a 13.3-inch display with a resolution of 1,600 x 900 and 10 touch points.

Not unlike other convertibles we have seen in the past, the Yoga’s display flips over, allowing the user to utilize the screen as a tablet. The difference here is the way the hinges work. Traditional convertibles utilized a single central hinge that many felt was a weak design element. The Yoga is expected to debut starting at $1,199 later this year.

Lenovo is just one of several manufacturers vying for a Windows 8 tablet later this year. Dell, HP, Nokia and ASUS have all thrown their names into the proverbial hat. Dell is even looking to release an enterprise Win 8 slate on the exact day Microsoft makes the OS available to the public.

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And this is why Windows 8 will be successful. Everyone wants to make a tablet for it, even if it is an ok OS...
 
an ok OS..? rofl.. what the heck you smoking m4a4? It's a pure slap in the face for PC power users and a total joke for a Microsoft Windows OS! I tried Windows 8 consumer preview four days ago and the Metro sucks on my PC with a mouse. The folks at Redmond should make a "Windows 8 April Edition" because anybody that would purchase this joke of a so-called OS is absolutely a fool.
 
@Guest, I suggest you register if you are willing to start a debate. I have been using the Consumer Preview exclusively on my PC since it came out on the 29th. I am a power user and I do not hate it at all. You are ignorant and narrow sighted, and I would be willing to bet that you are an MS hater who probably hated on that successful thing called the Kinect too...
 
yeah there are a lot of useful changes(ribbon UI) HDD optimization, etc. Just read a few positive reviews if you can't see what is so great about it. It won't fit all setups equally well, but you can't completely dismiss what you haven't even considered.
 
Ha! A Windows power user. Someone who knows how to press the button twice when there is a problem. A real power user knows the solution is to push the button once.
 
I actually think is easier for more experienced users to use W8 for the first time than newbies or people that do pretty limited tasks with a PC. In tablet I don't criticize much the use of W8, but on notebook or desktop I simply don't get it why bother. I just use to show it to friends or people who ask, I let them try it, but I haven't use it more than 4 hours adding the time of the DP and the CP. I define myself in a neutral position, but I find W7 more productive when working.
 
Microsoft generally makes decent products, but Windows 8 is just a mistake. I understand that they want to get into the tablet market cause of how popular they are becoming, but they are trying to port an OS for a tablet to a PC. That just doesn't seem like something that should be done. Tablets are designed around a touchscreen, PCs are (generally) designed around mouse and keyboard usage. I've tried the consumer preview and I hated it. Its clunky and not intuitive at all. The desktop in Win 8 is basically just storage for files and there's no point in customizing it since you will never see it because everything has to be done from Metro. I've always been a fan of Microsoft. I won't use or buy any Apple products. My girlfriend wanted a new ipod for her birthday and I spent 2 days trying to convince her to pick something else cause I didn't want to waste more money on something from Apple. But with Windows 8, it seems like Microsoft is trying to convince people to start buying Macs.
 
justgivemeaname said:
Its clunky and not intuitive at all. The desktop in Win 8 is basically just storage for files and there's no point in customizing it since you will never see it because everything has to be done from Metro.

I couldn't disagree with you more. As stated above, I have been in the CP exclusively for quite a while and I barely see the metro. Everything can be done from Desktop and even though it felt like an app for a few days, the desktop most definitely is not an app. It actually feels..nice. It might be because I'm a power user, but I have read decent reviews that say I'm not alone...

Right now MS is making a move to unify a few different platforms. If they do it right, people will wonder why it wasn't done before. There is however a scare factor because it's different, but people should get over that...

Ps. Keep in mind that it is not officially launched..........
 
Everything can be done from Desktop and even though it felt like an app for a few days, the desktop most definitely is not an app.

When I said that everything has to be done through metro, I was referring to using apps without keyboard shortcuts. If you are a power user using shortcuts, its not that big of an annoyance. When you are someone who just wants to type a paper, or use some other basic function that has come to be expected from any OS, its going to seem like a tedious task just to find what you are looking for in Metro. Plus, those who don't follow tech related news such as new OS releases may not even realize that Metro is the central hub of Windows 8 and become frustrated when they realize that the desktop is not the central focus of the OS. You may have seen the video that's been making its way around the tech-related sites recently of the older man's first time using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I think it's actually on TechSpot somewhere. But in the last 10 seconds of the video, he says "Are they trying to drive people to Macs?" I don't know about you, but I don't want to work in the IT field where Apple is considered the leading developer in computer software. Windows 8 seems to me to be a good ledge for Apple to get a foothold on.
 
Justgivemeaname said:
You may have seen the video that's been making its way around the tech-related sites recently of the older man's first time using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I think it's actually on TechSpot somewhere. But in the last 10 seconds of the video, he says "Are they trying to drive people to Macs?"

I have seen that video and at first I agreed with the point that they were conveying; that some people would be lost without the familiar start button. But then I thought about it some more; This is essentially new software. If you gave that old man a Tablet without some sort of tutorial, he would wind up getting lost too.
So what I am saying is that Windows 8, the release version, should have tips and pointers to help people navigate their new software. It would be foolish of them to go "Here's Windows 8, have fun figuring it out on your own." as lots of people would give up and go to another operating system (heck, even my optimism would fade away ;P ).

So if you are wary of Windows 8 for the time being, give it some time when it is officially released. It isn't like you are going to be forced to get it. But if it does good, it MIGHT be worth getting because it is more powerful and efficient than Windows 7...
However, I'm sure that if MS messes up and the consumers lose faith in Windows 8 concerning PC's, those companies will sell their hardware with Windows 7.
 
I'd guess that most people that claim to hate windows 8 have never actually tried it. In reality its a little UI update to Windows 7....otherwise there are few noticeable differences.
 
Guest said:
I'd guess that most people that claim to hate windows 8 have never actually tried it. In reality its a little UI update to Windows 7....otherwise there are few noticeable differences.

If a completely new feature that takes the place of the desktop qualifies as "a little UI update to Windows 7", I don't want to see what a complete overhaul would look like.
 
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the Consumer Preview was a wonderful experience on my Samsung Windows Slate http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Serie...Q9JC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1332390113&sr=8-4 . It's important to note that the device itself was actually designed for Windows 8, and is a tablet.

I'm an extreme power user, and my girlfriend has basically no computer knowledge, and we both found it very easy to use. She used Metro 100% of the time, and I switched back and forth between Metro and Desktop for about a 50/50 ratio. I don't miss the Start menu, because I've stopped using it entirely in Windows 7. The Start menu is a DINOSAUR, and there are many efficient alternatives.

Windows 8's Desktop interface has a LOT of improvements that I like. I miss them now that I'm back on Win7 (Driver issues brought me back, but I'll be very happy when it's released and Wacom releases Win8 Tablet drivers, and Intel releses Win8 Sandy Bridge graphics drivers!)
 
Guest said:
I'd guess that most people that claim to hate windows 8 have never actually tried it. In reality its a little UI update to Windows 7....otherwise there are few noticeable differences.
This is very true, in a general sense. Sure, removing the Start menu was a massive change, but everything else is tweaks (Well, and Ribbons).
 
justgivemeaname said:
Microsoft generally makes decent products, but Windows 8 is just a mistake. I understand that they want to get into the tablet market cause of how popular they are becoming, but they are trying to port an OS for a tablet to a PC. That just doesn't seem like something that should be done. Tablets are designed around a touchscreen, PCs are (generally) designed around mouse and keyboard usage. I've tried the consumer preview and I hated it. Its clunky and not intuitive at all. The desktop in Win 8 is basically just storage for files and there's no point in customizing it since you will never see it because everything has to be done from Metro. I've always been a fan of Microsoft. I won't use or buy any Apple products. My girlfriend wanted a new ipod for her birthday and I spent 2 days trying to convince her to pick something else cause I didn't want to waste more money on something from Apple. But with Windows 8, it seems like Microsoft is trying to convince people to start buying Macs.
Hmm... I have to say that I feel differently. I used Metro about half the time, but not because Desktop was incomplete. Quite the contrary, Desktop felt perfect, but Metro was just an improvement. I realize that this is all quite arbitrary, but it is a fact that you can easily use Windows 8 and almost never see Metro.

Please don't take this badly, but I think your experience was hindered by bias and expectations.
 
excellent. then i can expect myself carrying a reasonable windows 8 tablet by the end of this year. anyway samsung has made series 7 slate, with i5 2467M, 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD. perfect for me, except pricetag is a little bit steep at the moment.
 
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