Lenovo ThinkPad Edge S230u

With the launch of Windows 8, you will see new laptop designs to take advantage of the new touch optimized operating system. Yesterday, we took a look at the Sony Vaio Duo, slider PC. Lenovo's take on it has been more traditional. Lenovo has been building tablet PC's for nearly a decade now (back to the days when it was still sub-contracting for IBM) and has decided that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge S230u is a traditional Tablet PC, which has a swiveling screen.

Tablet PC's have not been very successful for three reasons mainly. First, is that older versions of Windows, and Windows software, were not touch optimized. Second, converting an ultraportable laptop into a Tablet PC would add a few pounds in weight making it heavy. Third, they were expensive.

Microsoft gives the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge S230u a new touch centric operating system, and Lenovo is trying to take care of the two other issues. 

Lenovo's 12.1 to 12.5 inch Tablet PC's have weighted from 3.5-4 pounds in the past, which many considered too heavy for tablet mode. The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge S230u brings in ultrabook technology into the picture keeps the weight of this 12.5-inch Tablet PC to just a bit under 3.5 pounds, which is on the lower end of the scale. Still heavier than I would like. The 7 hour battery is probably the only reason is was not lighter. The frame is a slim 0.8-inches.

As for cost, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge S230u is priced at Php55,990 for a Core i5-3317U model with a 500 GB hard drive and Windows 8 on board. It is not cheap, but much cheaper than other Lenovo Tablet PC's which would go into the six figure range. For the money though, it would have been nice to see a SSD drive option. Even a small 64 GB SSD drive.

At over 50K, this wont become a mainstream option in the Philippines. But eventually, lower cost Core i3 and AMD powered models code take it into the under 40K price range.