The EEE Pad from Asus has been one of the most spoken about tablets in the HoneyComb Tablets section, as it comes with a keyboard dock and packs lots of power in it and the keyboard dock which makes it as functional as a laptop at times too. On the other side, a cheaper and similar option is the Lenovo Ideapad K1 which offers pretty much the same specifications on the inside but is a little less appealing overall.
If you’re considering the Lenovo IdeaPad K1, you might also want to check out Acer Iconia Tab vs Lenovo IdeaPad K1 Comparison or if you like the EEE Pad Transformer, do check out Acer Iconia Tab A500 vs Asus EEE Pad Transformer Comparison . Also, look at the Best Android 3.0 Honeycomb Tablets.
In this article we will compare the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and the Lenovo Ideapad K1 tablet, looking at all the features and technical specifications in detail:
Table of Contents:
- Form Factor Comparison
- Display Comparison
- Camera Comparison
- Operating System and User Interface Comparison
- Connectivity Comparison
- Memory Comparison
- Processor and Battery Comparison
Form Factor:
Both the Ideapad K1 and Eee Pad are really thin having dimensions of 10.4” x 7.4” x .5”and 260 x 177 x 13.3 mm respectively.
The Eee Pad weighs considerably less for a 10 inch tablet at 680 g while the Lenovo Ideapad on the other hand weighs at 1.7 pounds. Both these devices have a 10.1 inch screen, and the EEE Pad comes with a keyboard dock, when docked on to, looks exactly like a laptop while the Ideapad looks more like the Touchpad from HP with a lot of black bezel all around it.
Winner : EEE Pad Transformer
Display:
The display of the EEE Pad Transformer is a regular 10.1 inch, supporting upto 256k colors and a maximum resolution of 1280×800 while the IdeaPad K1 has a similar 10.1 inch screen with having a pixel density of approximately 149ppi.
Both these devices come with a gyro sensor, an accelerometer and multi touch input. The displays of these devices are also scratch resistant, thanks to Gorilla Glass on it.
Coming to he resolution and display type , the Eee Pad has a LED-backlit IPS LCD display with the same resolution which Asus claims can support viewing angles of upto 178 degrees.
Winner : Lenovo IdeaPad K1
Camera:
Both the tablets come with cameras and the EEE Pad has a 5 megapixel camera with a single LED flash with a resolution of 2592×1944 pixels. On the other hand, the Ideapad K1’s camera also has the same camera unit, with a 5MP camera and a resolution of 3264×2448 pixels. There’s Geo Tagging also on the Ideapad and the EEE Pad, thanks to the A-GPS chip on it and Android HoneyComb.
Both the tablets do not have a Dual LED flash, they come with a single LED flash and autofocus. Coming to the video recording capabilities, the both the devices record HD video at 720p at 30 frames per second.
The Ideapad K1 from Lenovo and Asus EEE Pad Transformer have a secondary front facing camera, a 2MP one and is used for video calling and by various apps on the Android platform such as Skype, Fring etc.
Winner : EEE Pad Transformer
Operating System and User Interface:
Both the K1 Ideapad and the Eee Pad run on the Honeycomb 3.1 operating system. The EEE Pad transformer has an update to the latest version of Android, HoneyComb 3.2.
Although they run honeycomb 3.1 there is a slight change in the user interface as both of the devices do not run the stock HoneyComb UI and run a custom flavor of their own User Interface over the Android layer. This ads a lot of small user experience changes, design and icon0graphy changes overall. The Eee Pad runs on ASUS Waveshare UI while the Lenovo IdeaPad runs on a custom UI, note that there are some widgets like AccuWeather and SocialTouch from Lenovo on the Ideapad which improves your Social Networking and Google Calendar experience.
Applications are aplenty and all apps on Android smartphones will run on tablets too, enlarged. Also, there are a lot of native apps on HoneyComb pre installed in the device and tablet specific apps are only about 200 in the Android Market and you can check out the Best Apps for Honeycomb Tablets and Best Games for HoneyComb Tablets also.
Winner : Lenovo IdeaPad K1
Connectivity:
Both the tablets support GSM bands on 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 and both support HSDPA on 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 on 3G and comes with a standard SIM Card slot, if you are going for the 3G Model. The 3G version of the Ideapad K1 is available only in a few countries, notably Singapore. So it might or might not be available in your region.
Both the tablets have Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n and both of them have WiFi Hotspot capabalities, thanks to Android HoneyComb which has made it a standard features across all devices right from the most basic Android smartphones.
A-GPS support for locaion and navigation are also present and both devices have Bluetooth 2.1 and USB 2.0 connectivity, along with a HDMI port on both the tablet making it a true entertainer on the move. The HDMI port allows you to connect your tablet to a large screen and enjoy your HD Videos you’d shot on your tablet or movies you’d recently transferred onto it.
The EEE Pad Transformer comes with a keyboard dock, which makes typing of long emails/documents very easy, and also enhances productivity on a tablet.
Winner : Asus EEE Pad Transformer
The EEE Pad transformer comes with 32GB of internal storage, and has a microSD slot. The Ideapad K1 on the other side, comes with only a maximum of 32GB, with having 16GB also as an option.
Winner: Lenovo IdeaPad K1
Processor and Battery:
The Eee Pad has a 1 GHz Dual-core NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor with 1GB of DDR2 RAM while the K1 Ideapad has a similar 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra T20 1.0GHz Processor with 1GB of DDR2 RAM.
The EEE Pad Transformer comes with Li-Ion 24.2Wh Standard battery which gives approximately 9.5 hrs of battery life while the Ideapad K1 comes with two 3250mAh batteries and both the tablets claim to provide over10 hours of continuous usage very easily, when used continuously for multimedia features.
Winner : EEE Pad Transformer
Conclusion:
The EEE Pad transformer is a very useful tablet if you are moving to it from your laptop, as it comes with a keyboard dock and can do almost everything your laptop can. While the IdeaPad K1 from Lenovo is a slick device which is priced very competitively and comes with a very nice User Interface and build design.
The IdeaPad K1 might not be available in certain countries while the EEE Pad Transformer from Asus is widely available throughout the world and though it is priced a bit on the higher side, it is worth the money you are investing as it is packed with really good specifications on the inside and also comes with excellent hardware, not to mention the keyboard dock.
