Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet Review

[copaloro]

I have had a bit of time to use the recently purchased Lenovo tablet, this is running android os, so its not a laptop/tablet that runs windows, it was easy to use straight away, quite intuitive you could say,its light, compact, and has a decent battery life.

My main reason for buying this tablet was for the ability to use it as a Sketchbook, I was very close to getting a cintiq but opted for this instead because of its portability and versatility, I got my hands on Photoshop touch for under $10 from android market, I was disapointed with it straight away, the line quality is quite bad, seems like there's no anti-aliasing, I've looked around to find possibly more options but unfortunately could not find anything that made the lines cleaner, I'm surprised the op got such good results.

So I downloaded Sketchbook pro, thought I'd give it a try for under $5, t was a very good idea because the line quality is there, this is quite a good alternative to Photoshop touch, the only issues are; inability to crop, unable to set canvas size, could not find an eye dropper tool (please let me know if there is a way).

I've found myself using the tablet as a replacement to my laptop because its so simple and efficient to use, I'm not certain that its practical for serious digital painting projects but for sketching its quite alright. The programs I mentioned above will need some further upgrades, what PS touch has sketch up lacks and vice-versa. I hope my short review was helpful.

[Pav]

Ok it all comes down to Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet + Photoshop Touch/Sketchbook combo OR LE1600/1700 PC Tablet + SAI and any other full painting software.

One is new, light, long battery life but with limitations, costs $600, other is old, battery is crap but you get to use the best software available, costs $200-$300 for a dead old technology.


Update: just ordered Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet with pen and folio case, will write my thoughts on it.

[copaloro]

I just found the eye drop tool in sketch up, was there all along, still no crop tool though and from what I've read no one else has discovered the tool.

Anyways I failed to mention that when using the tablet for drawing, if your not careful, tablet will register palm as input and cause some mistakes, I've noticed that its better to first touch the screen with the stylus before putting palm down.

Anyhow I'd very much like to hear your review pav, thanks.

[copaloro]

Here is a painting done on the tablet in Sketchbook, sorry about the size, as I said before there's no cropping toll in sb.

[Pav]

I tested the ThinkPad Tablet in the field today, I tried to paint the mall scene in Photoshop Touch and it was a quite painful experience with a blurry image at the end.





The hardware is ok, the screen feels numb sometimes but does the job, the software on the other hand is not there yet, at least on Android.
Technically non of these is designed for an artist, the tablet is meant for hand writing and the Photoshop Touch is geared towards a basic photo editing. Acquiring colors was hard, a painting program needs a color wheel that would stay on screen all the time and I wish the Thinkpad pen button could get programmed as a color picker.

For now I'd stick with a laptop+wacom tablet combo and maybe look at Apple offerings.

[Penabled]

So you didn't try out Sketchbook Pro for it eh? It's a completely different animal really...which is why I haven't bothered to buy the PS Touch for my TPT and glad I didn't.

Samsung now has a 10 inch version of their Note coming soon so I am sure we will start seeing better painting apps for Android.

[Magnus]

Hello. Interested in the LE1700. Is it equal or better than a cintiq for drawing?
How is the screen quality? Contrast and so on. And is there any lag when you draw in spite of the 4gig ram?

I have just started painting and going to an art school this fall so I'm seriously thinking about this. Is this the best digital technology for life painting/drawing right now? I really wan't to be able to bring it with me to paint on location. Is this just a fun thing is it better to just use acrylics?

[Pav]

So you didn't try out Sketchbook Pro for it eh?

Sketchbook Pro is not really a painting app either, I don't get why every app insists on color swatches instead of a full color wheel. Will try other less known apps such as Peintureroid.

Edit: Doodledroid is awesome, I think it even supports pressure sensitivity, too bad I root-bricked my tablet before I fully tested it.

[Penabled]

Sketchbook Pro is not a painting app either, I don't get why every app insists on color swatches instead of a full color wheel. Will try other less knowns app such as Peintureroid.

Not a painting app? I'll admit it's not perfect but then I'm not sure any of them are...have you experimented with different brush settings? You do realize that in SBPro you can change any of the default brushes by opening up the brush window and tapping the little icon to the right of the brush and bucket tool buttons, yes? And again it does have a color wheel....maybe not one you are expecting but you aren't limited to just the swatches pallet. Okay, okay...it's not a true color wheel...but then not even PS has that prior to CS5 (does it even now?) without a plugin. SBPro even has layers.

Peintureroid is actually pretty kewl but I'm not sure if it supports the pen pressure on the Lenovo...haven't tried it since getting the TPT, though I did use it on the Acer I had before my TPT.

Here is something I am working on from my TPT:

[Nemome]

How are the android apps looking right now?
Any updates or new apps that are useful?

The tablet is kind of cheap right now, so I'm wondering if it's worh its money or if the lack of apps is still the problem.
Would love to hear some opinions.

[munho]

How are the android apps looking right now?
Any updates or new apps that are useful?

The tablet is kind of cheap right now, so I'm wondering if it's worh its money or if the lack of apps is still the problem.
Would love to hear some opinions.

This whole "Android sucks" thing is over played imo. It's really about expectations. If you expect to create finished artworks like in PS you will be sorely disappointed and frustrated. If you want a tablet for sketching on the couch or for keeping a sketchbook, then this kind of thing is fine.

I've been messing with various tablets since the first iPad. Before that I wasn't a digital painter, but I thought it would be a good stepping stone. For me it didn't work because I never connected with the app. A year after, I upgraded to an iPad 2 hoping the jump in hardware would help my experience. It wasn't the hardware, but the software for me. I bought an app called Procreate and everything changed. I "got it". Now, I can move between iOS or Android for sketches and rough paintings pretty easily. I use it for idea generation. I take those ideas and apply them to paper and canvas and my Cintiq.

It's all about expectations. A little aside about pressure sensitivity or just capacitive touch. I don't think it matters much right now. Just get a tablet that's capacitive touch and use a stylus. The software available on Android isn't really good enough to take advantage of devices that have pressure sensitivity (ntrig or wacom). And the pressure sensitivity hardware isn't great at all. It does work, but the levels of pressure are difficult to control. Better to adjust size on your own.

Tablets I've owned (iPad, iPad 2, HTC Flyer (ntrig digitizer), HTC JetStream(ntrig digitizer), Samsung Galaxy Note phone, "new" iPad).

Best apps are definitely on the iPad and that is my favorite tablet, again make sure you're expectations are in check and understand it's not pressure sensitive.

Android apps aren't as good, but the better ones are Sketchbook Pro, Adobe Ideas.

Adobe Ideas is a weird app. I like it because the tools are simple and I get clean crisp lines because it's vector based. Again, I don't bring these into Illustrator or Photoshop. I use sketches for reference or just as layers underneath.

Would I buy an Android tablet for sketching if the iPad didn't exist? yes, but I definitely prefer the iPad.

I hope that helps.

Other neat android apps of Note:
Sketchbook Pro (image resolution is tied to screen resolution)
Adobe Ideas (Vector, crisp and smoothed lines)
Infinite Painter (this one is kind of quirky, but once you get the hang of it I like it a lot)
Papyrus (this is a note app, but it's pretty great so far)

my 2c feel free to ask any other questions.

[peterr77]

thanks for the review Sketchroll, I have been seriously looking at the Lenovo for a couple of months now but I keep hoping someone will press Wacom into finally making a 10 inch sensor
http://www.centplay.com/affiliate/id_139/

[darkmagistric]

They have. The upcoming 10.1 Inch Galaxy Note is fully Wacom/S-Pen supported.

Sadly the Android Art app selection is still garbage compared to the Ipad Art Apps.

And even though ICS sandwich did help with the lag, and added a hovering cursor...the integration of Wacom with Android is still very buggy...and the cursor (although I love that addition)...makes it much more apparant the problems with the pen.

[Pav]

How are the android apps looking right now?
Any updates or new apps that are useful?

The tablet is kind of cheap right now, so I'm wondering if it's worh its money or if the lack of apps is still the problem.
Would love to hear some opinions.

Doodledroid is nice



but I want an app that has a percistent bar with a color selector and maybe brush size controls, and most apps try to hide these tools to give you more canvas which I'd happily sacrifice to have tools I need to be on screen all the time.
Art Rage and Procreate on the Ipad are close though.

[Featherbeard]

I say hold out for the Galaxy note 10.1 inch tablet! I have the Note (Phone) version and it's very responsive, surprisingly! (Though it's a Wacom digitizer, so it's kind of natural!)

[Pav]

Ok going back to a Thinkpad tablet, I rediscovered the Sketchbook Pro again by fiddling with settings and brushes, I think it's a great app, at least all I need on Android right now, just wish the screen was more responsive.
A few sketches I painted from observation:

[iven]

I am confused you guys are talking about a PC tablet, just as I did here, right!?
Maybe you guys can make a click 4 me and tell me what to get, I thought I know
what to buy but I feel insecure now. PLEASE read a bit thou what programs I want to use !

[Pav]

The first tablet running Android, they are also releasing the Windows 8 based second version of this tablet this Fall.