Power & Portability: Lenovo’s ThinkPad 8 Now Available

The ThinkPad 8, Lenovo’s recently announced Windows PC that embraces the tablet form factor without breaking the bank or leaving users craving for more power, is now available for order.

Announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, the ThinkPad 8 looks like a traditional tablet. Instead of a monstrous and slightly unwieldy 10-inch display, the ThinkPad 8 has a portrait-oriented 8.3-inch display. This means that the ThinkPad 8 will feels like an e-reader or phablet in the hand.

It’s those casual tablet-like looks that hide the ThinkPad 8’s true nature. The ThinkPad 8 includes everything business users need to get their job done and more. All of the tablet’s processing is done by an Intel Atom CPU. It won’t allow users to play games at their highest settings, however Intel Atom will take care of all of a user’s productivity and light entertainment needs without a problem. It’ll also let them install traditional desktop applications in Windows 8.

There’s also dual HD cameras for taking photos and conferencing with coworkers. The ThinkPad 8 that’s available for shipping now also includes 64GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM. As such, users can install the programs they need and run as many of them at the same time as their busy day requires.

About the only thing that could cause business users some issues is the eyestrain that it’ll occur if they attempt to work with desktop applications on the device itself. 8.3-inches is a lot of screen real estate, however the display has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. In short, text in desktop apps like iTunes may appear entirely too small to read. On the other hand, the device’s micro HDMI-out will allow users to connect to external monitors.

It’s also worth noting that the ThinkPad 8 only has a single MicroUSB 3.0 port. As such, users will want to pick up a USB hub of sort. That’s especially true for users who already have specific keyboards, mice and smartphone docks for use at work. When not in front of a desk ThinkPad 8 users should expect about 7.2 hours of up-time before needing to charge, according to Lenovo.

GottaBeMobile’s Josh Smith put the Lenovo ThinkPad 8 through its paces during CES 2014.

Read: ThinkPad 8 Delivers Full Windows 8 Productivity in a Small Package

In the video the ThinkPad 8 is running two external monitors with Microsoft Office open. Every ThinkPad 8 tablet comes with a free copy of Microsoft Office included. Lenovo says users who order the ThinkPad 8 can expect it to arrive within 1-3 weeks with free standard shipping.