Lenovo Announces Tab S8 Tablet with Intel Inside for $200

Lenovo announced a new 8-inch Intel-powered Android 4.4 KitKat tablet, the Lenovo Tab S8, with a nice 1900×1200 screen for only $199.99.

This sleek new tablet from Lenovo comes with an ultrathin black bezel around the high-resolution One Glass Display. A One Glass Display means the design doesn’t need a layer for the display and a layer for the touchscreen and a layer to cover it all. This makes for a thinner and lighter display, which results in a thin design.

The better-than-1080p-HD-display matches the resolution on the Nexus 7, one of the most popular smaller form-factor Android tablets available today. The Tab S8 screen measures an inch larger, which means the dots per inch won’t measure as high, but at this level it won’t seem that noticeable to comparing eyes.

The Tab S8 doesn’t compete with the screen resolution specs on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, but Samsung’s tablet costs twice as much.

Lenovo Tab S8 with Intel Inside

Lenovo touts the Tab S8 as the first Intel-powered Android tablet. ASUS Memo Pad owners might disagree with that claim, since their tablet also runs on the same Intel processor the Tab S8 uses.

The Lenovo Tab S8 sports a quad-core Intel Atom Z3745 processor running at 1.33GHz with Intel Burst Technology that maxes out at 1.86GHz for more power-hungry tasks. They promise that the tablet will handle any task. We’ll have to wait to compare it to other powerful high-end tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S or the LG G Pad.

Lenovo Tab S8 Cameras

Most poeple don’t think of taking pictures with their tablet, but Lenovo chose to put what looks like a decent camera on the back of their tablet. It actually ships with two cameras on the S8, a 1.6MP front facing camera and an 8MP rear-facing shooter.

The rear camera on the Tab S8 comes with a fast f2.2 lens, which means the camera should give users decent low-light performance. With cameras, the “f-stop” measurement means more light can get to the sensor, meaning the camera needs less ambient light to take decent shots. It also gives users an attractive “BOKEH” effect where the background of images shot at the right circumstances will get blurred out, allowing the person to focus their attention on the main part of the image.

At 8MP, users can take pictures that they can print in clear 8×10 size, theoretically. That’s okay for images, but better for shooting documents since many users will treat the tablet’s camera as a portable scanner, importing documents into programs like Evernote or other apps they use to create documents or presentations. The pre-installed SHAREfit app aims to help users share their photos with others.

Other Specs

The Tab S8 will measure only .31-inches thin and weigh just .65lbs. It ships with an optional 4G LTE Intel XMMTM 7160 wireless broadband radio for cellphone data connection. Of course there’s also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

Battery life should hit 7 hours, a little low for tablets these days, but that’s expected with the small and thin design. It’s hard to pack much battery in such a small design.

As stated, the operating system is Android 4.4 KitKat. It’s running on a tablet with 16GB of storage and 2GB of internal memory.

The two front-facing speakers will hopefully give the tablet decent sound. Many tablets come with speakers that face the rear or sit on the edges.

Availability

Buyers can get their hands on the Tab S8 sometime this month. Lenovo didn’t offer a specific date or places where buyers can pick up this attractive and budget friendly KitKat tablet.