LAS VEGAS -- One could be forgiven for briefly mistaking the new ThinkPad 8 tablet -- sleek, gun-metal gray with a brilliant, sharp 8.3-inch screen -- for an iPad mini. However, the similarities are only skin deep.
Inside the new mid-range tablet, unveiled Sunday at CES in Las Vegas, the ThinkPad 8 runs Windows 8.1 on Intel's newest Atom mobile CPU, also known as Bay Trail.
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The tablet, which starts at $399 and weighs less than one pound, is available now as a Wi-Fi-only model in the United States. The tablet includes a SIM card slot, which will be used for LTE support in other markets. Lenovo representatives said the mobile broadband option should be coming to the U.S. soon, too.
Like the iPad mini, Lenovo's ThinkPad 8 includes two cameras: the rear-facing one is 8MP and the the front is 2 MP. By contrast, the iPad mini's highest resolution camera is just 5 MP.
Lenovo also showed off a new case, which like the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9's Origami case, adds a little functionality when you slip it on. You slide down Amazon's Origami to enable the camera, but for the ThinkPad 8, just flip down one corner of the Quickshot cover to use the 8 MP camera. No need to unlock to ThinkPad 8 or press any other button.
Although the ThinkPad 8 screen is HD and slightly larger than the iPad Mini's, it doesn't, at 1920 x 1200, quite meet the mini's retina display specs (2,048 x 1,536). The ThinkPad 8's $399 configuration includes 8 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, and is also available in 64 GB and 128 GB storage configurations, like the iPad Mini.
We spent some time holding the Thinkpad 8 and it feels light and sharp. The big question mark, though, is whether Windows 8.1 can make an effective tablet interface.
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Image: Mashable