It seems like forever ago that the tech world converged on Barcelona Spain for the 2013 Mobile World Congress. One of the often heard gripes about the event was that a lot of the major players like HTC and Samsung basically sat out the annual trade show in favor of having their own separate launch events for their flagships the One and The Galaxy S IV. While this move all but guaranteed that those manufacturers would be able to have an entire news cycle all to themselves by not having to share the stage with the many other companies at MWC, it also ensured that some of the smaller and lesser known device makers would get some much needed ink.
One manufacturer that was able to gain some pub during that week was Lenovo. Better known to most American consumers for their laptop and notebook computers, the Chinese company was able to showcase an upcoming 10.2 inch tablet, the IdeaTab S6000, at the event. Now it appears that Lenovo, who actually has a pretty big presence in China for selling smartphones and tablets, will be looking to make some inroads here in the United States as they just put their larger than average tab up for FCC approval.
Aside from the 10.2 screen size, one spec that will surely jump off the page to most people is that this slate is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz MediaTek MTK8389 processor. The use of this processor is a strong indicator that this device will fit into the “budget” category. MediaTek components are a lot like Lenovo tablets themselves, meaning that while they aren’t widely used here in the U.S. they certainly have a footprint in China as they have plans to ship 200 million units in that country alone this year.
In addition to the processor, we know that the IdeaTab S6000 will feature a 1280 x 800 pixel display with a 178 degree viewing angle on that 10 plus inch screen. Lenovo also touts a rather pedestrian 8 hours of battery life on this tablet with heavy use as well as the fact that it will ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Finally we can expect to see the Lenovo IdeaTab S6000 to come with a price tag of less than $400, with some reports even having it in the sub $300 range. This is also apparently the precursor to a pair of 7 inch tablets, the IdeaTab A1000 with a dual-core chip, and an IdeaTab A300 with a MediaTek quad-core chip.