Lenovo IdeaTab A2109 Review

Our friends over at Lenovo have sent us the IdeaTab A2109 for us to review. It is a 9-inch tablet, so it is competing with the Nexus 7 and several other devices. It has a 1.2GHz processor, 8GB or 16GB of storage, an aluminum roll cage design, 3 megapixel back camera, Android 4.1 JellyBean and much more!

Design

Lenovo’s previous devices were made out of most plastic, but several of them did have this unique roll cage aluminum design. And while it does add some weight to the unit itself, it does make it more durable. The A2109 has a aluminum roll cage design, and it makes the design more elegant. It has an aluminum silver siding that goes around the whole device. It is a heavier device it comes in around 570 grams. And the device curved a little bit, you will definitely see this with the siding of the device. The entire back is silver aluminum, and you get a 3 megapixel camera, 2(two) speakers, some serial number information, and the Lenovo logo. With the speakers there are little stands, this way when you lay it down the sound doesn’t get muffled. The left hand side of the device has a volume rocker, screen orientation lock, or headphone jack. I would like to say that the orientation lock is a little hard to move back and forth at first, but it does get less stiff as you use it. The right hand side of the device has a mini HDMI port and a micro USB port. And the power/sleep button can be found on the top of the device. Above the display you have a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera. Below the display you have the Lenovo logo. I personally like the design of the A2109, even though it is a little heavier than other tablets on the market. It feels really good in your hand and the I like the little curve on the side of the device. I was worried that there may not be that much of a grip on the device, but it does not slip out of your hands. I was surprised that there is no micro SD card slot on this device though.

Hardware

Lenovo put some amazing hardware into the IdeaTab S2110, but let’s see how they did with the A2109. I was very surprised with the display on the A2109, Lenovo gave it a 9.0-inch LED multi-touch display with a 1280 X 800 resolution, but it is not the best display on the market. The viewing angles are not good unless you are looking right at it and if the brightness is all the way up. Colors look somewhat vibrant when you are looking at it directly head on, but as I mentioned before the viewing angles are not the best. For a first time tablet owner, I think the display should be okay if you were hoping to edit photos or use applications that require a really good screen, you may have to look at a different device like the IdeaTab S2110. However, Lenovo did a great job with giving the A2109 speed, inside it has a NVIDIA Tegra 3 T30SL 1.20GHz Quad-Core processor with 1GB of RAM. And the A2109 performs very fast opening and closing applications, searching the web, using Google Voice Search/Now, and general use of the tablet happens very quickly. You can get either 8GB or 16GB of storage inside and you also get WiFi, BlueTooth, and more. The 3 megapixel back camera is not the best, Lenovo opted to not include a LED flash. However, I have a feeling this camera on the back won’t be getting much use. The 1.3 megapixel front facing camera is perfect for video chatting and performs very well. And Lenovo does pre load several communication applications like Skype, Google Talk, and ooVoo. Inside it has a 6000 mAh and I was able to get 8 hours battery life on the A2109. Overall, the hardware is great, except for the display.

Software

The Lenovo IdeaTab A2109 is running Android 4.1.1 JellyBean with a Lenovo user interface. Originally it was released with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but it did get the update earlier this month. This shows that Lenovo is committed to providing the latest and greatest software for its devices. For the most part it is a very stock feel of the Android operating system, but you do have some nice Lenovo touches. For instance on the home pages of the device you have boxes which function ass applications folders and as widgets. You get a folder for Games, which has GameTanium and Cut The Rope inside. And of course you can add more applications into these folders. In terms of pre-loaded applications you get GO Keyboard, AccuWeather, Amazon Kindle, Chrome, Docs To Go, ES File Explorer, Evernote, GameTanium, Google App Suite, News Republic, Norton Secuirty, ooVoo, Skype, PrinterShare for Lenovo, UI Intro, SugarSync, Local Numbers, WiFi Direct, and more! So while there is a good amount of pre-loaded applications, many of them will come in handy. And the NVIDIA Tegra 3 T30SL 1.20GHz Quad-Core processor with 1GB of RAM keeps the A2109 moving!

Bottom Line

The Lenovo IdeaTab A2109 is a nice Android tablet. It is running Android 4.1 JellyBean with a great Lenovo User Interface. It runs super fast thanks to its NVIDIA Tegra 3 T30SL 1.20GHz Quad-Core processor with 1GB of RAM. It has a not so good 9.0-inch LED multi-touch display with a 1280 X 800 resolution, but I think you might be able to move past it because of its price and its features. It has a nice 1.3 megapixel front facing camera. A simple aluminum roll cage design, that has a nice curved siding feature to it. And it is backed by a great company!  The Lenovo IdeaTab A2109 starts at $299.99 and is available now. If you are looking for a good starter 9-inch tablet and if you can look past the not so good screen, this may be for you. If you can’t look past the screen, I would suggest looking at the Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 or a Samsung tablet. For More Information On The Lenovo IdeaTab A2109, Please Click Here. We would like to thank Lenovo for providing us with a copy of the “Lenovo IdeaTab A2109”.