Lenovo IdeaTab A1000L 7-Inch 8 GB Tablet

This was intended as a gift for a fairly tech savvy person, for personal and business use. The more I read of the specs and reviews, I came to realize this version of the A1000 is behind the curve. I wound up returning it even at AMAZON's lowest pre-Christmas price.First, the AMAZON writeup states no less than 3 times this tablet has a 1.2GHz dual core chip. Other reviews and the box itself state that a slower 1GHz chip is used. Benchmark tests indicate it clocks in at an even slower 800mHz. By comparison, that's about what older Android phones can do.Next, .5GB of RAM is 2012 technology and its not even the faster DDR3 standard. Many under-$100 tablets have 1GB RAM.I've seen the A1000L and these specs contribute to some of the slower response and video issues it has.Also, this A1000L version lacks:-Bluetooth- useable camera- GPS- Dolby speakers like the A1000 (only thru headphones)- HDMIAre there nice features for the price? Yes, namely- Lenovo name, support, forums- long battery life and reliable charging- good sound- little bloatware loaded with Jelly Bean- expansion card slotFor kids and older children, those newer to Android tablets, a solid choice that should be current enough for a year or two. The redesigned A1000 with 1 GB RAM, 1.2GHz chip and 16GB (not offered here) would be better for business and heavier duty personal use, but still falls short of tech specs for Samsung, Hisense, ASUS, Acer, Nexus coming in at $130-170. And the CES is just around the corner...

What a fantastic bargain. I always wanted a tablet, but wanted to wait for pocket calculator prices (anyone who was a live in the 1970s understands, the rest, ask your elders). I lusted after some of the clones coming in from China, but some of the mail order houses had iffy reputations. A cheap tablet, from a name manufacturer on Amazon? This is the perfect storm.Another reason I wanted a cheap android tablet is Chromecast. I just bought one, and use it a lot, but I didn't want to wear out my phone as a remote control.The A1000L is fast, doesn't weigh much, and runs all my favorite applications. The Wifi connection is good and it holds on to the Chromecast connection much better than my phone did! As a reading device using the Kindle app it's fantastic. I have to wonder why this wouldn't be a better option than a Paperwhite!The scrolling and swiping are quick. The screen is nice and clear, great for YouTube videos. Gaming runs nicely. I also like using mobile apps like Facebook on the larger 7" screen.One thing that is missing (and seems to be from all of the new tablets) is a full sized USB port. I wanted to plug my Clear USB stick for mobile broadband in. However, I ordered a micro USB to standard USB female adapter and we'll see if that works (cost less than a dollar). Also there is no Bluetooth. I found this to be a problem after I bought a soundbar which could accept wireless audio. No doubt I can simply add a Bluetooth dongle.

Bought this tablet for my 8 year old nephew-The first tablet we got wouldn't charge - I called Lenovo and for their wonderful customer service (yes, that was sarcastic) and they told me I needed to download a "driver" to the charger and they would help me by remoting into my laptop and helping to install the necessary things. Well, once they got onto my laptop they disabled the antivirus and turned off my fire wall (now I'm dealing with a virus on my laptop) - they then told me my computer won't support the file they needed to download so I would need to send in the tablet to be fixed and I would be the one paying for the shipping - both ways. Luckily Amazon has an amazing return policy, so I was able to contact amazon and exchange the tablet at no charge!Now we are on tablet 2 - its an ok tablet. It freezes all the time and needs the "reset" button pushed almost every other day. When its working, it works great so I suppose its an ok tablet since it was given to an 8 year old and we didn't want to spend too much money on something he will most likely drop/break/lose in a few months.I myself have a Samsung Galaxy Tab and this tablet is NOTHING compared to it - but you get what you pay for I guess...

I bought 34 of these to take to Africa for a mission trip. I was able to set them up and deliver them with a sstandard image. The price point, performance and features were right on the mark. For us this was the long promised $100 African computer. I did have three of them go crazy during training they got in a diagnostic mode I couldn't get out of. I'm not sure that they did to kick into this mode. I never had this issue with the one I used for several months. However I let them run dead and then recharge them and they worked fine. We loaded them up with videos, audio files, images and PDF books. All this content was put on a 16GB micro SD card. The deployment went well and we were able to train all of the Africans to use them in about ½ hour. We will see how they hold up in harsh environments with poor power quality. I was impressed with the price point and overall quality. Keep up the good work Lenovo.