Only recently, Lenovo had announced its ThinkPad 10 second generation and in the process, it will be taking on Microsoft's Surface 3 slate. As the name suggests, ThinkPad 10 features a 10 inch display, which is the same screen size as its rival, along with the same starting price of $499 for the base model. According to Business News Daily, the tablet resonates a resolution a 1920 x 1200 pixels, in comparison to Surface 3's 1080p display.
When ThinkPad 10 officially launches in August, it will be available in two chipset models:
- Intel Atom Z8500 (quad-core running at 1.44 GHz; boost frequency of 2.24 GHz)
- Intel Atom Z8700 (quad-core running at 1.6 GHz; boost frequency of 2.6 GHz)
The $499 model will definitely be running the 1.44 GHz quad-core CPU, which is present in Intel's Atom x5 chipset. The $499 Surface 3 will be running Intel Atom x7 (Atom Z8700), which means that users will automatically be getting a processing performance boost if they choose to purchase Microsoft's 10 inch slate instead of ThinkPad 10.
Both base models are going to feature 2 GB of RAM, and the 4 GB RAM model of Surface 3 is currently retailing for $599. For the moment, the price tag of ThinkPad 10 4 GB RAM model has not yet been listed, but consumers should not expect a cheap product to roll out in August. Lenovo's tablet will be running Windows 10 'out of the box', which will not require users to go through a tedious update process like they will have to with Surface 3, assuming they purchase the tablet before the operating system has been officially launched.
As for which tablet is the better purchase, Surface 3 currently wins this round, primarily because it features a better clocked processor for the same price tag. Lenovo ThinkPad 10 might feature a slightly better battery (8,600 mAh compared to 8,000 mAh on Surface 3) and will be running the Windows 10 platform, but for most users, the above battery difference is negligible.
