14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier today, a Chinese publication revealed a picture showing us that Lenovo is working on a new Android tablet of some sort.
The device is not part of the Yoga family because it lacks the characteristic hinge design that allows the slate to sit up by itself. A few hours after initially reporting about the tablet, Notebook Italia comes with more info about the tab in an effort to shade more light on the matter.
Apparently, the Lenovo TAB S8-50F, Lenovo TAB S8-50L and Lenovo TAB S8-50LC have all received their certification in the Bluetooth SIG database. These models have all been filed under the “Personal Tablet” product category, so we’re correct when telling you these are slates.
As usual with devices showing on the Bluetooth SIG website, there is no technical information about the models, but that doesn't stop us from speculating and making correlations.
Before we proceed to so, we should point out that given the timing of these filings, Lenovo might be gearing up to preview them at IFA 2014 in Berlin, next month. Lenovo has already sent out invites for a press conference that’s to take place on September 4. We expect to see a lot of good things during that day.
Now, let’s try to make sense of these model numbers that have showed up with Bluetooth SIG. Compiling the three versions, we dare say that the tablet could arrive in the wild as the Lenovo IdeaTab S8-50 with Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G LTE variations (hence the three distinct listings).
This is the first time we ever spot such a reference regarding any product coming from Lenovo. However, the IdeaTab S-Series of tablet already exists, so the S8 may be a subcategory of some sort.
We should also remember that, during 2013’s IFA, Lenovo took the opportunity to unveil the IdeaTab S5000, a tablet that offered average specs.
So, the IdeaTab S8-50 might be the next-gen device from the lineup. Considering Lenovo’s tablet nomenclature has seen the advent of the IdeaTab A7-30, A7-50, A8 and A10, the company might be looking to adapt the name of the new slate to fit these parameters.
The tablet should arrive with an 8-inch form factor, and judging by what we told you earlier, it won’t take advantage of the ARM architecture but of the Intel one. The device will run Android 4.4 out of the box (most likely the latest KitKat version).
Interestingly enough, along with these three tablets, two other devices have received certifications, the PC-TS508T1W and PC-TS708T1W. We can only make a wild guess at what these products actually are. Maybe dedicated tablet keyboards? Who knows, only time will tell.