During Gadget Show Live 2011, Lenovo's senior specialist in marketing William Cai reportedly said that the company plans to release a 23-inch tablet sometime later this year. The device will be based on the company's All-In-One (AIO) range but with a major reduction in weight.
"We think that there is potential for a 23-inch tablet," Cai said during the convention. "We'd have to take care of battery life and we are working to get the weight down."
Given the size of the device, Cai is aware that it typically won't be used outside the house. The idea is to provide the qualities of a touchscreen AIO but not necessarily the bulkiness, making it easy to move from room to room.
"It's obviously not for full mobility use, but it could be moved from room to room in the house and used with a full keyboard, or as a television," he said. "Or you could lay it on a table top and use it for family games."
Lenovo will likely borrow the design used in the Acer Iconia Tab W500 and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, throwing the USB ports, multi-card reader, FireWire and perhaps even an optical drive into a separate keyboard dock. This will allow for the portability of a (large) tablet while maintaining the functionality of a desktop AIO. The question is, what OS will Lenovo eventually choose?
While Cai wouldn't offer a definitive timeframe or additional device details, he said that Lenovo is "hoping that we can launch it later this year." Perhaps we'll hear more about this oversized tablet next month during Computex 2011.
