Lenovo’s Intel-powered Tab S8 is actually pretty good for the money

As one of the largest laptop computer makers in the world, Lenovo has a good relationship with Intel. So it’s not surprising that Lenovo is one of the leaders trying to take Intel-powered Android tablets mainstream in the United States. At IFA on Wednesday, Lenovo is set to announce the Tab S8, an affordable eight-inch tablet with an Intel Atom processor. The Tab S8 is shaping up to be a good deal. The $200 slate will come with a 1920 x 1200 screen, a slim bezel and a quad-core Intel Z3745 processor based on Bay Trail architecture. Unfortunately, the high-resolution screen and Intel processor comes with a tradeoff: According to Lenovo, the 4290mAh battery in the Tab S8 will only muster “up to seven hours of battery life,” a disappointment when Lenovo’s Yoga tablets boast up to 18 hours of battery life. The Tab S8 will come with 16GB of storage space, although there isn’t a MicroSD card slot. There will eventually be a version with an LTE modem as well as four different colors to choose from. While Android doesn’t currently have 64-bit kernel support, the next major update (currently in developer preview as Android L) will be able to take advantage of the 64-bit Bay Trail processor in the Tab S8. Although the tablet will only come with 2GB of RAM, Intel says that computer-intensive Android applications “can see significant improvements when moved from 32-bit to 64-bit.”