My Review of my new A2109 Things to consider for possible owners....

WasteLandSavage

Senior Member
Dec 3, 2012
194
38
Lenovo A2109.


I've been using this tablet now for a little of five days now, And all I can say is that it is on par with the much more expensive tablets avalible out there.
I have an Acer Iconia A500 which is up to $200 more and the quality of the A2109 far surpasses it.
With the only difference being between the two is the A2109 is a nine inch tablet, and the A500 is a 10.1 inch tablet.


I'll start first on the one thing that all reviewers will complain about most with the A2109 the viewing angle of the display.
The Display is very clear "YES" it has glare but that's the nature of the beast when your dealing with Gorilla Glass the Iconia also has this problem.
If you want to eliminate this problem get you a good quality Anti Glare Screen Protector, this will eliminate any glare and allow you to use it outside without problems.
I myself prefer the Clear Screen Protectors as they will enhance the colors and clairity of your display, while you will still have the problems of the Gorilla Glass Glare when used inside if you keep from lights being directly overhead you won't have much of a problem with it.
Here again it's all a matter of personal preference as to Anti Glare or Clear Screen Protector's. Just be sure to buy the Quality ones and not the fly by night el cheap'o ones.


As for the viewing angles I don't see a problem with it, just so long as your not trying to view it at 45 degrees, If you take into account that even with a laptop you'll have problems with viewing it if your display is set straight up and you lean back into your chair the top of the screen will fade unless you point it down a bit.
So why should we expect anything different from our tablets?


The display is very responsive very little lag time if any between the changing of home screens, Icons are easy to see, Text is clear, and they make it easy to edit your Icons or move things around on your screen.
Instead of having to hold and drag each Icon to a trash bin at the top of the screen, Once you've held and highlighted that Icon all Icon's on that screen go into edit mode, where you can either press the red X beside that Icon to delete it, Or just Drag and Drop it to it's new position. Once you are finished editing your screen simply go to the top and click on the finish edit mode and your good to go.


The Nvidia Tegra 3 CPU/GPU has Four Cores running at 1.2ghz each, with a Low Power sleeper core that can handle the majority of your everyday task this fifth core runs at 800mhz, Each Core Throttles at it's own speed depending on the demand of the CPU at the time all independently running at each cores needed speed.
It has 12 GPU Cores which are based on the older early to mid 90's Nvidia 6 to 7000 series of GPU'S used on the desktops and laptop computers of that time. More then enough to power today's Android Games.
It also has 1mb onboard L2 cache divided into 256kb used by each core.


It has 1gb worth of ddr3 memory, While this is more then enough you'll need a memory program avaliable at the Google Play Store to clean the memory of unwanted left over bits of programs that are no longer in use. While I have had very few crashes because of running out of memory. The one thing that would benifit it as well as most even Upper End Tablets is another gig of memory. But this is not the A2109's flaw but instead of the makers not adding anything until absolutely needed.
We had that problem when MS first brought out Vista the mfg's were TO SLOW in putting in more then just was what was necessary to get it to run.


Games on this thing flies, Loading of all programs flies, bringing up even 98% of web pages are much faster then the sister Tegra 2 chip.


It also holds a Micro SD Card up to 32gb formatted at Fat32, Some have even got it to support a 64gb card when formatted to Fat 32.


Battery Life is PRETTY GOOD when running it while not on Balanced Power while Playing games, video, listening to music, surfing downloading and the like the whole mix gave me right at 8hrs before hitting it's programmed 6% shut down point.
If on Balanced Power Mode were used I'd estimate 9 to 10 hours or even a little more not out of the question.


It has and Aluminum Back which is very sturdy , as well as a roll cage built inside to protect the tablet from drops.Also added is:


Bluetooth 3.0 chip, as well as a Wifi chip running b/g/n capable.


The Power Pack is set up to where you can easily unplug it and put it in your car using a Lighter Adapter and your all set to go.


Ports are Micro Usb for sync and charging or the tablet, Micro Hdmi 1080p capable, Combo Mic/Speaker Jack.
Power as well as Volume Buttons are all easily accessible.


It has two speakers on the back that are SRS driven that are on par with more expensive tablets, and even better in some respects.


Mine shipped with Android Jelly Bean 4.1.1 as the OS, even though most sites will tell you it's Ice Cream Sandwich which was the original OS that shipped on it.


Overall the A2109 can't be beat.
It's far above par for a Budget Priced Tablet, and more then on par with the more expensive ones and even better in lots of ways.


I don't regret choosing this to be my replacement tablet for my old Iconia and I'm sure you won't regret it either if you'll just give it a try......
 

WasteLandSavage

Senior Member
Dec 3, 2012
194
38
Very comprehensive. I don't think it has G Glass tho.

Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using Tapatalk HD

According to a Spec Sheet I had read somewhere it did/does but I wouldn't say 100%,, But by a picture on that on link about disasembling the A2109 it shows a 140lb guy standing on one, The screen was on and no cracks I don't know of any other display that could stand that.

But in any event it proves how strong and sturdy the A2109 is.... :cool:

I may stand corrected here and if I can find where it said Gorilla Glass I'll be sure to post it back here.
But here is a link to the Lenovo forums on the subject.
And in the pdf file link I see nowhere where it says what the display material is.

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad...rilla-glass/m-p/972749/highlight/false#M16187

"PLEASE" correct me if I am wrong and show me.

Thanks: Ricky
 
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WasteLandSavage

Senior Member
Dec 3, 2012
194
38
I don't think so either. In the datasheet:
http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/tablet/ideapad/a2109/IdeaTab-A2109-datasheet.pdf
they brag about the tough aluminum back but say nothing about the display other than general specs.

But then again Lenovo has a bad habit of omitting things in their manuals and spec sheets.
In the maintennce guide it shows a separate ac power jack which the A2109 does not have.
They also fail to show anywhere the location of the Micro sd card. Just saying. ;)
 

arbarnhart

Senior Member
Jan 1, 2013
178
38
The low tech high tech way to clean up memory is to swipe things off the window list. Run a few apps and then go into settings and look at the available memory. Press the icon to get the window list and start swiping them to the side. You will see memory go up and if you go to running applications you will see that they disappear. I like some apps to stay loaded so I still have the same context. But some apps, especially memory hogging games, I want to unload.
 

arbarnhart

Senior Member
Jan 1, 2013
178
38
Nice review, I agree that the tablet has gorilla glass.

When you search:
lenovo a2109 gorilla glass - Google Search
you will find reviews that says it has it and reviews that point out the lack of it as a deficiency. The official specs don't mention it and I can't find it in any Lenovo provided information. I really hope you are correct, but I would be hesitant to claim that in recommending or selling the tablet without some reference to Lenovo specs.

EDIT - BTW, Corning does have a couple of competitors in the "strong, flexible glass" space. So just because it might not be Corning Gorilla Glass® doesn't mean it is fragile.
 
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jimbot82

Member
Feb 13, 2013
1
0
Excellent review, Ive been pondering over buying one for last 2 weeks, can get 16gb for £199. My mind is now made up, buying one tomorrow.
Excuse my ignorance but not very tech myself, it says it comes with ice cream and not jellybean, whats the difference?
 
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