Outside, the IdeaPad has a stylish, distinctive design. It measures 10.4 by 7.4 by 0.5 inches, making it noticeably wider (by more than half an inch) than the Thrive, and about as wide as the Apple iPad 2 (which has a 4:3 aspect ratio, compared with the IdeaPad's 16:10 ratio).

The tablet weighs 1.65 pounds, which puts it among the heaviest Android tablets we've seen so far. That weight slightly exceeds that of the Toshiba Thrive, which weighs 0.05 pound less, but the distribution of components inside the IdeaPad actually makes it feel lighter than the Thrive. Which is to say, it's usable, but like other tablets topping 1.5 pounds, it's too heavy to hold at length in one hand--even with the pleasing contours of the edges.

The IdeaPad's design favors a landscape orientation. A 2-megapixel front-facing camera is centered atop the display; a micro-HDMI port, a headphone jack, and a docking port run along the bottom edge; and power and volume buttons, screen-rotation lock, and a microSD card slot run along the left side. This is a healthy number of inputs for a tablet--it's more than what we've seen on many others--but not as many as what's on the sibling ThinkPad tablet, or on the input-laden Thrive. One oblong, central home button is to the right of the display (if it's held in landscape; at the bottom if held in portrait). At back, you'll find the 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash--an uncommon feature in tablets.

I liked how sturdy and distinct the buttons all felt; even the volume buttons reflected thoughtful design, with the volume-up button logically situated on top of the volume down button--if you're holding the IdeaPad in landscape orientation. I also liked the natural and unobtrusive placement of the headphone jack (again, provided you're using the tablet in landscape). But the microSD card slot is annoyingly designed: To open the flip-out door, you must use a paper clip or something similar to release the door. I appreciate the desire to keep a card from falling out accidentally, but requiring a pin to open the door is a bit much.

Another disappointment: Lenovo didn't use its standard laptop-style AC adapter. The advantage of such an adapter is that one can use a single charger for both laptop and tablet, and just switch out the tips accordingly. Granted, this is not common among tablets today (the Toshiba Thrive is one example of a tablet that uses a more standard charger), but considering that Lenovo, like Toshiba, is a PC-centric company, I would have liked to see such a dual-use charger. As it stands, you charge via the docking port, using a wall charger (and you get a separate cable for connecting to your PC).