Lenovo Goes Big with 27″ Horizon Table PC

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Lenovo Horizon Table PC 3

It’s been a while since we’ve talked about the Microsoft Surface table. And while the Redmond giant is no longer shipping product, Lenovo is stepping up to the plate with the new IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC. It’s a 27″ Windows 8 tablet, and it is by far the coolest thing I’ve seen at CES this year.

At last night’s CES Showstoppers event, Lenovo execs demoed two of the Horizon products by setting them up as gaming surfaces. With a multi-user interface, these giant tablets work for everything from air hockey to dice games to shoot-em-ups. Use your fingers, or grab a joystick, puck or die to get started. The accessories pair with the Horizon surface and bring back that retro feel of playing Pac Man at the Pizza Hut on one of their 1980s game tables.

lenovo-table

Oddly, the Lenovo products really are full Windows 8 machines. But the company plans to market and sell the Horizon Table PC (at least initially) as a gaming device. The product is due to ship in the U.S. this summer, and will retail for $999*. At least if Lenovo is as good as its word. The company’s CES track record isn’t the best, but maybe this time is different. If so, go find yourself a Horizon Table PC to try out in about six months. These things are fun.

Specs from Lenovo:

  • Up to 3rd gen Intel Core i7 processor
  • 27″ backlit full HD (1920 x 1080)
  • Up to Nvidia GeForce GT 620M 1GB graphics with DirectX 11
  • Up to 8GB DDR3 memory, up to 1TB storage
*I was quoted the $999 price by a Lenovo executive, but the official press release says the product will start at $1,699. News stories are conflicted about which number is right, but we will try to dig up an answer.

5 thoughts on “Lenovo Goes Big with 27″ Horizon Table PC”

  1. We’ve for similar taste as this apparent descendent or successor of Microsoft Surface (the first) and HpTouchSmart also caught my eye. Appeals to the geek in me, but I doubt there’s a market for it. And the metal stand they were showing it on looks like it came from a hospital or gradeschool environment. Wait, maybe that’s the market!

    Ran across the tablet table PC thrice in Vegas. At a pair of press events and in the Intel booth. I’ll update the post with a photo of the stand tomorrow if I have one.

  3. An affordable Surface (ad Dave said table sized V1) and I am interested. I played with Surface’s at TechEd for years and while this isn’t as big or capable it costs about 25% as much. I work in education I can think of lots of cool uses for this that are brand new ideas. Forget smartboards and those little 10″ iPads!

  4. @Brian is right about the education point. An Active Board starts at $1300. History tells us that custom hardware will always migrate to commodity hardware.

    I can see lots of engineering applications with hardware this inexpensive. Architectural design, landscape, etc.

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