Affordable Android tablets are projected to be among...

Affordable Android tablets are projected to be among the hottest selling CE gifts this season, and Lenovo seeded the market Tuesday with its offerings at a media event in New York. The $249 and $299 tablets were due to go on sale Wednesday at Lenovo.com and at third-party retailers Best Buy, Newegg and Tiger Direct, with an exclusive at Best Buy for the 8-inch model, Stephen Miller, Lenovo brand ambassador, told us. The Best Buy website promoted the iPad with Retina display on its splash page Wednesday morning, and a search for “Yoga” brought up Lenovo’s Yoga Ultrabook instead, along with a long list of yoga DVDs led by Jillian Michaels’ Yoga Meltdown. We found the 8-inch model at BestBuy.com only after a targeted search for “Lenovo Yoga tablet.” Lenovo is making money on the devices, said Miller. “We're not trying to go out and be a price leader for the sake of buying a market.” The company wants consumers to see Lenovo as “a cool brand” and one that people “fall in love with and keep for five or 10 years,” he said. On how Lenovo will make the Yoga tablets stand out in a crowded category this holiday season, Miller said unique features including 18-hour battery life and a kickstand that allows versatile positioning will “give salespeople something to talk about.” The battery is stored in a cylindrical section on the side of the tablet, which presenters used as a handle for holding the tablet while taking photos with the five-megapixel camera. Miller positioned the Yoga models as Android tablets for those “without a lot of money to spend,” as well as tablet veterans. “In North America, there’s not a lot of first-time buyers left,” he said. “Almost everybody who wants a tablet has owned at least one.” Tablet buyers may have shared one in the past, but buyers generally have experience with tablets, Miller said. Company research indicated battery life is a top priority for tablet customers, Miller said, so the company included a “notebook-style” lithium-ion battery that “doubles or triples” the battery life of standard tablets, he said. The battery case doubles as a stand, he noted, positioning it as a value-add for consumers who won’t need to buy an additional stand. He touted the “multi-mode” capability of the devices, which can be used in “hold, stand and tilt” positions. The tablets have Dolby Digital 5.1, quad-core processors and 16 GB internal memory, expandable to 64 GB via micro SD. The tablets weigh 0.88 and 1.33 pounds, according to literature.