The 5 Coolest Tablets We Spotted At CES 2017

Tablet Challengers

One way of understanding CES 2017 is that it's where the major tech companies that aren't Apple or Microsoft show off their products for the year. So it is with tablets; iPads and Surface Pros were nowhere to be seen at CES 2017, but plenty of competing tablets were on display.

Lenovo, Huawei and other vendors were among those with cool tablets to demo, and so in the following slides we've rounded up the tablet offerings we spotted at CES 2017.

Alcatel Plus 10

The dream of Wi-Fi everywhere has never quite materialized, which is why it's good there are devices coming to market like the Alcatel Plus 10. The 10.1-inch Windows 10 tablet is aimed at enabling on-the-go productivity thanks to its 4G LTE connectivity. The tablet connects to a keyboard, which provides the LTE connection, and the tablet also features an IPS display with a quad-core Intel Atom processor.

Pricing and availability in the U.S. hasn't been disclosed for the Alcatel Plus 10.

Huawei MediaPad M3

Huawei's MediaPad M3 is positioned as a challenger to Apple's iPad Mini 4, with a similar look and display (8.4-inch, 2K resolution). The MediaPad M3, however, comes with Harman Kardon speakers and a lower price.

The Huawei MediaPad M3 is available for a starting price of $369.99.

Lenovo Miix 720

Lenovo's newest Miix tablet, the Miix 720, is a 12-inch Windows detachable featuring a QHD+ display (2,880 x 1,920 resolution) and a touchpad-enabled keyboard. The tablet includes seventh-generation Intel processors, eight hours of battery life and an infrared camera for facial recognition (via Windows Hello). Importantly, the Miix 720 is designed to work with the new Lenovo Active Pen 2, a smart pen with high sensitivity to pressure for drawing and writing on the display.

The Lenovo Miix 720 with keyboard will be available in April with a starting price of $999.99. The Lenovo Active Pen 2 will be available in February starting at $59.99.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet

In 2016, Lenovo's 12-inch ThinkPad X1 gained a lot of interest as a 2-in-1 convertible alternative to the Surface Pro 4. That was thanks in part to its ability to connect to special modules such as the Productivity Module, which extends battery life by five hours, and Presenter Module, which turns the tablet into a projector. Lenovo has retained those modules with a newly announced release of the ThinkPad X1 Tablet, which adds seventh-generation Intel processors but, for the most part, leaves the device specs unchanged from 2016.

The new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet will be available in March with a starting price of $949.

RCA Horizon 17

The prize for the largest tablet launched at CES 2017 may go to RCA, which launched a 17.3-inch Android tablet, the Horizon 17, aimed at home entertainment usage. The tablet includes a quad-core processor along with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

The RCA Horizon 17 will be priced at less than $400. Availability has not been disclosed.