The IdeaPad K1 is really living up to its name these days, existing merely as an idea and a visualized concept, but not a real deal purchasable commodity. That’s changing ever so slowly, however, with an appearance among Amazon’s pre-order inventory, where the Tegra 2 Android slate is accompanied by the $499.99 price tag we saw just over a week ago. The major specs are as we’ve heard them before: a 10.1-inch screen with 1280 x 800 resolution and 300 nits of brightness, a microSD card reader, micro-HDMI out, and, interestingly, a SIM card slot. The latter doesn’t quite confirm that we’re looking at a 3G tablet, but comes close to it. Also close should be the K1’s release date, which isn’t spelled out by Amazon, but is expected to arrive any time now.

Lenovo IdeaPad K1 up for Amazon pre-order, still toting $500 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:26:00 EST.