If Honeycomb tablets were likened to a plane ride, you’d be riding first-class with Lenovo’s newest addition to the Honeycomb tablets basket. Lenovo announced this week that the 10.1-inch Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet running Android 3.1 Honeycomb is now available in U.S. retail stores and partner establishments.

The cheapest model comes with 16 GB internal storage and is priced at US$500 (add US$30 for the digitizer pen). If you want more storage, you can get a 32-GB version for US$600 (with digitizer pen) or a 64-GB version for US$700 (also with digitizer pen).

Built for business and academic use, the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet “[replicates] the way people work naturally with pen and paper by allowing them to digitally write, draw and create content while also optimizing the ThinkPad Tablet for business with a layered security solution and full IT management,” said a Lenovo official.

As a Honeycomb tablet meant primarily for business and the academe, the ThinkPad Tablet boasts of the following features:

• NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-Core 1.0-GHz processor
• Android 3.1 Honeycomb
• 10.1-inch WXGA (1280×800) 16:10 IPS panel with Corning Gorilla Glass
• Multitouch display with digitizer input (pen optional)
• 1 GB RAM
• 5-MP primary camera, 2-MP secondary camera
• 3250 mAh Li-polymer batter (up to 8 hours with WiFi enabled)
• Up to 64 GB storage
• Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 3G connectivity
• Native USB 2.0 and micro-USB ports, full-size SD card slot, and mini-HDMI output
• keyboard folio case with optical TrackPoint
• preloaded apps for productivity (e.g., Documents to Go, Citrix Receiver, Lenovo SocialTouch, PrinterShare) and security (e.g., Computrace, McAfee Mobile Security)
• access to Lenovo’s curated App Shop (in addition to standard access to the Android Market)

Do you think the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet will succeed where others before it have arguably failed?