Lenovo Idea Tab Pro Review: Finally

A good large Android tablet doesn’t have to be expensive. Lenovo proves this with the Idea Tab Pro, which hardly contains any compromises and does what it needs to do.

It almost feels as if Lenovo is too kind with the Idea Tab Pro. Or at least as if the manufacturer is pulling a fast one on its competitors. Price champion OnePlus showed with the OnePlus Pad 2 that a large Android tablet is possible for 549 euros incl. VAT. That’s much cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+, where you pay 849 euros for a similar device, not to mention the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra with a recommended price of 1,149 euros.

Lenovo puts all these manufacturers to shame with its Idea Tab Pro, which is on the shelves for 339 euros incl. VAT. For that money, you get a sturdy 12.7-inch tablet that doesn’t feel cheap in any way.

Excellent Screen

The entire device is at the service of the 16:9 screen (144 Hz), which has 2,944 x 1,840 pixels. That resolution is in line with the aforementioned devices from the competition, although Lenovo opts for an LCD screen. The expensive Samsung Tab S10 Ultra has an OLED display, which shows nicer blacks.

We notice little of this in daily use. The colors are vibrant and the contrast is spot on. If you put this tablet next to an OLED model, you’ll certainly see the difference. Only: who does that? Both when viewing multimedia and while surfing or reading documents, we feel like we’re looking at a beautiful screen.

The maximum brightness is more in line with that of a laptop at 380 cd/m². That’s more than enough for indoor use, but on the low side for those who want to use the tablet in full sunlight. In such a case, the OnePlus Pad 2 with 750 cd/m² might be the better choice. For indoor use or on the train, you don’t need to worry at all.

Surprising Chip

Lenovo powers the whole thing with a MediaTek Dimensity 8300. This chip has eight cores on board, four of which are performance cores and four lighter efficiency cores. Applications get access to an adequate 8 GB RAM and our test model has 256 GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD.

This MediaTek chip is not a crazy performance champion. Samsung’s Tab S10 Ultra, for example, has a bigger brother from the same stable on board: the Dimensity 9300+. Yet the CPU is no pushover, as a comparison with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ with Exynos 1580 clearly shows.

The processor performs at the level of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the OnePlus Pad 2 and outclasses the Exynos processor in the much more expensive Galaxy Tab S10 FE+. Samsung’s Ultra tablet is indeed more powerful, but Lenovo clearly plays at the same level despite the much lower recommended price.

Not a Gaming Tablet

Graphically, the difference is bigger. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ does very little in terms of specifications to justify its price, but the other two more expensive devices are noticeably more powerful.

Those who buy a tablet to game with are not in the right place here. Simple games work, but for more advanced 3D renderings, the frame rate does dip down.

Top for Productivity

Surfing, multimedia, and productivity are the main goals of the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro. The results are surprisingly high. Our tests mainly point to the choice of fast internal storage to explain this. The Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ also has faster storage on board than the rest, but can’t capitalize on that with the Exynos chip.

The result is impressive: as long as you don’t do too heavy work, this tablet is very fast in use. That’s what the artificial benchmark tests say, but it’s also evident from our daily use.

Handy in many Scenarios

In this, we find the tablet perfect as a second screen. The display is large and of high enough quality to do justice to movies and series. The sound is adequate for a tablet, but don’t expect miracles. The volume can certainly go high enough.

The tablet also serves us well for reviewing documents or viewing presentations. 12.7 inches in a 16:9 ratio is sufficiently large to display PDF documents legibly without zooming in. The A4 screen ratio of the OnePlus Pad 2 is even more suitable for this, but is then not compatible with multimedia, resulting in black bars.

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We notice one very specific advantage: this tablet is large and bright enough to display sheet music legibly. Until now, this market niche was confined to much more expensive tablets due to the need for a large screen. Lenovo offers an affordable solution here.

This device is also ideal for browsing, as websites are displayed in a pleasant format. As demonstrated above, the tablet is also powerful enough to browse with multiple tabs open and perform light multitasking.

Nice Stylus

The tablet comes with a stylus for those who like to work with one. It has its uses in various scenarios and actually works much better than we expected for a tablet in this price range.

The pen has some gimmicky functions, such as Circle to Search, which allows you to circle something to, you guessed it, search. More useful is the option to quickly take notes or write and edit text. Even our atrocious handwriting is not Chinese to the tablet’s scribble-to-text function. Unfortunately, writing and editing with the pen doesn’t work automatically in applications like Word, which does limit its functionality. However, if you like taking screenshots and making annotations, you’re in the right place.

You can magnetically attach the pen to the back, where it sticks fairly well, but expect to occasionally have to search at the bottom of your bag when you put the tablet away next to a laptop or some paperwork.

Battery and Charging

How long does the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro last on a single battery charge? With 10,200 mAh of battery capacity, Lenovo provides a battery that meets expectations. The other devices in this comparison have at most a few hundred mAh more or less.

We see that the tablet lasts long enough under use, but falls behind the other devices. Test suite 1 focuses on multimedia, and it shows that you can watch series and movies for about ten hours. Test suite 2 looks more at productivity, and there the endurance dips to just a workday.

In practice, a tablet is not a device you use continuously all day, but rather at specific moments (on the train, in the evening instead of TV…). During our extensive test period, where our usage was generally lighter than what the benchmarks test, we could easily rely on a single charge for more than a week. This illustrates that the tablet is extremely economical in standby mode.

If the tablet does run out of power, you don’t need to have much patience. The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro supports USB-C Power Delivery at a modest 45 watts. In less than an hour, you can almost fully charge the device. OnePlus does better, Samsung much worse. Especially the figures for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra are embarrassing.

We see here that tablets generally lag behind laptops and smartphones. Only OnePlus embraces something we can actually call fast charging with a charging capacity of 67 watts.

Useful Apps but also Bloatware

Then there’s the software. This is perhaps where Lenovo makes most of its minor flaws. The manufacturer installs an Android 14 skin that doesn’t do much justice to the “Pro” in Lenovo Idea Tab Pro. When you unbox the tablet, you can start by removing the necessary junk. Unsolicited bloatware like Block Puzzle Adventure, TikTok, and Cat Tile are present. Normally we strongly criticize this, but given the sharp recommended price of this device, we do show some understanding for the choice.

The most annoying addition in our opinion is the Entertainment Space. If you swipe too much to the left, you end up in a useless interface that mainly serves as a billboard for streaming services. Fortunately, you can disable the Entertainment Space through the settings.

Lenovo Vantage is also present, but don’t think of it as the professional suite you find on laptops. In this screen, you’ll find some information about the tablet and the warranty. You can also set a beauty filter for video calls, if you want to.

More convenient is One Vision: a functionality that allows you to easily connect an external display via USB-C. You can duplicate the tablet, but also use it as a trackpad to control the screen.

Lenovo Smart Connect enables even more possibilities. This app allows you to extend your Windows computer’s desktop to the tablet, as if it were an external display. It works quite well and is very handy for those who work on the go and carry both a laptop and tablet. Note that sometimes you may need to adjust the scale in the settings until the taskbar looks right.

The biggest drawback is the planned lifespan. Lenovo only intends to provide security updates until September 13, 2028, which drastically shortens the lifespan of this otherwise excellent device.

Camera

Finally, we can say something about the camera. There’s a 13 MP camera on the back. You can take photos with it. There’s no reason to expect more, and you don’t get more. It’s a bit unfortunate that Lenovo incorporated the camera lens into an island, as it makes it harder to lay the tablet flat on a table.

There’s also a selfie camera for video calls. It works well, certainly better than many (budget) laptops.

Verdict

The final verdict is extremely positive. The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is a 12.7-inch tablet at a particularly sharp price. At 339 euros including VAT, it’s almost suspiciously good how well this device performs compared to other considerably more expensive alternatives.

You get a nice large screen, powered by a capable processor. For everything except gaming, this tablet is powerful enough. Whether you want to relax with multimedia, browse, or review and annotate documents: in all cases, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is the ideal companion.

Sure, there’s something to be said for the higher brightness of other devices, the battery life that’s sometimes better, or the advantages of OLED over LCD, but at 339 euros, these considerations melt away like snow in the sun. The fact that Lenovo also integrates software that enables use as an external screen is the icing on the cake. It’s only really disappointing that Lenovo only commits to security updates until 2028.

For those who wondered why large Android tablets have to be expensive, Lenovo provides a surprising answer: there’s no reason. If you’re looking for an affordable extra screen that’s useful in both professional contexts and during leisure time, we wouldn’t know which device currently offers more value for your money. In our opinion, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is by far the wisest choice.

Lenovo Idea Tab Pro – 12.7 inch LCD screen, 144 Hz, 2,944 x 1,840 pixels, MediaTek Dimensity 8300, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB storage – 339 euros incl. VAT.