The ultimate all-in-one media consumption tablet Firstpost

Pros:
– Solid 2K display
– JBL-pwoered speakers
– Excellent build quality
– Built-in kickstand makes it very practical and usable
– Clean software experience
– Lenovo’s own tablet focussed features
– Solid battery life with fast wired charging

Cons:
– Average cameras
– No cellular connectivity option
– Can be a bit bulky for some users

Price: Starts at Rs 20,999
Rating: 4.25/5

The affordable or mid-range segment still offers a variety of tablets from a wide variety of players. Among them, Lenovo stands as the strongest. If you’re a proper professional, Lenovo has some pretty solid offerings that you should check out. However, the tablet that we are looking at in this review is a bit different. For their latest offering, the Tab Plus, Lenovo has traded some of its professional chops to focus on entertainment.

The Lenovo Tab Plus brings some unique features like an eight-speaker, JBL-powered sound system, an innovative design, fast wired charging support, a clean user interface, and more. It is a content consumption device first and foremost, particularly with its impressive speaker setup and built-in kickstand that proves handy in a variety of situations.

For users looking for a multimedia device with a crisp display and outstanding audio, the Lenovo Tab Plus is a strong contender. Its built-in kickstand enhances portability and usability, and the tablet consistently delivers great battery life.

Despite its strengths, the Lenovo Tab Plus does have some shortcomings. The tablet’s slightly bulky frame, while practical for some, might be a downside for some users. Moreover, the Tab Plus could really do with a more powerful chipset which could have provided a more complete package, enhancing both performance and user experience. So how does the Lenovo Tab Plus hold up?

Lenovo Tab Plus Review: Design
The Lenovo Tab Plus is an impressive tablet with a sleek and modern look, designed for convenience and durability. It’s slim profile and lightweight construction make it easy to carry around, and the aluminum body ensures it can withstand daily use. At just 7.7mm thick, it’s comfortable to hold, and the built-in kickstand is perfect for watching movies or using it as a mini laptop. The large screen adds to its notebook-like feel, enhancing the overall user experience.

The camera is positioned at the top of the rear panel. On the right side, you’ll find a volume button near the top and a microSD tray towards the bottom. The top edge houses speaker grills and a power button, while another speaker grill and a USB-C port are located at the bottom. An audio jack is conveniently placed on the leftmost edge of the top side. The tablet’s design helps resist fingerprints and smudges, keeping it looking clean. The weight distribution is balanced, making it comfortable to handle for extended periods.

However, the back of the tablet is slightly uneven, which might not be to everyone’s taste. Lenovo clearly designed this tablet with the built-in kickstand in mind, which is a big plus for movie watching. The kickstand has a flexible and strong hinge, allowing for nearly 180 degrees of adjustment. This flexibility lets you use the tablet in various settings, like the kitchen or bedside, without needing extra support or a cover. Overall, the tablet feels sturdy and reliable.

The top of the tablet is 7.77mm thick, while the bottom measures 13.58mm, mainly due to the octa-speaker setup, which includes four woofers and four tweeters, delivering 26W of stereo sound. This speaker system adds to the tablet’s weight, making it about 650 grams, which is a bit heavier than some other 11-inch tablets.

The hinge, which incorporates metal, might feel stiff at first, but it loosens with use, extending up to 175 degrees. The tablet also supports the Pen Plus for note-taking. We also reviewed the Tab M11, which comes with a stylus, and found that Lenovo’s Tab Pen works perfectly with the Tab Plus. We recommend investing in the stylus for a better experience.

Overall, the built-in kickstand is a standout feature of the tablet’s design. It eliminates the need for a case, making the device highly portable. You can easily carry it anywhere, pop out the kickstand, and enjoy watching content, browsing the web, playing music, or reading a book.

Lenovo Tab Plus Review: Display
The standout feature of the Tab Plus is undoubtedly its impressive display. It sports an 11.5-inch IPS display with a 2K resolution, delivering sharp and vibrant visuals. With 400 nits of peak brightness and a 90Hz refresh rate, the display offers a smooth viewing experience, although some competitors offer a 120Hz refresh rate at a lower price point.

The 2K resolution might feel a bit low for some, but it’s quite good for its price. The display supports up to 400 nits of brightness, making it bright enough for indoor use and moderately bright environments outdoors. The wide viewing angles ensure minimal colour shift when viewed from different angles. The 90Hz refresh rate ensures smooth scrolling and a pleasant viewing experience.

The high-resolution panel, combined with the excellent sound system, provides a top-notch multimedia experience. While the screen is sufficiently bright for indoor use, it struggles in outdoor settings. The 90Hz refresh rate maintains smooth visuals, enhancing the overall experience.

One notable feature is the tablet’s ability to upscale video playback, enhancing the sharpness and vibrancy of 1080p content. The display settings menu includes a “video quality enhancement” option that optimises the viewing experience when enabled.

Colour reproduction is impressive, especially for reds and greens, delivering ample contrast without sacrificing naturalness. Despite being an IPS LCD display and not an OLED panel, the Tab Plus offers a reliable choice for immersive movie-watching and reading experiences.

However, the screen’s glossy finish tends to reflect a significant amount of light, particularly in daylight, which can hinder the viewing experience. Users may need to adjust their position or find shaded environments for optimal visibility. But if you usually watch movies or shows indoors, you’ll have no complaints.

Lenovo Tab Plus Review: Sound
The Lenovo Tab Plus really shines with its 26W stereo sound system, thanks to JBL. This tablet packs four woofers and four tweeters into the bottom half of the rear panel, delivering a sound quality that can rival some of the best Bluetooth speakers in the market. The eight JBL Hi-Fi speakers, combined with Dolby Atmos support, provide an immersive surround sound experience that’s crisp, clear, and room-filling.

The tablet also includes a 3.5mm headphone jack and supports Bluetooth 5.2, allowing you to connect wireless headphones or speakers easily. When using wired headphones, you’ll also enjoy high-resolution audio support.

The low-end bass of the speaker set-up is surprisingly good, and the mids and highs are decent, providing an enjoyable experience whether you’re watching movies or playing music. However, when you turn up the volume to the max, you might notice some muffling in the highs and mids. Keeping the volume below 80 per cent will help you get the best audio quality.

Even at full volume, the balance between bass, treble, and midrange is well-maintained. The mids and highs are well-represented, ensuring vocals and dialogues are clear. Overall, this tablet offers some of the best sound quality you can find in a tablet today.

Lenovo Tab Plus Review: Camera
The cameras on the Lenovo Tab Plus are just about usable. The 8-megapixel rear camera takes decent daylight shots with natural colour reproduction, but the details aren’t great. Its performance in low light is passable at best. The front camera also delivers average results for selfies. Clearly, the camera isn’t a standout feature of this device.

Lenovo Tab Plus Review: Performance, Software, and Features
Powered by the MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, the Lenovo Tab Plus comes with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage, which is further expandable up to 1TB with a microSD card. While the chipset handles casual day-to-day tasks and slight multitasking well, it isn’t powerful enough for intensive workloads.

The performance of the Lenovo Tab Plus is a bit of a mixed bag. The MediaTek Helio G99 chipset powering this tablet is somewhat outdated and not one of the strongest performers in Lenovo’s lineup. This is evident in the tablet’s overall performance.

Navigating through the user interface is generally smooth, largely due to the 90Hz refresh rate, but you might notice occasional skips and stutters. For everyday tasks like playing music on YouTube or Spotify, or for browsing the internet on Chrome, the tablet handles itself well. In day-to-day usage, the Lenovo Tab Plus is dependable, especially for multimedia activities.

Although there are some minor stutters when switching between apps, they are not too disruptive. However, when you push it with heavier multitasking, the chipset starts to struggle.

You can switch between apps without major issues and play moderately demanding games like BGMI and CoD at medium settings rather decently, but to an extent where you would be completely mesmerised by its performance.

The tablet runs on Android 14-based ZUI, which is quite clean and similar to stock Android. A dedicated entertainment space replaces Google Discover when you swipe left from the main home screen, combining all your multimedia content in one place. There’s also a customizable taskbar for quick access to your favourite apps.

Screen customization options are plentiful, allowing you to adjust the aspect ratio to fit more apps on the home screen. Features like split screen, floating windows, and PC Mode add to its versatility. The Freestyle feature makes it easy to transfer files, stream videos, and screen share with other Lenovo devices. Additionally, there’s a dedicated reading mode that makes the display warmer to look at, which also offers a grayscale effect for a better reading experience.

Lenovo promises two years of major OS upgrades and four years of software updates for the Tab Plus, which is reassuring for long-term use.

Lenovo Tab Plus Review: Battery
The Lenovo Tab Plus is powered by an 8,600mAh battery with 45W fast charging support. The battery life is robust, providing around 12 hours of screen-on time. In the PCMark battery benchmark test, it lasted 10 hours and 54 minutes, which is quite respectable. With the included 45W charger, the battery charged to 50% in 30 minutes and fully charged in an hour and 15 minutes.

In real-life usage, the tablet easily lasted multiple days with conservative use. We watched a couple of episodes of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba and some YouTube videos, getting nearly two days of battery life. Under heavy usage, which included gaming, typing with a Bluetooth keyboard, and playing music, it comfortably lasted a full day.

Lenovo Tab P12 Review: Verdict
The Lenovo Tab Plus is really geared for those who are looking for a better solution than a smartphone for consuming content at home or on the go. Its design stands out from typical tablets, and the built-in kickstand makes it easy to place on your bed to watch your favourite movies or series without needing to hold it. The display is good, but the audio is exceptional, putting many budget Bluetooth speakers to shame.

That said, the tablet does have some shortcomings, mainly due to the old Helio G99 SoC. A more powerful chipset could have offered a more complete package. These limitations include modest performance capabilities and a slightly bulky frame.

However, the tablet is ideal for users looking for a multimedia device with a crisp display and impressive speakers. The built-in kickstand greatly enhances portability and usability, and the tablet consistently delivers great battery life. If your primary use includes content consumption and you want a capable multimedia device, the Lenovo Tab Plus is a choice worth exploring.