Lenovo Idea Tab Pro tablet review: It gets the job done

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is not a device tablet To get terribly excited. Fortunately, it doesn’t need to be.

It fits within a reasonable budget, and offers respectable, if unspectacular, qualities. Its performance isn’t amazing, but it handles daily operation with ease. The screen could be brighter and more powerful, but it’s bright enough and very sharp. The design isn’t eye-catching, but it doesn’t look exactly cheap either.

But a lot depends on the price. As Lenovo suggests, the idea tab pro It can go up to $419. At this price, it might start to feel a little expensive when something like Red Magic Astra It’s only $160 more and offers huge jumps in quality and performance.

Lenovo pricing is rarely consistent, and the fact that I saw the Tab Pro as low as $289 during my time with it suggests you might be able to find it for well below MSRP. At $289, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is a decent steal, offering plenty of utility as a light productivity and media consumption device.

Lenovo idea tab pro

Price as reviewed	$419 (includes pen)
Cameras	13 MP rear, 8 MP front
an offer	12.7 inches, 2944 x 1840 (273 ppi), 144 Hz, 400 nits
CPU	MediaTek Dimension 8300
memory	8GB LPDDR5X
GPU	Small G615 MC5
storage	256GB UFS 4.0; Micro SD slot
networks	Wi-Fi 6E (dual-band), Bluetooth 5.3
battery	10,200 mAh, 45W charging
Operating system	Android 14 (+2 OS updates and 4 years of security patches)

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro starts at $389 with 128GB of storage. That works out to $419 for 256GB. At the time of writing, the smaller storage version had a $100 discount that wasn’t available to the larger storage model. Both versions include the Tab Pen Plus, but they don’t include the keyboard cover — a $119 accessory for this tablet. (Get a A slim Bluetooth keyboard instead.)

One feature of the Idea Tab Pro that many of its competitors don’t have is a microSD card slot, allowing you to expand storage space inexpensively if you start running out of space in the future.

No speedster, but not slow

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is not a performance monster. Some of the MediaTek chipsets perform well, keeping up with the best Qualcomm has to offer. The MediaTek Dimensity 8300 inside the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is not one of them. It lags far behind the CPU and GPU performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite and even the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that is still finding its way into devices like Lenovo’s own Yoga Plus.

However, the Idea Tab Pro isn’t completely behind either. It significantly outperforms cheap tablets such as Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023). the Pixel tablet A little older, but still walking around at the same outrageous price of $499 it started at. Compared to the Pixel and Tensor G2 SoC, the Idea Tab Pro performs really well. Lenovo edged out single- and multi-core CPU performance with Geekbench 6 as well as 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited, albeit more narrowly. On the graphics-intensive MotionMark test, the Pixel Tablet’s score was doubled.

All of this means that the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro has more than enough power to handle casual use without too much of a hitch. Heavy gaming isn’t in the cards for this tablet, for example, unless you’re willing to tweak the settings significantly.

I did find one issue while watching YouTube at double the playback speed, which resulted in the video frame rate dropping dramatically, and becoming choppy. This came and went for a minute or so and then seemed to right itself completely.

On the other hand, battery life is solid. It played for 741 minutes (12.35 hours) in our video streaming test with screen brightness set to 50%. The 50% wasn’t dim either, producing a reasonable 141.5 nits. So it’s not an exceptional marathon machine, but it can hold up under extended use.

Ordinary and utilitarian

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro looks on the minimalist side, but it’s not ugly. It has a gray aluminum case that wraps around the sides and back. A small, clear bump holds the rear camera and flash. The section along the upper posterior edge has distinct diagonal lines. It’s in this area that the pen can magically (well, magnetically) stick to the tablet.

The pen, unfortunately, isn’t that impressive. It needs to be charged separately via USB-C, rather than by drawing power from the tablet itself, and it lacks any touch. These are two points that make the Yoga Tab Plus more attractive. Also, attaching the pen to the back makes it vulnerable to falling when sliding in and out of bags.

The 12.7-inch LCD screen has bezels all around for a sleek look, even if those bezels aren’t impressively thin. The screen is satisfactory, offering a sharp 2944 x 1840 pixel resolution and a smooth 144Hz refresh rate.

It’s not crazy bright, peaking at 411 nits in testing, but it’s reasonable. It’s a shame it doesn’t have the same anti-glare coating as the Yoga Tab Plus.

Each side of the screen has a pair of JBL speakers that pump out plenty of sound. While the sound can sometimes have some audible echoes, overall it’s a pretty acceptable quality for a tablet.

There’s a USB-C charging port between two of these speakers, and nearby is the microSD card tray.

Along the bottom edge, the Tab Pro includes an extensive set of pogo pins and two small holes that help it adhere to and communicate with the keyboard accessory. Again, this keyboard is not included with the tablet.

Lenovo offers facial recognition using the front camera and has a fingerprint scanner built into the power button. Both worked quickly and effectively, although the facial recognition stopped working after I shaved my beard too short.

So, overall, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is a solid, if not world-shattering, performer, especially if you can find it for less than its MSRP.