Android tablets are a rare breed. Well Android tablets are even rarer.
Samsung has the market for high-end Android tablets cornered with its Galaxy Tab S7 + and S7, and at the other end of the market are the Amazon Fire tablets, ultra cheap and low powered. In between is a gap, and that’s what Lenovo hopes to fill.
The Lenovo P11 Tab Pro is the company’s latest whiteboard, which goes beyond a Fire tablet, but lacks the power of Samsung’s S7 range. What it does have is a great screen and a much cheaper price that makes it ideal for watching movies on the go. This is the main use case here, because Android on a tablet doesn’t serve for much more.
The right hardware
The screen is one of the highlights of the Tab P11 Pro. It’s an 11.5-inch (2,560 x 1,600-pixel) 2K OLED that is as nice and sharp as the one on my iPad Pro. It has intense, rich blacks and a lot of shine, which makes the P11 a great way to watch movies. The JBL speakers are equally impressive, with good bass output, better than many laptops I’ve tested lately.
Unfortunately, there is no headphone jack, just a USB-C port and a Micro SD card slot. Lenovo is launching a USB-C headset adapter, but if you want to charge your tablet while listening to headphones, you’ll need to go the wireless route.
There are a few different models. The standard looks more like an iPad, but the folio model I tested includes a soft fabric background with a foot point and a detachable keyboard like Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet. The foot point design means it’s a little awkward and hesitant on the skirt, but it’s okay when you wear it on a flat surface. Remove the case and the P11 Pro is surprisingly light, weighing just over a pound.
The keyboard is small but usable. The trackpad, on the other hand, is the only weakness of the hardware. The button range is very small and does not respond especially. It does not mean a break in offers, but it definitely downplays the utility of the trackpad.