I Always Reach For This Lenovo Tablet Over My Ipad For Entertainment - Here's Why

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Lenovo Tab Plus retails for $330, but is presently connected waste for $195.
• Contrary to its mini size, nan exemplary houses a booming eight-speaker strategy and a long-lasting battery.
• The MediaTek Helio chipset and dim show won't beryllium winning immoderate awards.

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If you're successful nan marketplace for a caller tablet that won't break nan bank, whitethorn I urge nan Lenovo Tab Plus? This is 1 of Lenovo's astir portable tablets, tin of doubling arsenic a mini-home theater. It has everything you could want successful a mobile intermezo system, and it's connected waste done Black Friday for $195.

The Lenovo Tab Plus is compact, measuring 11.5 inches and weighing astir 1.4 pounds. It's akin successful size to an iPad Air, but dissimilar Apple's device, this tablet doesn't person a soft backmost arsenic nan bottommost half juts out. 

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The little conception measures 13.58 mm thick, while nan precocious half is only 7.7mm. There's a bully logic Lenovo designed its tablet pinch this unsocial look, arsenic nan bottommost half houses 2 of nan model's outstanding features.

First, nan integrated kickstand sits flush pinch nan tablet's rear. Popping it retired provides a unchangeable guidelines and lets nan instrumentality tilt up to 175 degrees. Praising a kickstand whitethorn look silly, but retrieve that astir tablets -- without nan summation of a protective lawsuit -- don't person a measurement to prop themselves up. It's a awesome quality-of-life characteristic that enhances nan viewing experience, and 1 I wish different manufacturers would capitalize on.

Additionally, nan Tab Plus tin besides service arsenic a powerful Bluetooth speaker erstwhile paired pinch a smartphone. 

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Speaking of audio, nan sound strategy is my favourite characteristic of nan Tab Plus. It features 8 JBL speakers, pinch 4 serving arsenic tweeters and 4 arsenic woofers, each fine-tuned by Dolby Atmos. In comparison, the M4 iPad Pro, Apple's existent premium tablet, only has 4 speakers.

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I recovered nan system's audio capacity outstanding. As portion of nan testing, I watched nan full 2nd play of Arcane connected Netflix. From nan first section to nan last, I enjoyed crystal-clear sounds powerful capable to capable a room. That said, nan bass is simply a small lacking -- it's obscurity adjacent arsenic punchy arsenic nan bass from a soundbar.

The surface value is great, too. It features a 2K show moving astatine a 90Hz refresh rate, delivering agleam colors and soft animations. It performed good crossed astir applications. However, I didn't for illustration really dim it looked. The screen's brightness peaks astatine 400 nits, which is suitable for indoor viewing but insufficient for outdoor use. The show struggled to radiance successful a agleam environment.

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Under nan hood is nan MediaTek Helio G99 SoC (system-on-chip), on pinch 8GB of RAM -- hardware typically recovered successful fund devices. The G99 isn't a very powerful chipset. It's a fewer years old, but it gets nan occupation done. I ne'er knowledgeable capacity drops while casually browsing pinch Google Chrome aliases playing mobile games.

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET

The Lenovo Tab Plus functions decently good arsenic a activity tablet. You tin link accessories for illustration keyboards via Bluetooth. Thanks to Android 14, there's a desktop mode for mimicking desktop setups. 

The operating strategy besides delivers engaging motion controls. My favourite is wherever swiping up sends you to a carousel of unfastened apps, and you tin hop betwixt immoderate 1 of them. Smartphones person akin functionality.

Android 14 brings pinch it years of updates. Lenovo has pledged to continuously rotation retired information patches to nan Tab Plus until June 2028.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Multiple accessories are available, but moreover pinch each those gadgets equipped, don't expect Lenovo's instrumentality to beryllium a powerhouse. At nan clip of this writing, nan Tab Plus presently ranks 45th connected UL Solutions' Best Smartphones and Tablets database for April 2025. It outperforms galore midrange models but falls down contemporaries for illustration nan Google Pixel Tablet and OnePlus Pad 2.

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These numbers propose that nan Tab Plus whitethorn not excel astatine handling demanding tasks for illustration video editing, but it won't beryllium unspeakable either. Hardware capacity whitethorn beryllium middling, but nan artillery judge isn't. On average, nan tablet lasts 15 hours connected a azygous charge. I near it moving 1 day and was pleasantly amazed to spot it still playing nan trial livestream nan pursuing morning.

The retention abstraction is unsurprisingly small, astatine 256 GB. It would've been bully to person entree to a bigger drive, but pinch a tablet this cheap, you person to expect immoderate cuts. Luckily, you tin grow retention by inserting a 1TB microSD paper into nan slot astatine nan top. 

ZDNET's buying advice 

The Lenovo Tab Plus, pinch 256GB of storage, typically retails for $330 astatine Best Buy and Lenovo's charismatic website however, it's presently discounted to $195 done Black Friday. For nan money, it's a awesome instrumentality for those who bask watching nan latest shows connected Netflix aliases want a multimedia tablet.

The MediaTek Helio G99 isn't nan champion activity device, but it's capable for completing astir clerical tasks. Those looking for a tablet pinch much musculus should cheque retired Samsung's Galaxy Tab S10 Plus. The OnePlus Pad 2 is different solid, midrange action for those who don't mind spending other cash.

Looking for nan adjacent champion product? Get master reviews and editor favorites with ZDNET Recommends.