Lenovo Tab Plus review: Crushing the iPad Pro and Galaxy Tab S (in sound and value)

It’s not often that a tablet comes out with something unique to offer, and aiming to be best in a specific area. This is one of those cases – the 2024 Lenovo Tab Plus wants to be your “premium entertainment tablet,” boasting what are arguably the best speakers ever put in one.

Does it hold up, and is it really a “premium” tablet for the whole family, especially considering its modest price of around $300 (€279)? Let’s explore…

Table of Contents:

Lenovo Tab Plus Specs

Considering its budget price, the Lenovo Tab Plus has some impressive specs, even though its main focus is obviously the audio quality.

Lenovo Tab Plus Design and Kickstand

Seen from the front, the Lenovo Tab Plus is a pretty traditional modern tablet – with a decently large 11.5-inch display surrounded by symmetrical black bezels. It has a front camera embedded at its top center bezel, when in landscape, as it should be.From the sides, though, it’s anything but your typical tablet. Its bottom half is nearly twice as thick, taken up mostly by unusually large speaker grills, plus smaller ones up top. The sides also contain a USB-C port and a headphone jack.

Up top we have an SD card slot – always great to see – some microphone holes, and volume keys.

On the back we get something I think is criminally underappreciated in tablets – a built-in kickstand, and a good one at that. You can adjust it basically from closed, to as far as physics can visibly allow it to bend, so this is one tablet you can position pretty much in any angle you’d ever want it.

There’s also some Lenovo branding, and a single back camera.

The Lenovo Tab Plus feels great in the hands. Its build feels premium, and despite its weight of 648 grams (1.43lbs), which is more than we’ve seen on other 11-inch tablets (e.g. iPad Air) – it’s pretty comfortable to hold for a while.

That bump on the back is actually surprisingly ergonomic for holding it in either landscape or portrait mode, but let’s face it – this tablet wasn’t designed to be held – it’s meant to stay propped up on its kickstand, letting you enjoy your movies, shows, YouTube videos, or music, while doing other stuff or relaxing.

Lenovo Tab Plus Display

The Lenovo Tab Plus’s LCD display is also surprisingly decent for the price, featuring smooth 90Hz refresh rate (rather than the standard 60Hz we usually see on most tablets), 2K resolution (2000-by-1200 pixels) and reasonable sharpness, albeit you’ll see the pixels if you look closely.However, the screen’s 400 nits of brightness have been a regular issue for me; it does feel a bit too dim when used in lit environments, and outside – it’s barely visible.

The Lenovo Tab Plus’ automatic brightness is also kind of wacky, and always seems to set the brightness lower than I feel is comfortable, so I had to disable it.

It’s a fairly small gripe for an affordable tablet that’s still perfectly visible indoors, but worth keeping in mind – the brightness may not be enough for some users.

For reference, the 11-inch iPad Air has 600 nits of brightness, and even that can feel too dim on a sunny day. But the iPad Air also costs nearly twice as much, so…

For use indoors, and not too close to your face, this screen is still absolutely great for the price. With vibrant colors, and pretty dark blacks for an LCD panel. Hard to complain.

Lenovo Tab Plus Camera

While the camera on a tablet, especially a budget one whose focus is clearly elsewhere, is usually an afterthought, the Lenovo Tab Plus has a serviceable main one.

Photos come out vibrant and with impressive dynamic range, albeit a bit oversharpened and without the greatest of details, especially when you zoom in. But again, for a tablet that costs less than $300, the results are more than satisfactory.

The front selfie camera is best used only for the occasional video call, but it gets the job done too. A bit soft, and handling dynamic range far more poorly, it’s still going to perform well indoors, in good lighting, for the rare, if any cases you’ll need it.

As for video recordings, the main camera’s dynamic range impresses again, but the overall detail, and especially the complete lack of stabilization could be an issue. If you plan on propping the camera still, in order to film a quick something – it won’t disappoint for a budget tablet, but the moment you move, that recording will need some editing and stabilization in post, in order to be salvaged.

Still, I can’t stress this enough – for the price, and the fact that these cameras are hardly the main selling point of the Lenovo Tab Plus – they’re quite serviceable.

Lenovo Tab Plus main camera video sample

Lenovo Tab Plus Performance

For its modest price, the Lenovo Tab Plus packs 8GB of RAM, and has a pretty good processor on board, albeit a 2-year-old one – the MediaTek Helio G99. In my testing, it handled both demanding multitasking in its desktop mode, with many open apps, and gaming, perfectly well.

While certain heavy games like Genshin Impact will need to be set to something below “ultra” graphics, in order for you to get 60FPS (frames-per-second), pretty much all other popular games will run perfectly at their highest graphical settings.

And with the built-in kickstand, this could be a fantastic gaming tablet, if that’s your thing, and you pair a gamepad with it.

To me, it’s also a perfect tablet for mild productivity, especially if everything you need can be handled from a web browser, just pair a keyboard, launch its desktop mode, and start writing.

With that in mind, obviously things like casual use (web browsing, watching videos) is also buttery smooth, so definitely no complaints there.

Lenovo Tab Plus Software and Desktop Mode

At the time of writing this review (July 24th, 2024), the Lenovo Tab Plus is running Android 14 with the May 5 security update. We can hope it’ll get Android 15 when that comes out, but Lenovo hasn’t historically been the most reliable when it comes to long-term software support for its tablets. Still, when it comes to purely security updates, Lenovo promises to provide those until January 2028, meaning almost 4 years of support.So while we can’t expect the number of years of major software updates we see from the likes of Apple and Samsung, at least right now, and likely for the near future, this tablet should be up to date in terms of Android security updates.

The operating system is pretty much the same as on any modern Android 14 tablet, which is honestly good news. We have the familiar gestures or navigation keys, if you prefer those; a familiar dock that can stick to the bottom of apps or be disabled, and a traditional home screen.

However, Lenovo has added some fantastic productivity features, most notably a desktop mode – called “PC mode” – akin to Samsung DeX, albeit far simpler. Once enabled, you get a taskbar like you would on, say, Windows, and apps will open in popup windows that can be moved and resized at will. You can also open a lot of them at once.

There’s also stylus support, if you opt into buying the sold-separately Lenovo Tab Pen Plus, and Lenovo’s One Vision – which is a feature that lets you choose three variants of multi-window app management.

As for biometrics, unfortunately this tablet doesn’t have any. There’s no fingerprint scanner on board, so you’ll need to lock and unlock your Lenovo Tab Plus with a pin only.

Technically the option of “facial recognition” to unlock it is there and available too, but we all know that’s not a secure one. More often a security risk and a hassle, as it also depends on how bright your environment is, among other factors.

Lenovo Tab Plus Battery

The Lenovo Tab Plus packs a very generous 8600mAh battery, capable of 45W fast charging. Its processor of choice is known for being efficient too. There’s no charger in the box, as per usual these days, and for some reason not just any charger I had lying around was able to charge it, but still – great battery specs.Charging is fast, and the battery lasts well over a week of light use, or a couple of days of regular use.

Getting a 45W charger would obviously be best, as it would take full advantage of the Lenovo Tab Plus’ 45W fast charging.

There’s a USB-C 2.0 charging cable in the box, though.

Lenovo Tab Plus Audio Quality

Here’s the big one. After adjusting the equalizer a bit, anyone I showcased this tablet’s speakers to, at max volume, was absolutely wowed.

To be honest, I wasn’t, at first. I guess I had huge, unrealistic expectations. But like I said, after going into the Settings app and turning on the equalizer, boosting the bass and top end – the resulting sound was outstanding, for a tablet.

Playing music out of the Lenovo Tab Plus not only fills a room at max volume, but the speakers don’t distort. The sound clarity remains, and there’s even a good hint of bass. It’s all far beyond what a much more expensive iPad Pro or Galaxy Tab S can crank out, so this is indeed the perfect entertainment tablet.

The Lenovo Tab Plus’ eight JBL speakers take advantage of Dolby Atmos, making movies and music sound extra spatial, and feel extra immersive.

Yep – you read that right – eight speakers; twice the amount of speakers a $1,000+ iPad Pro has. And it’s not just a big number for the sake of a marketing gimmick either; you can really tell the difference.

Thanks to its fantastic sound, the Lenovo Tab Plus is basically like having a tablet and a Bluetooth speaker in one, so you no longer have to buy and carry both of those.

And, unlike many modern devices – the Lenovo Tab Plus has a headphone jack, in case any of you still have wired headphones you love, and would want to use. Obviously Bluetooth headphones will also work.

Again, if you actually expect thumping bass – that’s unrealistic; I made the same mistake at first. But for a thin tablet, or compared to most laptops, or even most small Bluetooth speakers – the Lenovo Tab Plus far excels in volume and clarity.

Lenovo Tab Plus: Should you buy it?

Yes. If you’re into tablets, and want one that offers fantastic value, and the best sound you can squeeze out of one – the Lenovo Tab Plus is absolutely worth it.

Rarely have I seen tablets built so well, with such impressive sound and well-rounded features, that didn’t cost over $500. In fact, no other tablet has such impressive sound; not even close.

Only if you really need an iPad with iPadOS, for things like heavy productivity with professional apps (e.g. video editing with Final Cut Pro), you’ll probably want to go with Apple’s tablet, and miss out on the Lenovo Tab Plus’ great sound.

This here is best described as a family entertainment tablet after all, not a productivity powerhouse, even if it does have productivity features like a desktop mode.

But if you’re looking for an affordable Android tablet that’s an insane bang for your buck, look no further – arguably only the Lenovo Tab Plus, and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Lite offer such great value for a fairly low price. And the Galaxy S6 Lite doesn’t have those speakers.

Additionally – you can look at it this way – the Lenovo Tab Plus is basically like having a small Bluetooth speaker with you at all times, plus an entire tablet. No need to carry both anymore. That’s how I’ve been looking at it, and I’m really happy with the experience.

I also feel like I should mention that this tablet’s naming can be confusing, so pay extra attention, if you intend to get it. This is simply called the Lenovo Tab Plus; a brand new model, not to be confused with the likes of Lenovo Tab M10 Plus.