Michael Crider
There isn’t much competition in the world of high-end Android tablets. There’s Samsung and…well, no, there’s just Samsung. But after a few years improving its low-end offerings with some integrated speaker docks, Lenovo is ready to dive into the world of premium Android slates once again. Meet the Tab P11 Pro.
Apparently some competition for both the Galaxy Tab S series and Apple’s iPad Pro line, the Tab P11 Pro is an 11.5-inch tablet powered by Android 10 with an impressive OLED screen. It’s a feature that isn’t often seen in this form factor—Samsung turned heads by doing it for the S6 series last year. This one is 2560×1600 (a 16:10 ratio, if you’re wondering) with fairly slim bezels on all four sides. It supports Lenovo’s Precision Pen 2, though the package doesn’t include stylus.
The P11 Pro is leveraging that gorgeous display for media, with four, count ’em, four side-firing speakers, and a 5.8mm-thin body that weighs just one pound. (At 485 grams, it’s almost exactly the same weight as the 11-inch iPad Pro.) But Lenovo thinks this form factor can get some work done, too: you can add on a POGO-connected keyboard and magnetic kickstand cover, very much like the ChromeOS-powered IdeaPad Duet. Unlike the Duet, these accessories do not come in the box.
The tablet isn’t using top-of-the-line hardware underneath. It’s rocking a Snapdragon 730G processor—the same one in the mid-range Pixel 4a phone—with just 4GB of RAM on the base model. An upgrade to 6GB is available, with slightly faster storage via UMCP, but both models have 128GB with an open MicroSD card slot, a 13MP/5MP rear camera setup, and 8MP on the front. There’s a fingerprint sensor in the power button, too. Lenovo will be selling an LTE-enabled version of the P11 Pro, but it isn’t clear if the standard model includes it. Probably not.
The P11 Pro should offer a more budget-friendly alternative to the iPad Pro with a starting price of $500, if you can stomach the way Google continues to ignore Android on tablets. It will be released in November.
But if you need something even cheaper, the Tab M10 HD second gen might do. It’s aimed squarely at kids, with Lenovo highlighting the integration of Google’s Kids Space app. The Tab M10 uses a 10-inch 1280×800 screen, a MediaTek P22T processor with just 2GB/32GB of RAM and storage on the base model, though a 4GB/64GB option will also be sold. It includes a MicroSD card slot.
There’s an 8MP rear camera and 5MP on the front, with USB-C charging a rather puny 5000mAh battery. That’s not much, but it doesn’t need to be, since the M10 HD costs just $130. It’ll be available in September, with a bundled version including a Google Assistant speaker base coming in October at an undisclosed price. There’s an Alexa model planned as well, but Lenovo says it won’t be sold in North America.
