Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 Review

Worth When Reviewed

$399.99 (4+128GB) | $429.99 (6+128GB)

Greatest Costs Right this moment: Lenovo Tab P11 Professional Gen 2

The Lenovo Tab P11 Professional is a mid-range Android pill that’s right here to comb up potential entry-level iPad 10.2 or iPad 10.9 patrons who just like the sound of a barely bigger display.  

It has an 11.2in display, a bit smaller than that of the first-gen Tab P11 Professional, which had a 11.5in show. This panel is the spotlight, because it’s a pointy and punchy OLED.  

The remainder? It’s not fairly as scorching. The Tab P11 Professional is so much much less highly effective than even the essential 10.2in iPad, and its use of a comparatively little-used MediaTek chipset doesn’t appear to assist with recreation optimisation.  

Its construct can be much less nice than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite’s, which is cheaper and nonetheless the go-to for non-iPad digital drawing on a finances.  

Whereas Lenovo has not tousled any key components right here, the P11 Professional prices a bit an excessive amount of to nudge its means into any prime positions for patrons. By itself the pill worth is just too near the iPad 10.9 for consolation, and for a similar worth as combining it with the non-obligatory keyboard and stylus, you can get a good laptop computer as an alternative.  

Design and construct

• Slim and never too heavy 
• Plasticky shell 
• Good quad-driver audio system 

The Tab P11 Professional appears to be like the half from arm’s size, and on paper, however get your fingers round one and also you’ll discover it’s not fairly as high-end as an iPad Air or Samsung Galaxy Tab S8.

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Its again and sides really feel like plastic. Lenovo describes the construct right here as “magnesium alloy + PMMA + PC”. Our greatest guess is that the perimeters are “PC”, polycarbonate, and the rear is a skinny sheet of magnesium alloy with a layer of PMMA on prime. PMMA is acrylic, a type of faux glass on this context.

It appears to be like good, not less than till it picks up a thousand fingerprint marks after a hour of use, however doesn’t really feel as costly as aluminium or actual glass.  

This was, sadly, in regards to the first thought we had on utilizing the P11 Professional. Nonetheless, it’s gentle sufficient at 6.8mm thick, and corresponding to the competitors in weight at 480g. It appears to be like sensible too, with a two-tone end, one aspect shinier than the opposite.  

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Nevertheless, the audio system are the true spotlight of the outer {hardware}. The Tab P11 Professional has 4 JBL-branded drivers. Their mid-range projection and bass energy outclasses the output of the 4th technology iPad Air we needed to hand for comparisons. Nice for video games, nice for films.  

It’s a disgrace that the audio focus doesn’t lengthen to placing a headphone jack in although. Leaving sockets out of telephones is one factor, however tablets? There’s, nonetheless, a SIM-style tray that’s residence to a microSD slot. Expandable storage however no headphone jack — that’s the state of transportable Android pill tech in 2022, apparently.  

The Tab P11 Professional may perform a bit like a laptop computer if you happen to purchase the keyboard case accent. Whereas this mimics the keyboard of a Microsoft Floor Professional, the type is slightly completely different. It is available in two elements, needed as a result of the pill doesn’t have its personal stand.  

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There’s a backplate with a intelligent built-in hinged stand, and slightly compartment for the stylus (additionally not included as commonplace). The keyboard half is totally separate, and each elements connect to the pill utilizing magnets.  

With each bits in place, the Lenovo Tab P11 Professional turns into about as chunky as a laptop computer, however each side of the pill get an excellent layer of safety. The keyboard feels fairly good too, with correct key motion and a pleasant stiff key plate. Nevertheless, we’re not in the identical league because the Microsoft Floor keyboard right here.  

The touchpad is plastic, not glass like Microsoft’s, and there’s no keyboard backlight.  

Display and stylus 

• Tousled HDR video playback 
• Good brightness, nice distinction 
• Wealthy, customisable color 

As in any good pill, the Tab P11 Professional display is a spotlight. This can be a comparatively massive 11.2in OLED panel with a facet ratio that sits someplace between 16:9 and 16:10. It’s really a 15:9, or 5:3 show, with decision of 2560 x 1536 pixels.  

Andrews Williams / Foundry

This offers it pixel density just like an iPad, though iPads look barely sharper as a result of their LCD screens have a extra tightly common sub-pixel construction. Nonetheless, the Lenovo P11 Professional appears to be like {smooth} up shut, a transparent improve over the much less pixel dense Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite.  

Color and distinction are glorious too, as is to be anticipated of an OLED pill. The default color mode appears to be like a bit excitable, however you possibly can swap right down to a extra sRGB-like “Customary” mode if you wish to make it simpler to understand the distinction between extra and fewer saturated app icon designs, for instance.  

This can be a 120Hz display, for that extra-smooth excessive refresh charge look when scrolling, and peak brightness is nice too. Indoors the P11 Professional will attain 463 nits, sufficient to look outright uncomfortable in a darker room. And in contrast to a variety of older tablets, there’s a “excessive brightness” mode that engages whenever you exit into direct daylight. This bumps the brightness as much as 622 nits, comparable with the facility of an OK mid-range OLED telephone.  

There are simply two points with the display. As with some OLEDs, it takes on a slight blue-green tint at an excessive angle — it’s an impact that has largely gone in lots of latest OLED telephones.  

The pill additionally has main points with HDR content material. Whereas it helps HDR 10+ and Dolby Imaginative and prescient, we discovered HDR content material on YouTube exhibited very clearly raised blacks. It makes it appear as if you might be watching on a low-quality LCD show, so hopefully this shall be fastened in a software program replace.  

This pill additionally helps the Precision Pen 3 stylus, though it’s not included as commonplace. It’s a full-size pen with 4096 ranges of stress sensitivity and intuitive tilt detection.  

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This isn’t a fundamental lively stylus, because it has a battery and wirelessly expenses whenever you connect it to a magnetised spot on the pill’s again. And the one button can be utilized to deliver up a shortcut menu on the pill itself.  

It feels good to make use of, though the lag — how far the road drawn trails behind the stylus nib — varies fairly a bit between apps. The preinstalled note-taking app is tremendous responsive, however there’s noticeable lag in Infinite Painter, though its digital pencils work fantastically with the pen’s tilt detection.  

Software program and efficiency 

• Strong efficiency, however means beneath iPad grade 
• Respectable desktop-style UI is held again by Android 
• Lacks the app optimisation you may get with a Samsung 

A typical criticism of Android tablets is that they’re principally enormous telephones, with little in the way in which of optimisation to make them appear greater than that. That might nonetheless largely be the case if you happen to left it to Google — perhaps it will change in 2023 with the Pixel Pill.   

Google made positive Android apps can usually scale to screens of various shapes, resolutions and sizes, and known as it a day, kind of. That doesn’t matter an excessive amount of in low cost tablets, however in pricier ones just like the P11 Professional it’s left to the producer to go slightly additional.  

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You solely actually see the outcomes of this whenever you connect the Tab P11 Professional’s keyboard, which makes it enter ‘Productiveness mode’. That is an interface designed to feel and appear a bit extra like Home windows or Mac OS.  

Some touchscreen navigation gestures are disabled, there’s a extra built-up standing and app shortcut bar on the backside. Apps additionally load in scalable home windows, somewhat than routinely filling up the display.  

It makes the pill look extra like a laptop computer however, as regular with these customized UI layers, just a few creaky elements stay. The massive one is that almost all apps will launch as little portrait side home windows, making it look as if you simply booted up an Android telephone emulator on, say, a Home windows laptop computer.  

If you wish to use the P11 Professional as a laptop computer, you possibly can. However you’ll have to put up with reminders it wasn’t made for the job.  

Andrews Williams / Foundry

A MediaTek Kompanio 1300T runs the present, and this appears to be similar to the better-known Dimensity 1200 utilized in telephones just like the OnePlus Nord 2. It’s a stable processor, however not almost as highly effective as these of any of the iPads offered at this time.  

In Geekbench 5 it scores 2823 factors (772 per core), the place the essential iPad 10.2 scores round 3300 and the iPad 10.9 round 4200 factors.

The hole grows whenever you have a look at a GPU-led take a look at like 3D Mark’s Time Spy. The P11 Professional manages 4422 in comparison with round 7300 within the low cost iPad 10.2, 8600 within the iPad 10.9.

Lenovo comes out higher if we evaluate the P11 Professional to Samsung tablets as an alternative. It’s rather more highly effective than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, and the GPU aspect is punchier than that of the ageing Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE. It additionally comfortably outpaces its predecessor, the 2021 Tab P11 Professional.

Nevertheless, run Fortnite and also you see the draw back of shopping for a pill with an uncommon SoC, launched with out a lot fanfare. It should solely run at bog-standard graphics settings regardless that the P11 Professional ought to have the facility to do significantly better. Solely Medium (or beneath) graphics is offered, and 30fps is the utmost body charge setting. It runs very effectively, however the recreation will look an entire lot higher on another tablets.  

Battery life and cameras 

• Pretty weak rear digicam 
• So-so however helpful entrance digicam 
• Good battery life for gentle makes use of 

The Lenovo P11 Professional has an 8000mAh battery, the identical measurement because the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8’s, which has a similar-sized display.  

As is often the case with Lenovo tablets, it lasts an excellent lengthy whereas when enjoying video. Streaming YouTube it lasts 12.5 hours, a bit beneath Lenovo’s 14 hour declare however shut sufficient to make that appear possible at decrease brightness, or utilizing a unique app.  

On the opposite finish of the dimensions, the pill ought to final round 5.5 hours of 3D gaming based mostly on our testing.  

Battery life is nice, however the cameras? Not a lot. The P11 Professional has a single 13Mp rear digicam with a flash and a entrance 8Mp digicam.  

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Stills are going to look considerably worse than these of any half-decent latest telephone that prices upwards of, say, £180. Evening photos are very poor, and whereas daytime ones can look OK, we’re coping with a fairly small digicam sensor right here so they’re by no means going to be nice.  

The Lenovo P11 Professional rear digicam can shoot video too, at as much as 4K decision. Nevertheless, there’s no software program stabilisation so handheld clips are liable to look jerky.  

Across the entrance, the 8Mp digicam is extra notable regardless of being lower-spec, largely as a result of it’s going to do a greater job for video chat than the typical laptop computer webcam. Whereas decrease gentle video appears to be like fairly noisy, this entrance digicam can seize a stable quantity of facial element even in barely murky indoors lighting. Whereas your telephone should have higher {hardware}, utilizing the P11 Professional for video calls is a sound concept.  

Verdict 

The Lenovo Tab P11 Professional Gen 2 is a stable Android pill that’s going to wrestle to compete with the iPad 10.2 and 10.9. It sits between these two in worth and isn’t as highly effective or as expensive-feeling as both.  

It additionally lacks the core enchantment of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, which gives one of many most cost-effective methods to get a high quality digital artwork pill.  

Mid-tier tablets like this actually wrestle to get out of the iPads’ lengthy shadows, and the plasticky really feel of the outer shell doesn’t assist. Nevertheless, there’s loads of great things to understand right here, just like the robust speaker array, good light-use battery life and punchy OLED show — not less than when not enjoying HDR video, as that’s bugged out at launch.

Specs

• Android 12
• 11.2in, 2560 x 1536, OLED show
• Quad audio system
• MediaTek Kompanio 1300T SoC
• As much as 256GB storage
• As much as 8GB RAM
• 13Mp rear digicam
• 8Mp entrance digicam
• 8200mAh battery
• 20W charging 
• 263.7 x 166.7 x 6.8mm
• 480g