Lenovo Idea Tab Pro review: Big screen, low price

Best Prices Today: Lenovo Idea Tab Pro

Larger tablets feel less common these days. It’s not long ago that it seemed that tablets would just keep growing and growing, and while there are some outliers, many of the best tablets these days stick to the same 10-11-inch format.

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro bucks that trend, aiming to offer a sizeable tablet that’s not as expensive as flagships from the likes of Apple. For the most part, it succeeds, packing a stylus in the box for creatives, offering quad speakers for music and videos, and a big 13-inch screen.

Sadly, there are caveats throughout. The MediaTek Dimensity 8300 is more powerful than its prior version, but it remains less than ideal for getting any real work done or multitasking more than a few apps at a time. The display, as large as it is, remains an IPS panel, so it’s not quite as bright as you’d perhaps hope.

And yet, with a price of under £400/$400 even with the Lenovo Tab Pen Plus, and access to Google AI features like Gemini, there’s definitely a world where this is more appealing than the base iPad for many users — it’s just not really for ‘Pros’, despite the moniker.

Design & Build

• Big, but relatively light
• Stylus included
• No headphone jack

It’s not easy for tablets to stand out these days, and it’d be fair to say the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is fairly nondescript, aside from the included stylus attached to one side. There’s nothing wrong with that, however. It has a slim bezel all the way around the display, housing the front-facing camera, and the rest of the front is dominated by the big screen.

The bottom edge has a USB-C port for charging, and there are two speaker grilles at the top and two at the bottom for stereo audio output (more on that later).

The top also holds the sleep/wake button, while the right-hand side is for the volume rocker. The stylus attaches for pairing and charging on the left.

There’s no waterproofing here, so you won’t want to use it anywhere near liquid, but aside from that wrinkle, it’s a well-made tablet that feels sturdy while remaining light. I travelled with it in my backpack for a few days and barely noticed it.

It’s a well-made tablet that feels sturdy while remaining light

It’s never clear whether tablets in this price range should have a headphone jack, but it’s absent here. It’s unlikely to be a huge deal, but it’s just worth remembering if you do have some wired cans you want to use with it.

Screen & Speakers

• IPS panel
• 2944×1840 resolution
• Quad speakers

As we’ve said, the 13-inch display here is mammoth. The relatively thin bezel around the outside doesn’t hurt immersion, either, and being able to lose yourself in a movie on a long flight is likely to be easy.

Just don’t expect deep blacks or a lot of contrast, though. The IPS panel doesn’t get particularly bright, and that dims down just about anything you watch on it. Sadly, it’s also not as easy to read in direct sunlight as OLED alternatives, making it better for use indoors than outdoors.

It’s a real shame because with a resolution of 2944×1840, images are crisp and packed with detail, and text looks great, too. That should make it an ideal way to read books or watch movies, provided you’re doing so under a roof.

You also get a high 144Hz refresh rate, meaning scrolling and navigation feel impressively fluid and responsive…provided you’re not carrying out demanding tasks beyond the capabilities of the chipset.

The IPS panel doesn’t get particularly bright, and that dims down just about anything you watch on it

While we’re talking movies, the quad speakers here are particularly effective whether you’re watching something action-packed or dialogue-heavy, and playing music is also great. They get loud, too!

Specs & Performance

• MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chipset
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB/256GB storage

Here’s where we find some of the corners that have been cut, although there is a slight advantage on AI tasks (which we’ll come to shortly).

Put simply, the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chipset is, well, fine. It’s twice as fast as the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro I tested recently, but it won’t be bothering flagships, falling comfortably behind the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus we’re also testing.

That makes it tough to call a ‘Pro’ level tablet when there are other ‘Pro’ models that can outstrip a laptop. And yet, we’re talking sub-£400/$400 here, making certain things much easier to forgive.

8GB of RAM helps shift multiple apps around, and that’s ideal on a screen this large, while there are 128GB and 256GB configurations, but each is expandable with a Micro-SD card. The internal storage is fast, too, meaning snappy transfers.

Put simply, the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chipset is, well, fine

As always, we like to test with a couple of demanding games, namely League of Legends: Wild Rift and Genshin Impact. Wild Rift is less complex thanks to its top-down style, and it plays well on the Idea Tab Pro, with the only real issue being that dim display.

Genshin Impact sees stutter in busier scenes, or with a lot of effects on screen at once, but for the most part, it runs relatively well on middling settings.

So, what about AI? Lenovo proudly proclaims Gemini is supported, and it’s not wrong to do so. That’s because there’s a separate Neural Processing Unit away from the rest of the CPU and it does a great job at handling requests via Gemini (or any AI you may prefer).

As far as “future-proofing”, AI’s demands will certainly outpace it in time, but if this is a tablet for browsing, movies and seeing what the fuss is all about with artificial intelligence, you can do a lot worse.

Lenovo Idea Tab Pro benchmarks

Cameras

• 8Mp front camera
• 13Mp rear camera
• 4K/30fps video

It’s hard to recommend using either the front or rear cameras on the Idea Tab Pro. They aren’t bad, per se, but there’s a good chance the snapper on your phone will do a much better job. 

Overexposure is an issue on the front sensor, while the rear relies on better lighting conditions than you may be able to consistently achieve. Images get overexposed, brightening just about everything in a shot at the cost of detail. It’s fine for broad strokes, but anything requiring any finesse will be better suited to your phone.

Battery Life & Charging

• Big battery with plenty of power
• Slow to charge
• 45W charging

The joy of having a big tablet is that it invariably leads to a bigger battery. That’s the case here, with the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro packing 10200mAh, which means it can run for hours. 

The chipset is tuned less for performance and more for longevity, and in our testing, I got around 11 hours on a single charge browsing the web, testing games, and reading some digital magazines. You’ll get more with Wi-Fi turned off, naturally, but it’s very respectable indeed.

In fact, that’s beyond the Work 3.0 battery test from PCMark, which gave us 10 hours and 4 minutes. A decent score, but nothing to write home about.

The only downside is that the battery takes some time to charge. 45W charging via USB-C is supported, but it can still take well over two hours to charge completely.

Software & Features

• Android 14 until Android 17
• Lenovo ZUI overlay
• PC Mode when connected to a keyboard and mouse

One of the trickier elements of buying an Android tablet is knowing whether it’ll be supported for a while. After all, if it’s running Android 14 but Android 15 isn’t a guarantee, it’s wise to look elsewhere.

Thankfully, Lenovo has committed to four years of updates, and that’s pretty solid for a tablet that’s not a flagship. You’re locked in until Android 17, but anything beyond that remains a mystery.

The overlay on top of Android 14 here is Lenovo ZUI, which works nicely given the included pen. It allows for low-latency doodling, note-taking, or just about anything else, and it converts to a more laptop-like experience when you connect a keyboard — Lenovo’s or otherwise.

Price and Availability

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is available from a number of UK retailers at different prices, so it’s worth shopping around. At the time of writing, the 8GB/128GB model is available for the full £379.99 starting price at Lenovo, but from Currys for £315.83 and from Box for £349.99.

That puts it not too far beyond the base iPad price but with a much larger screen, huge battery life, and that nifty stylus, plus Gemini, which is currently leagues ahead of Apple Intelligence.

The best US deal we found at the time of writing is from Provantage, where it’s $312.68 for the 8GB/128GB model. It’s also available from the US Lenovo Store for $329.99.

If this isn’t the right model for you, check out our top recommendations of the best budget tablets and best tablets overall.

Should you buy the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro?

Taken less as a ‘Pro’ tablet and more as a very good entry model for a more discerning customer, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is a slick device that looks great and performs well.

We’d have liked more grunt under the hood and an OLED panel, but at this price point, it’s hard to feel like you’re not getting your money’s worth.

Specs

• Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 8300
• Security: Passcode, Fingerprint, Face Recognition
• Internal storage: 128GB/256GB
• Expandable storage: Up to 1TB via Micro-SD card
• Memory (RAM): 8GB
• Battery: 10200mAh
• Display: 13-inch IPS, 144Hz
• Resolution: 2944×1840
• Rear camera: 13Mp
• Front camera: 8Mp
• Dimensions: 212 mm x 162 mm x 17 mm (8.3” x 6.4” x 0.7“)
• Weight: 620g
• Ports: USB-C port
• Bluetooth

Best Prices Today: Lenovo Idea Tab Pro