Lenovo Tab Plus reviewed: travel-focused

Microsoft’s Surface isn’t the only kickstand-equipped tablet on the market. The Lenovo Tab Plus shows how entertainment can be the main focus of a tablet when you marry speakers, stand, and a sometimes decent price, at that.

Design and features

Tablets tend to all look like a large piece of relatively thin glass with metal, alloy, or plastic on the back, but Lenovo’s Tab Plus is a little different. There’s an obvious thickness to one side and a slope pack to the regular tablet shape, making it just that little bit, well, unique.

Inside this unique shape, there’s an extra that won’t take you long to figure out: a kickstand to help you hold the tablet up or lie it down, because you may as well use your tablet the way you want. That’ll save you something to spend money on, as will the included folio case, which is a vinyl cover that comes in the box.

Inside the tablet itself, you’ll find a MediaTek G99 chip paired with 8GB RAM and Android 14, as well as 256GB storage in the Lenovo Tab Plus review unit we were supplied.

There’s also a microSD slot found inside, so you can upgrade the storage with a memory card should you choose to.

There’s no 5G in this tablet, but you will find 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi 5, plus Bluetooth 5.2, as well as USB Type C accompanied by a 3.5mm headphone jack, with these last two the only hard physical ports on that Tab Plus.

Two cameras can also be found — 8 megapixel cameras on either side — as well as eight JBL speakers and an 8600mAh battery, all found under an 11.5 inch 2000×1200 LCD display running a 90Hz refresh rate.

Display

One of the standout features, the screen on the Lenovo Tab Plus is that 11.5 inch 2000×1200 LCD supporting a 90Hz refresh rate.

While that’s not something of the AMOLED variety, it’s sizeable enough for media at 11.5 inches, and the resolution isn’t bad, either, supporting the 2K resolution.

No complaints here for that aspect.

In-use

Using the Lenovo Tab Plus is easy enough, with a neat design reminiscent of a much older Android tablet, the Sony Tablet S from way back in 2011. It’s been some time since we thought of that tablet with its curved wedge design, something that gave the tab a bit of a grip to hold on, almost like the binding of a slim book.

In the Lenovo Tab Plus, the vibe is much the same, but used in a different way. Instead of being similar to a binding, the thicker part of the design hides a stand at the back allowing you to literally stand the tablet up at all manner of angles, or roughly 175 degrees worth of them.

Stand it up at a slight angle or lie down at a sharper one. It’s a neat inclusion that means you don’t need to separate accessory like a tablet stand. In fact, you don’t even need to buy a case, because one is included in the box.

These extras add to the usability, which basically just sees you push and prod Android like normal, even though you’re using the stand to hold the tablet up.

You don’t have to, of course; you can hold the Tab Plus, and push and prod here, too, and there’s also a facial security system using the 8 megapixel camera on the front, though there’s another 8 megapixel camera on the back should you need to take pictures using a giant 11.5 inch screen.

Performance

Perhaps the more noticeable aspect is the performance itself, which thanks to the MediaTek Helio G99 chip inside just isn’t crash hot amazing.

Bringing the tablet out of standby might take a second or two, and running an app incurs the same sort of speed issue.

Synthetic benchmarks agree with our analysis of the speed, which can feel a little laggy at times, one of the downsides of going with a low-end chip. It’s not dramatically different to last year’s Oppo Pad Neo, which runs the same chip, but offers a little less in the memory department. We had performance issues with that system, so we’re not shocked.

However, it also doesn’t match up to a three year old tablet from Samsung, the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, which was a high-end device when it launched back in 2022, but these days doesn’t exist and should see mid-range models more closely matched.

Comparing the Lenovo Tab Plus against the obvious competition from Apple doesn’t quite work the same way. You’re almost literally comparing Apples with oranges, because the hardware and software are both very different.

But when we compare the benchmarks, even the 9th generation iPad with the home button from 2021 is leaps ahead of the Lenovo Tab Plus in regards to performance, and it’s a similar picture when you look at the 10th-gen iPad that was only recently replaced by the 11th gen model.

While the performance isn’t quite up there in terms of how it runs, there’s more from the sound than you might expect, and JBL could be the reason why.

Sound

There’s a logo on the side of the tablet noting JBL is included, and the tablet actually includes eight speakers in its design, as well as support for Dolby Atmos.

Granted, the Atmos support comes from a virtualised sound system, so it’s not true 3D sound. We’re not sure any tablet has pulled that off year.

But the sound manages to be loud and punchy, and delivers quite a lot of volume for the relatively small size of the Tab Plus.

There are better speaker systems, for sure, and the latest iPad Air and iPad Pro both definitely have an edge on sound excellence by comparison. However, the Lenovo Tab Plus is also much less expensive, so it has that going for it.

Battery

With mediocre performance, the battery does manage to keep going, possibly because you’ll space your time with the tablet.

It’s a little too slow to be a tablet for games, and it can be a little slow and grinding when used for productivity, too. Really, the Lenovo Tab Plus has streaming movies and shows in its remit, and it can manage up to a good 15 hours worth in the process from its 8600mAh battery.

Value

The price is a little hit and miss by comparison, at least when you judge it on street price versus recommended retail pricing (RRP).

At the RRP level, the Lenovo Tab Plus 256GB tablet hits a $549 price in Australia, which feels like a little too much for what you’re getting. By comparison, the street price is between $398 and $419, which is actually decent value by comparison. The fact that it comes with a folio case only helps to bolster that, even if the tablet does fit into the case upside down.

At over $500, it’s a difficult tablet to recommend largely because it makes both the 9th and 10th-gen iPad models seem inexpensive. But closer to $400, and Lenovo has found a decent balance. It could still be less, but if you can find the Tab Plus for nearer to $400 (and ideally the under-side of it), that wouldn’t be bad value.

What needs work?

While the value is hit and miss in how we analyse it, the performance is not. It’s just not a fantastic tablet experience, thanks in part to MediaTek’s Helio G99 just not being a great chip, and the 2K 11 inch screen largely feels wasted with the slight delays in the system coming to life.

Fine for movies, fine for TV shows. Fine for giving your kids some YouTube clips you don’t want to watch yourself. It’s even fine as an impromptu modern boombox of sorts, because the speakers are so loud. It’s less fine for actually using apps and games and such, because the lag is noticeable.

The Tab Plus also won’t get a heap of updates, maxing out at Android 16 as far as operating system updates go, which basically means this year’s release in 2025, though security updates will keep on coming for a few years yet.

What we love

But what do we love? The stand. It’s such a clever inclusion.

Not quite a kickstand, the Lenovo Tab Plus stand flips out and supports several angles, making it an easy tablet for flights for the kids, for sitting on the kitchen table, or even for leaning back and typing on or reading from.

It’s one of those handy additions that makes using the Lenovo Tab Plus a treat, and makes up for the performance problems.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

The chip and speed kind of tell you that you’re not using this tablet as a gaming system. That’s fine. But the stand makes it possible to easily use it for other forms of entertainment, and the kids will be more than happy with that.

The performance problem is a problem. There’s no doubting that. The lack of speed will mean the Tab Plus is primarily just portable entertainment viewer, but the fact that the screen is nice, the stand is handy, and it comes with a case as well as a sub-$400 cost makes it slightly more compelling than other non-iPad tablets out there.

Make no mistake, an iPad is better, but there’s some travel-focused value in the Lenovo Tab Plus, especially if the price is right.