Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Review: A Proper Entertainment Package and Nothing More
Lenovo’s Tab P11 Professional looks like a well-priced Android pill. It has an honest mid-range processor, together with a show and audio system which are geared in the direction of leisure. There’s additionally an optionally available stylus, and what Lenovo claims is a laptop-class keyboard for productiveness. Nonetheless, after a couple of weeks of use, I realised that this pill is greatest used as a consumption gadget and nothing extra. It may possibly’t substitute your laptop computer, however for some consumers all in favour of shopping for an Android-powered pill in 2021, which may not matter.
Lenovo Tab P11 Professional worth and variants
The Lenovo Tab 11 Professional is out there in a single configuration, with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage that’s priced at Rs. 44,990. The pill’s SIM tray affords house for one Nano-SIM and a microSD card, with a most supported capability of 256GB.
The Lenovo Precision Pen 2 is priced at Rs. 3,999 if bought individually or Rs. 2,999 if included as an add-on whereas buying the pill. The Lenovo Keyboard Pack for P11 Professional is priced at Rs. 5,499 if bought individually and could be availed at Rs. 5,000 if bought together with the pill on-line.
Lenovo Tab P11 Professional design
The Tab P11 Professional appears to be like similar to Samsung’s not too long ago launched Galaxy Tab S7 FE (Evaluate), however is slimmer at simply 5.8mm. Whereas the entrance face is mainly a sheet of glass with comparatively skinny bezels (for a pill) throughout, there are additionally two front-facing cameras above the show. The again is manufactured from metallic and options antenna strains on the prime (when held horizontally) and a two-tone end. A Lenovo emblem is prominently positioned on the suitable, and the rear dual-camera module on the left.
The Lenovo Tab P11 Professional incorporates a again panel that is manufactured from metallic
The edges of the gadget are flattened. There are audio system on the left and proper, with the left facet additionally housing the SIM tray and energy button, which has an embedded fingerprint reader. The quantity buttons are positioned on the highest left, whereas the 4-point connector for the keyboard accent is on the backside. I had no bother discovering the quantity and energy buttons, as soon as I obtained the orientation proper (with the selfie cameras on the prime).
Lenovo affords an optionally available keyboard accent, which it claims affords a laptop-class typing expertise with 1.3mm of key journey. Sadly I didn’t get to check that as the corporate couldn’t present a pattern for evaluation. Additionally obtainable is the Lenovo Precision Pen 2, which might have labored nicely with the preinstalled Bamboo Paper or Squid apps, however the firm couldn’t ship that both.
The Lenovo Tab P11 Professional has two rear cameras
Regardless of this pill’s unusually skinny physique, construct high quality felt premium. It is fairly strong, however at 485g it did really feel heavy over lengthy intervals and isn’t excellent for one-handed use. What’s extra annoying is that there is no such thing as a kickstand mechanism, or perhaps a easy case within the field, so I normally ended up leaning it in opposition to a pile of books on a desk, particularly when watching movies. The keyboard case (known as the Lenovo Keyboard Pack), which could be added when buying the gadget for an extra Rs. 5,000, will care for this although it provides to the general thickness of the gadget.
The Lenovo Tab P11 Professional incorporates a 16:9 facet ratio OLED show with a WQXGA 2560×1600 decision. It measures 11.5 inches diagonally and has a regular 60Hz refresh fee, which is a bit disappointing given this pill’s premium pricing.
Lenovo Tab P11 Professional specs and software program
Lenovo’s pill makes use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 730G SoC, which was launched in mid-2019. Now, about two years later, the gamer-centric processor is normally present in funds to mid-range smartphones such because the Google Pixel 4a (Evaluate). There’s 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage, with room for growth utilizing a microSD card (as much as 256GB). Whereas the pill helps 4G information and has built-in microphones, you may’t place voice calls. Communications requirements embrace dual-band Wi-Fi ac and Bluetooth 5. The pill has a 8,400mAh battery and helps 20W quick charging.
The pill’s software program affords a desktop-like productiveness mode, which can be utilized with a mouse and a keyboard
The Lenovo Tab P11 Professional is powered by what seems to be a inventory model of Android. Nonetheless, that is Android 10, which is a bit outdated in 2021. There are additionally some preinstalled third-party apps together with Netflix, Dolby Imaginative and prescient, Dolby Atmos, Workplace, OneNote, Bamboo Paper, and Squid. There are additionally the standard Google defaults with the addition of a Children House app, which is mainly a Play Retailer with YouTube suggestions for youngsters constructed right into a enjoyable app. In common use, I didn’t obtain any annoying promotions or notifications from any of those apps.
Whereas the software program seems inventory, Lenovo has added a number of customisations of its personal underneath the hood. These embrace minor UI parts resembling a Sensible Navigation slide-out menu that permits you to simply take screenshots or display recordings, and even a real-time beautification mode in video calls. Then there are some larger software program add-ons resembling Productiveness Mode, which works like Samsung’s DeX, switching from a daily phone-like Android interface to a desktop-like interface with a taskbar and windowed apps.
Lenovo Tab P11 Professional efficiency and battery life
The Lenovo Tab P11 Professional’s 11.5-inch OLED show is sharp and will get fairly brilliant outside. Colors are fairly saturated, however they are often tweaked within the Settings app. Lenovo claims that the Tab P11 Professional’s show helps HDR10 and Dolby Imaginative and prescient. Netflix allowed full-HD playback with help for HDR10 and Dolby Imaginative and prescient. Exhibits obtainable in these codecs regarded fairly spectacular on the show, with good distinction and sharpness. Content material on Amazon Prime Video additionally regarded sharp and vibrant.
The Lenovo Tab P11 Professional has two front-facing cameras
Including to that immersive video streaming expertise is the four-speaker setup. It helps Dolby Atmos audio, which sounded fairly wealthy and immersive provided that it is a slim pill. The sound was loud and clear when catching up on motion pictures, and it meant that I not often needed to attain out for my Bluetooth headphones.
On the draw back, this pill doesn’t permit mobile voice calls. VoIP calls positioned by means of WhatsApp and Zoom sounded fairly clear on each ends, which is sweet provided that I used the pill at arm’s size and on a desk outside.
A normal lack of help from Google makes the Android expertise on tablets really feel like utilizing a stretched-out smartphone, which is not good. The Settings app for instance has no expanded menus, which implies tons of wasted house. One other instance is the Google Information feed, which is a strip in the midst of the show with a number of white house on either side.
You actually need to stretch out for buttons from left to proper or prime to backside throughout the expanse of the show, when menus and submenus ought to ideally be inside attain. Apart from Gmail, Maps and YouTube, even Google’s personal default apps are made for smartphones and easily stretch throughout the width of the show.
It will get tough to determine the place a floating app window’s borders are when two or extra are overlaid in productiveness mode
Microsoft’s Workplace has been optimised for tablets, however most different third-party apps (together with productiveness apps like Slack, Trello and so on) have not been. I did take pleasure in utilizing WhatsApp (for video calls) and Instagram (which regarded like {a magazine}) on a giant display, however each apps might have been optimised significantly better for tablets. Certainly, Apple’s iPad with iPadOS is quite a bit higher in relation to each design and third-party apps, letting customers make the most of an even bigger show.
The Productiveness Mode could be activated from the Settings app or from a toggle within the notifications tray. As soon as activated, you may set it to pair with a related Bluetooth mouse and keyboard. The identical guidelines apply to the optionally available keyboard accent, which additionally has a built-in trackpad, lowering the necessity for a mouse.
As soon as within the Productiveness mode, the house display switches to a desktop-like interface which appears to be like and feels similar to Samsung’s DeX. You may select to open apps full-screen or in small floating home windows. Not all apps will run full-screen. Switching between home windows is fast and simple, however with none outlined borders round them, it is annoyingly tough to seek out out the place an app’s window ends when two or extra are overlaid.
Additionally, as soon as I had opened up 7-10 apps, the system started to lag. There have been even cases when the taskbar disappeared for a couple of seconds. At different occasions, mentioning apps which have been already opened by tapping on their taskbar icons additionally took a couple of seconds. Whereas the Lenovo Tab P11 Professional, together with its keyboard accent, is marketed as appropriate for getting work accomplished, I steered away from the productiveness mode after making an attempt it a couple of occasions because it was a bit irritating to make use of.
Regardless of its barely previous Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G processor, the pill carried out nicely sufficient in our benchmark checks. The Lenovo Tab P11 Professional managed a rating of three,31,115 factors in AnTuTu together with 528 and 1,685 in Geekbench’s single and multi-core checks respectively, which is nearly as good as a mid-range smartphone.
Gaming efficiency was fairly good total. The pill barely warmed up and I used to be in a position to max out graphics settings in most video games. The four-speaker system made the gaming expertise fairly immersive, and with a punchy OLED show, I didn’t miss a high-refresh fee panel. Name of Obligation: Cellular labored easily on the default Excessive body fee and graphics settings, and continued to run easily even after maxing them out. The identical could be stated about Asphalt 9: Legends, which carried out nicely even with the graphics set to Excessive High quality, with no slowdowns or lag throughout gameplay.
The Lenovo Tab P11 Professional has a 13-megapixel major digicam and a 5-megapixel ultra-wide-angle digicam on the again. The selfie digicam setup consists of two 8-megapixel cameras, one among which is an infrared sensor that’s used to calculate depth for results within the background in video calls. Photographs taken within the daytime with the primary rear digicam got here out with below-average element. These cameras weren’t usable in low gentle, and even photographs utilizing the ultra-wide-angle digicam in daylight got here out a bit too blurry. There may be an LED flash on the again which turns out to be useful when scanning paperwork.
The 8,400mAh battery lasted a couple of day and half with common use. This included a great deal of video streaming, scrolling by means of Instagram feeds, taking part in an hour or two of video games, and listening to music, together with two electronic mail accounts syncing within the background. In productiveness mode, the battery delivered about 8 hours (a couple of workday) of use with the show being continually on and a number of other apps open. Our HD video loop take a look at lasted for 16 hours and 48 minutes, which is excellent for a pill this slim. Charging the pill utilizing the included 20W charger took round 3 hours, which looks like a very long time, however just isn’t all that dangerous contemplating the battery’s capability.
Verdict
The software program limitations imposed by Android be sure that whereas the Lenovo Tab P11 Professional is sweet sufficient for capturing throughout occasional emails, it won’t substitute your common laptop computer. Nonetheless, in relation to streaming motion pictures and taking part in graphics-intensive video games, it does go above and past. So, this pill is kind of the entertainer, particularly if you’re somebody who travels quite a bit.
Priced at Rs. 44,990 in India, the Lenovo Tab P11 Professional, regardless of its flaws, will discover a variety of consumers. For an extra Rs. 5,000, the keyboard accent is a must-buy.
At this worth level, you would additionally take a look at Apple’s 8th Gen iPad (128GB), which retails for Rs. 37,900 for the Wi-Fi mannequin and Rs. 49,900 for the Wi-Fi + Mobile mannequin. The Sensible Keyboard will price you an extra Rs. 13,900, however this mixture can be extra helpful for productiveness, due to iPadOS and its ecosystem of apps. On the draw back, you will not get an OLED show and as immersive an audio expertise as on the Lenovo.