Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 review: almost the perfect iPad alternative

Can the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro second-gen, priced at Rs 39,999, be your new iPad alternative? Find out in this full review of the device.

• By Kshitij Pujari -
Published On: November 4, 2022

Lenovo is currently the world's biggest PC maker in terms of market share and over the last couple of years, the brand has more than solidified its position in the segment. Be that as it may, the Chinese electronics giant is still trying to make its mark in the tablet space. To wit, the tablet market is largely engulfed by offerings from Apple and to some extent, Samsung. However, there is always room for innovation to stake your claim and Lenovo has risen to the opportunity with its second-generation Tab P11 Pro, which brings the functionality of a PC and the portability of a tablet under one roof. 

The tablet - along with the Precision Pen 3 stylus - is priced at Rs 39,999 in India. However, by pairing the keyboard accessory, which you can buy separately for Rs 5,499, buyers can leverage a full two-in-one experience without burning a hole in their wallet. Clearly, the tablet is an enticing proposition so today, let's try and find out if the Lenovo Tan P11 Pro 2nd-gen is worthy of your bucks.

The lowdown

• The Tab P11 Pro's design is as premium as it gets, at least in the premium mid-range segment. The aluminium two-tone finish, which is partially matte, comes with a grey colour scheme. And, while the finish looks slick, it does attract a ton of fingerprints. On the bright side, the tablet ships with a bunch of magnets that allow users to dock the keyboard and stow away the stylus seamlessly. To wit, the unit features one at the top to hold and charge the Precision Pen 3 stylus which comes inside the box. Apart from that, some magnetic pogo pins are also present at the bottom to attach the keyboard folio.

• Finally, the additional case accessory, purchased separately, also snaps on with magnets and acts as a stand for hands-free media consumption. The Tab P11 Pro is as thin as tablets get with a thickness of just 6.8mm and weighs about 480g as a standalone device without the case. Lenovo's branding finds its way discreetly on the left side while Dolby and JBL also take a small portion at the bottom.
• In terms of audio, the Tab P11 Pro does not have any headphone jack. On the up side, the device is furnished with a quad-speaker system tuned by JBL. The tablet also gets a single camera on the rear with an LED flash sitting just below it. The power button, unfortunately, doesn't double up as a fingerprint sensor. However, both, the power toggle and the volume rocker offer clicky feedback. Suffice it to say, the device's svelte and premium-looking design is in a league of its own. 

• Moving on, the display capabilities of Lenovo's new tablet are spectacular, to say the least. To that note, buyers opting for the tablet will be greeted with an 11.2-inch, 2.5K OLED panel that can refresh at 120Hz. Understandably, the Tab P11 Pro truly makes for a remarkable visual aid and you'll be hard-pressed to get similar specs below the Rs 40,000 mark. For starters, the unit supports both Dolby Vision and HDR 10 codecs. And, thanks in no small part to the OLED panel, the tablet accentuates a media's deep blacks and exhibits crystal clear colours.

• Worried about sunny outdoor conditions? The tablet has you mostly covered with its 600nits of peak brightness. The tablet is perfect for media consumption in landscape mode thanks to the nearly 16:9 aspect ratio panel. That's not all, as the bezels surrounding the display are minimal, at best. Even so, the tablet offers a generous gripping area allowing users to comfortably hold the tablet in their hand.

• For productivity needs, Lenovo offers the Keyboard folio case for an additional price of Rs 5,499. The unit snaps onto the pogo pins at the bottom and combined with the magnetic case, the Tab P11 Pro looks the part of a Microsoft Surface 2-in-1 laptop. With the keyboard docked to the device, the tablet enters into a productivity mode of sorts, wherein, users can interact with the device like they would a laptop. In fact, the tablet can maximise its multitasking capabilities by utilising nifty shortcuts on the keyboard which include toggles for opening apps in split screen, shuffling through recent apps, and resizing several apps to work in a windowed mode.
• The trackpad is also quite responsive and has gesture controls for ease of navigation through the interface. The keys have shallow travel but for my daily needs of typing out articles, the experience was more than sufficient. 
• I was looking forward to getting my dose of doodling with the bundled Precision Pen 3 stylus and you'd be glad to know that the unit worked well for the most part. Once paired, I did notice slight latency issues when drawing on the Tab P11 Pro. But, the Precision Pen should suffice for taking notes on the fly. 

• Talking about the interface in general, the Tab P11 Pro runs on Android 12L, specially modified for tablet needs. Apart from a few stock apps from Lenovo and Microsoft, the UI experience is relatively clean and fluid. I did have a few issues with apps like Hotstar and a few others which are not optimised for landscape usage. What's more, you will notice some jitteriness in apps that refuse to scale properly as well. On the bright side, the media playback scales adequately once you hit the play button. I should also add that the company has bundled some nifty features into the interface. For instance, a right swipe from the home screen opens Lenovo's Discover page which curates content ranging from videos to games that are to your liking, which is neat.
• In terms of performance, MediaTek's Kompanio 1300T SoC handles the tab's processing requirements. You also get up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM which should help with background tasks and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. I ran a couple of benchmarks on the device and was quite impressed with the numbers. However, the device did not perform well in the CPU Throttle benchmark which could be of concern to users who plan to use the tablet for high-end creative usage. Be that as it may, I didn't run into any major performance issues during my time with the device. In fact, despite keeping a bevvy of Chrome tabs open, along with a slew of social media applications, and OTT services, the tablet rarely slowed down to catch its breath. 
  

• Other features on the device include the quad-speaker system tuned by JBL with Dolby Atmos support. The audio setup is really impressive and the Tab P11 Pro is easily the best-sounding tablet in its category. The speakers are extremely crisp, and loud and also pack in a sizeable amount of bass that resonates in a closed room. However, both the front-facing and rear cameras could do with improvements. Finally, there is no fingerprint sensor on the device and the tablet relies on facial recognition to authenticate a user's credentials. Unfortunately, the unit's face recognition tech falters in lowlight scenarios quite a bit. 

• The 8,000mAh battery on the Tab P11 Pro is more than sufficient for continuous usage for a couple of days. Even with the brightness cranked up and the display set to refresh at 120Hz, the device can deliver up to 12-14 hours of screen-on time when consuming just media content. Lenovo provides a significantly fast charging solution, at least for a tablet, inside the box which can juice up the device in about 90 minutes.

Final verdict

There's very little to dissuade buyers from the Lenovo P11 Pro. It has the specs and visual appeal to back up its mid-range price point. At the same time, the device offers a stylish keyboard deck to maximise a user's productivity needs. The audio setup is impressive, and performance levels are more than adequate for routine usage. My only gripe remains with some bugs that are prevalent on Android 12L and a rather subpar front camera. If these issues are of little concern then the Lenovo P11 Pro is a solid choice in the Android tablet market. I also highly recommend spending the extra Rs 5,499 to get the Keyboard folio and transform the device into an Android 2-in-1 laptop.

Editor's rating: 4 / 5

Pros:

• Excellent 2.5K 120Hz AMOLED display
• Capable quad-speaker setup
• Keyboard folio amplifies productivity 
• Good battery backup

Cons:

• Front camera not up to mark
• Android 12L can be buggy
• Can throttle under sustained load