Lenovo is one of the world’s largest tablet brands in the world. And the premium addition to the company’s tablet line-up is the 2nd Gen Lenovo Tab P11 Pro, a reliable mid-range tablet that arrives in a stagnant market, yearning for competition.
With a starting price of Rs 44,999, the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (Gen 2) has little competition with its only rivals being the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE, if we’re only counting Android tablets. Additionally, the iPad 2022 (10th Gen) can also be thrown in the mix. You can also purchase a keyboard and stylus attachment for the Tab P11 Pro (Gen 2) separately. So let’s see how the new Tab P11 Pro fits in with the competition and if it is worth the mid-range price tag.
The Tab P11 Pro is a standard looking tablet with a 11.2-inch display with slim bezels. What’s not standard though is that the Tab P11 Pro arrives as the thinnest Android tablet in the world with a 2K display. The tablet has a metal unibody design with a dual-tone finish, although it is not immune to fingerprints. Despite its aluminium body, the tablet is still on the lighter side.
The tablet has two volume buttons on the top right and pogo pins for the keyboard accessory on the left. There are speaker grilles on the top and bottom, a USB-C port on the bottom, and power button and SIM tray on the top. Moreover, the power button also doubles as a fingerprint reader. There’s a single rear camera and a flash module on the back and a front camera in the middle for video calling. Overall, the Tab P11 Pro features a premium build and has a subtle design.
Display & Audio
When it comes to the display, Lenovo isn’t holding anything back. The tablet sports a 11.5-inch 2K WQXGA (2560×1600 pixels) OLED panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio. There’s no fancy 120Hz refresh rate here, all you get is the standard 60Hz. The display features Dolby Vision, delivering vivid colours and sharp contrasts while watching movies and shows. It is also TÜV Rheinland eye comfort certification for watching over long periods.
Lenovo’s decision to opt for a OLED display over the standard LCD screens used by its competitors gives the Tab P11 Pro a major advantage, despite the 60Hz refresh rate. Moving on to the audio here, which is one of the highlights of the 2nd Gen Tab P11 Pro. The quad-speaker system here is tuned by JBL and are Dolby Atmos certified. The speakers get fairly loud without any distortion at higher volumes. The combined audio and video quality on the 2nd Gen Tab P11 Pro make it a formidable entertainment companion.
Performance
For performance, the Tab P11 Pro opts for a MediaTek Kompanio 1300T chipset paired with 8GB of RAM. The tablet also comes with 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage that is expandable up to 1TB via a microSD card. Given its hardware, the Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) performed admirably and was fluent and multitasking and snappy at opening apps. We also ran a Geekbench 6 test on the P11 Pro, which yielded a single-core score of 781 and a multi-core score of 2720 points, which is more or less in-line with the Xiaomi Pad 5 (Review), which starts from Rs 28,999. So the Tab P11 Pro (2nd) doesn’t quite pass the price-to-performance test.
We also tested a few games on the Tab P11 Pro, including Call of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9, and Eternal Evolution. Both Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 9 ran smoothly with minimal frame drops on ‘Medium’ settings. I decided not to push games to high settings and preferred settings for higher frame rates in Call of Duty Mobile. It is also worth noting that the tablet remained relatively cool while gaming, but my sessions never crossed the 30-minute mark. It feels like the iPad might be much better equipped for gaming here but the P11 Pro’s performance is in line with most Android tablets under Rs 50,000.
Cameras
Lenovo has equipped the Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) with a 13 MP single rear camera and an 8 MP front camera. The rear camera can capture video in 1080p or 4K resolution at 30fps, while the front camera only goes up to 1080p video. The tablet also features a portrait mode and a dedicated mode to scan documents.
Image quality here is passible for a mid-tier camera, while the front camera works well for video calls. However, you will need good lighting to take photos, videos, video calls, or portrait shots on front and back cameras. This was more or less what we expected from a mid-tier tablet, although it could have been better considering the Pad P11 Pro’s price.
Battery
Lenovo has equipped the 2nd Gen Tab P11 Pro with an 8,000 mAh battery that supports 20W charging support. The tablet easily gets through a full day of use on a single charge with one hour of YouTube draining around 10 percent of the battery. You are looking at at least seven hours of screen on-time, which is impressive. A 20W charging adapter is included in the box and can fully power the tablet in just under four hours, which can be agonizingly long. However, we’d still give the Tab P11 Pro full marks on the battery front and we were able to use it as our secondary entertainment device for around two days.
Software
The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 runs stock Android 12 out of the box. The tablet ran a stock Android version of Google, which is generally clean. Attaching the folio keyboard automatically switches the tablet to desktop mode or as Lenovo calls it “Productivity Mode” and allows you to use it like a laptop. However, not all apps are usable in desktop-mode as most apps launch as little portrait aspect windows. Lenovo has also promised that the tablet will get both the Android 13 and Android 14 updates, which is certainly a step in the right direction. Overall, the software experience here is good but you will be left disappointed if you plan on using the P11 Pro Gen 2 as a laptop replacement.
Verdict
The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (Gen 2) makes for a formidable entertainment companion when you are on-the-go and a laptop is just too inconvenient to use. The P11 Pro has arguably the best display in the segment with that 2.5K OLED display with Dolby Vision support and the speakers do well to complement the vibrant display. In terms of power, the MediaTek chip is a solid upgrade, giving the P11 Pro Gen 2 a good boost in performance over its predecessor. The chip is also fast enough to run most games without a hitch and delivers a lag-free multitasking experience.
The tablet also features respectable battery life and boasts a solid design that doesn’t feel cheap. The stock Android experience was much appreciated, although there is no word on software support. However, for a premium mid-range tablet, the P11 Pro (Gen 2) does have lacklustre cameras and loses out on the fingerprint reader. I would also recommend the iPad (2022) if you are looking for better performance, although Lenovo offers four times the storage for the same price.
Overall, the Lenovo Tad P11 Pro Gen 2 is an excellent addition to the Android tablet market and gets most things right. There are areas for improvement and the price does seem a little too steep. With the OnePlus Pad just around the corner, the Tad P11 Pro (2nd Gen) is going to face tough competition. But as things stand it is the best Android tablet in its limited range. It also does do a lot wrong, nailing the tablet experience, earning it an easy recommendation in our book.
