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The market for Android tablets is filled with devices that are ultra-low-cost and have little in terms of extra features. Unlike the Lenovo P11 Plus, budget Android tablet devices like the Amazon Fire HD 10, Amazon Fire HD 8 and the Samsung Galaxy A 10.5 (2018); the P11 Plus has some killer extras that make it a one-to consider. That being said, being a budget tablet it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the flagship devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S or the Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021).
2K display shines
Compared to another device we’ve recently reviewed from Lenovo (Lenovo IdeaPad Duet) the screen on this device is a major leap forward. The display is an 11.0 inch 2000×1200 IPS display that is bright and gives ample real estate to comfortably view content on. The display is a 60Hz capable, NTSC 70 with 400 nits of peak display brightness.
Watching Netflix, the device supports resolutions up to full HD (1080p) but does not support HDR playback. Compared to the previous convertible, as mentioned before, this is a major leap forward from SD and AVC-High-only playback. The added support for the VP9 codec on this device means that Netflix playback will be much smoother compared to other playback options.
Audio Experience
A completely stand-out feature of this device is definitely the audio. With four Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers, the sound quality and sheer volume that comes from this device are incredible. Music sounds clear and vibrant and movie playback feels rich for a tablet.
Unlike most other tablets which generally seem underpowered in the speaker space, this device is easily among the loudest we’ve tested at 98 dB. If you watch a lot of movies or other video content on your tablet, this is the device to beat.
Something to consider when purchasing devices in the last couple of years, is that many devices do not include a 3.5mm headphone jack for using headphones. The Lenovo P11 Plus is no exception and does not include a jack. If you have Bluetooth headphones/earphones or a USB-C type adapter, you can still enjoy the content but maybe not as easily as if you had that 3.5mm jack. There is no included 3.5mm USB-C adapter included.
Front and Rear Facing cameras
The Lenovo P11 Plus definitely isn’t going to win any awards for camera quality. Something that we’ve repeatedly stated about Lenovo devices as a whole is that their cameras are consistently disappointing. The front-facing camera is a fixed-focus 8MP camera and a 13MP auto-focusing camera is on the back.
Given the general availability of high-quality, small form-factor sensors, Lenovo in all categories consistently is behind. When you compare the quality of this camera to any Microsoft Surface, Samsung Galaxy or Apple device, it feels like going back in time and the performance comparison is very poor.
Sadly, the P11 plus feels two generations behind in the camera space, and we cannot recommend this device for anything beyond basic video calling.
Performance
The process on the Lenovo P11 Plus is a MediaTek Helio G90T (MT6785) Octa-Core processor with 6 cores at 2 GHz and 2 at 2.05GHZ. This is an ARM 64-bit (version V8A) system with 4GB (3.58GB available) of LPDDR4 RAM.
Overall this device is definitely more suitable for leisurely playback of content and light productivity/creative workloads. We found that the device oddly performs very slightly better when the device was not directly connected to a power source. This was only a very marginal improvement, but based on our data was confirmed after multiple cycles.
In gaming performance, while the device may feel snappy it didn’t perform well on 3D Mark Tests. On average, 3D Mark gaming tests scored 1330 with an average of an 8 FPS rating. When testing the most extreme 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Benchmark, the device scored 374 with a 2.2FPS rating. We wouldn’t rely on the later rating as it is a more aggressive cross-platform rating that is according to UL too heavy for most current phones/tablets. This device might be more suitable for streaming gaming platforms like Stadia or Steam.
Onboard and external storage
The variant that we test featured 4GB of DDR4 RAM onboard and 128GB of onboard storage. There is an included external Micro-SD card slot for storage expansion which supports sizes of up to 256GB (FAT32) and exFAT files up to 1TB. We found that while having the 128GB of storage was useful, given the size of video files and audio content in recent years, we would prefer to see larger onboard storage options. We also would have preferred to have 6GB of RAM on the base model units as 4GB is easily consumed.
Price
The Lenovo P11 Plus comes in several variants that start at $349.99 to $419.99 depending on storage size and colour. Lenovo tends to offer discounts that make the MSRP more of a suggested price, and you will likely find pricing will vary when buying directly.
In general for a budget tablet with these sorts of specifications, we think that it’s a great buy if you’re upgrading tablets or just purchasing you’re first device but we suggest you shop around for a great price.
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