Lenovo Tab P12 Pro Review: Performance & Features Unpacked
Lenovo Tab P12 Pro has a wide screen compared to some other tablets available now. It's thin, measuring 285.6 x 184.5 x 5.6mm and weighs 565g. It has a fingerprint scanner, volume rocker, and USB-C port, but there's no 3.5mm headphone jack, which would have been nice to have. The bezels around the screen are thin, making it a sleek tablet. The front-facing camera is at the top when you hold the tablet horizontally. On the back, there's a big camera bump and a magnetic strip for holding and charging the stylus. Unlike some tablets where the stylus can only go in a specific spot, you can attach the Lenovo's stylus over a wide area, which is convenient when you're in a hurry. But because of where the stylus attaches, you can't lay the tablet flat when the stylus is on, which can be annoying sometimes. Despite its size, the Lenovo Tab is light, making it great for students who need a portable device for work.
Lenovo Tab P12 Pro: Display
The Lenovo Tab P12 Pro features a 12-inch display, as indicated by its name. The screen has a resolution of 1600 x 2560, which is also known as 2K. It has a high refresh rate of 120Hz and supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. The aspect ratio is 1.6:1. Overall, it's a great screen with vibrant colors and excellent contrast, even when compared to Samsung tablets. However, its maximum brightness is somewhat limited at 600 nits, but you probably won't be using a tablet like this in bright sunlight very often.
Lenovo Tab P12 Pro: Performance, Specs, Camera
The Lenovo Tab comes with the Snapdragon 870 chipset, which was originally designed as a cheaper version of the top-notch Snapdragon 888. It performs well in the P12 Pro, making tasks like browsing, streaming, and gaming smooth without causing overheating or slow performance. In benchmark tests, it scored 2,918 in multi-core performance, which is one of the highest scores for the Snapdragon 870. This puts Lenovo in line with top competitors in terms of performance. Gaming on the tablet is good, even though it has only 6GB of RAM compared to rival tablets with more. The tablet's screen makes it suitable for cloud gaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming, as well as fast-paced games like Call of Duty: Mobile or slower ones like Total War: Medieval II. The stylus experience is decent but not exceptional. Unlike Samsung tablets, there aren't many built-in functions for the stylus, so you'll need to rely on third-party apps for additional features. The stylus lacks pressure sensitivity and has some resistance when swiping on the display. While it's nice that Lenovo includes the stylus with the tablet, it doesn't match up to the Apple Pencil in terms of performance. The tablet has four cameras in total, with a 13MP wide and 5MP ultra-wide on the back. These cameras are suitable for basic tasks like taking reference photos or scanning documents. On the front, there are two 8MP sensors, including an infrared Time-of-Flight 3D sensor. However, the camera app has some issues, such as constant autofocus adjustments causing flickering in photos. This bug occurs intermittently, but it's something to be aware of.
Lenovo Tab P12 Pro: Software
One big problem we have with the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro is that it runs on Android. We're not saying Android is bad, but the version it uses isn't well-suited for tablets. Some companies, like Xiaomi and Amazon, have their own interfaces for Android tablets because of this. Lenovo doesn't, so you're stuck with the standard Android 11.
The layout of the home page is clearly meant for smartphones, so there's a lot of wasted space between apps, especially in the app drawer. Plus, because of the tablet's size, you can't see all your quick settings or notifications at once.
Lenovo makes a lot of Android tablets, so we wish they would invest in a version of Android specifically for tablets. However, the upcoming Android 12L, made for tablets and big screens, might solve these issues.
Overall, the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro isn't the best for work or play, but it's not terrible either. It comes with some useful apps, though. For example, Lenovo Project Unity lets you connect multiple devices together and share work and apps between them. Swiping right from the main home page takes you to Entertainment Space, where you can find all your video, gaming, reading, and audio recommendations in one place. This app makes using the Lenovo tablet for entertainment easier, as long as you have accounts for all the different services.
Lenovo Tab P12 Pro: Battery Life
It comes with a large 10,200mAh battery, which Lenovo says can last all day. This is quite big for a tablet, and we found that we could use it for many hours of video-watching, gaming, or reading on just one charge. Of course, some activities use up the battery faster than others.
It's hard to say exactly how long the battery will last since it depends on what you're doing and the size of the screen. But compared to most iPads, this one lasts longer.
Plus, it charges up pretty quickly. The Tab comes with a 45W charger, which is faster than what most other tablets offer. Even the 30W charger that comes in the box is pretty speedy. If you have a phone that charges at 45W or faster, we suggest getting a fast charger to make the most out of both devices.