Lenovo Idea Tab Pro review: Stylus inclusion makes it an all-round tablet?

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro starts at Rs 27,999 and comes bundled with a Stylus. Read the detailed review below to find out how it fares in everyday use

Lenovo launched the Idea Tab Pro last month, positioning it in the mid-price segment. Where other brands were launching premium tablets above the Rs 1 lakh mark, Lenovo chose a different path and acted on catering to a wider user base. But has it yielded any positive results, or was it a hit and miss? Let’s find that out in this detailed review of the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro.

 

Design and Build

 

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro features a Luna Grey coloured metal case with the logo residing in the middle of the back panel. The rear also features the camera island that carries one 13MP sensor and an LED flash. It seems that Lenovo has tried to break the monotonous grey look by featuring a thick strip made of diagonal lines which also shows where the stylus will stick automatically. The build quality seems sturdy that might endure a few drops.

 

When it comes to handling the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro, it is quite large, even for tablets. The rounded corners and thick bezels make it a bit comfortable to hold without touching the screen; however, since it measures 189.1mm x 291.8mm x 6.9mm and weighs 620g, it might be a bit too big for some to hold, especially for longer hours. It will be a good idea to place it on a flat surface and then use it for longer hours but, due to the camera bump, it will wobble a bit.

 

The top of the frame features the power button, and two speakers. The bottom of the frame features a USB-C port for charging and data transfer along with two more speakers. In total there are four speakers in the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro. The right side of the frame features volume buttons and the left side features pogo pins to connect the accessories.

 

Display and Audio

 

This is one department where the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro surprised me. It features a 12.7-inch 3K LCD display of a 144Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 400 nits. Despite being an LCD display, the visuals it offered were good. The colours were pretty vibrant and punchy. It displays deep shades of black, which is impressive, and brighter colours also appear vibrant. The touch is also smooth and responsive.

 

Multimedia viewing experience on this tablet is impressive. I tuned in a few web-series, YouTube videos and the experience was really good – thanks to the JBL-tuned quad speakers with Dolby Atmos. I own a MacBook Air M1 and while using the tablet I felt like the loudness that it was offering was more than the MacBook.

 

There is one thing that left me a bit disappointed though, the brightness of the display. If someone uses this tablet indoors then it offers adequate brightness but if someone is using this outdoors in the sun then the display will be a bit too dim for comfortable use. It features a high resolution and display size but the 400 nits of brightness did not do justice to it. What added to the problem was its highly reflective profile, meaning it bounces back light significantly making the viewing experience in outdoor settings feel a bit off.

 

Stylus

 

The Idea Tab Pro comes bundled with the Lenovo Tab Pen Plus and not sold separately unlike the keyboard. It can be said that the Stylus in this price segment becomes one of the biggest differentiating for this tablet.

 

Lenovo’s Pen Plus offers an unexpectedly solid experience, delivering smooth input, low latency, and a comfortable design suited for long sessions. While it doesn’t quite match the performance of premium styluses, it handles note-taking and light sketching with ease, even accurately capturing subtle gestures and strokes. Integrated OS-level features add to the appeal—users can quickly access tools like screenshot annotation, Google’s Circle to Search, zoom, and even use the pen as a remote for presentations or media control. Handwriting recognition works well across text fields, converting input to digital text fluidly.

 

The bundled Nebo app extends the pen’s functionality with modes for freeform note-taking and handwriting-to-text conversion, both of which work reliably, even with messy writing. However, artists may find Nebo too limited, as it lacks advanced drawing tools and style options. For creative work, third-party apps from the Play Store are a better bet. Overall, the Pen Plus strikes a strong balance between practicality and performance.

 

Camera

 

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro features a 13MP camera on the back paired with an 8MP front camera. The cameras can ideally be used as per need basis and not as per want basis as it won’t be able to truly represent the beautiful scenic views. When it comes to capturing in day-light settings, the rear camera performs decently but when it comes to low-light settings, it struggles a bit. Also, bright areas tend to look overexposed.

 

Same goes for the selfie camera. For video calls, this camera does the job but it tends to smoothen the object which means that the texture of your skin might magically become smooth during a video call.

 

The image sharpness is average. Videos can be captured in 4K at 30fps, though the autofocus tends to be unreliable and sometimes needs manual adjustment from the user.

 

Performance and Software

 

Coming to the performance of the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro, it offers a decent performance which I liked. It handles multitasking well especially when it comes to switching between apps like YouTube, Google Chrome, Note taking and games like EA Sports FC 24 and WWE.

 

If I talk about gaming in particular, the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 has disappointed me a bit here. For BGMI, if a player is setting the visual settings at max and enables HDR then the game will lag a bit here and there making you end up in a box at crucial moments when enemies will be firing at you. The latency and the drop-in frame rates are also quite noticeable. The game will only run smoothly when you keep the settings at ‘Balanced’ mode.

 

Talking about the software, it runs on Android 14 which is on the way out to become obsolete. It could have come with Android 15 as the stable versions for the same have been rolled out for Lenovo-owned Motorola smartphones. Additionally, the company only promises OS updates up until Android 16 and a total of 4 years of patches and security updates. For context, Samsung’s Tab S9 FE is guaranteed to receive four years of operating system updates and five years of security patches, while Apple’s entry-level iPads typically receive support for five to six years.

 

The tablet comes with a significant amount of bloatware though. Even if you try to not have them on their device, Lenovo would still make you download at least a few of them while setting up your device.

 

Battery and Charging

 

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro packs a 10,200mAh battery but surprisingly it dies a bit sooner than expected. The battery can go from full to zero in a day with heavy usage including surfing through webpages, watching YouTube videos, drawing a few pictures with the Nebo app, and gaming.

 

Then again, we can’t expect a lot from mid-range tablets so considering the price, it offers a decent backup. The 45W charging support can take the battery from zero per cent to 100 per cent in about two hours.

 

Verdict

 

If you are someone who wants a tablet to watch shows and series then this is one of the best mid-range tablets that one could find in the market. It is also suitable for creative work however, it might not be the right pick for the people who do graphic designing professionally. If you want a bigger screen than your phone but not as large as a standard monitor then this can be a good option without any doubt.

 

When it comes to gaming or optics, there are better options available in the market but then one would also have to increase their budget significantly if they want that. The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro seems more like a budget-friendly all-rounder that can handle everything to a certain extent but if one dives deep into it then the tablet might struggle a bit to live up to the expectations.