Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 hands-on review

Introduction

The Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 is the sequel to the 2020 flagship tablet from Lenovo. The Gen 2 is a bit of a mixed bag, as it upgrades a few features over the previous model but then also leaves several others on the chopping board.

For starters, the Gen 2 has a newer and faster MediaTek Kompanio 1300T chipset that replaces the previous Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G, a 120Hz display, and you can now configure the memory up to 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. On the other hand, the new model has plastic construction instead of aluminum, lacks the ultra-wide camera on the back and the fingerprint sensor, has a battery that's 400mAh smaller, and a display that's also a tiny bit smaller with a slightly lower resolution.

Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 specs at a glance:

• Body: 263.7x166.7x6.8mm, 480g; Glass front, plastic back, plastic frame; Stylus support (magnetic).
• Display: 11.20" OLED, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, 120Hz, 420 nits (typ), 600 nits (peak), 1536x2560px resolution, 15:9 aspect ratio, 267ppi.
• Chipset: MediaTek Kompanio 1300T (6 nm): Octa-core (4x2.6 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G77 MC9.
• Memory: 128GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM; UFS 3.1; microSDXC (dedicated slot).
• OS/Software: Android 12.
• Rear camera: 13 MP, f/2.4, (wide), AF.
• Front camera: 8 MP.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 1080p@30fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 8200mAh; 20W wired, QC3.
• Misc: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass; stereo speakers (4 speakers).

The model we have for review today is the top-of-the-line model with 8/256GB memory and comes with the 2-in-1 keyboard and Precision Pen 3 stylus in the box. This promises to turn the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 into a full-fledged work machine on the go.

Let's see how it performs.

Design

The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 has a relatively clean and pleasing design that is aesthetically similar to its predecessor. The front has a slim, uniform bezel all around the display with curved corners. The back has the two tone finish, which is technically the same color but looks different due to the way both parts reflect light.

However, even if they look similar, the Gen 2 model lacks the aluminum body of its predecessor, instead opting for plastic back and sides. We don't think this looks particularly worse but it does feel less rigid overall. The back surface is also prone to highlighting fingerprints and smudges.

The three physical buttons are in the same location as before, with the power button on the top right and the volume buttons near the top of the right edge. The power button lacks the fingerprint sensor found on the Gen 1 model and in fact, there is no fingerprint sensor anywhere on the Gen 2, forcing you to use passcodes if you want to secure your device.

Our model was configured with the 2-in-1 keyboard, which is a two part accessory that includes the keyboard and a back cover. The keyboard attaches to the base of the tablet using magnets and connects using a physical connector, so it works even when Bluetooth is disabled.

The keyboard has a Thinkpad like design, with reasonably spacious keys that have a nice tactile feedback. Some of the keys on the side, such as the backspace key and the tab keys are smaller than you'd expect but it wasn't a major issue. The keyboard has a matte surface, which unfortunately gets smudged easily.

Below the keyboard is the trackpad. The trackpad is a bit on the smaller side but works really well, with good tracking and extensive gesture support that allows for a wide range of functionality being accessible through just swiping motions.

The included back cover has a flap on the bottom that can be adjusted to angle the display to your preference. The hinge is sturdy and has about 140 degrees of motion, making it very flexible. There is another flap on top of the back cover, which opens up to reveal the stylus.

While the keyboard accessory improves the typing experience on the tablet considerably, there are a few issues with it that mar the overall experience. Using the device on the lap isn't particularly comfortable unless you have very long legs that can accommodate the edge of the hinged flap on the back. Otherwise, there is a very real threat of the display just falling off and dragging the keyboard with it, something that cannot happen with a traditional laptop.

Second, the keyboard attaches magnetically to the display when closed and does so quite aggressively. Opening the keyboard to access the display is often a chore, as there is not much of a lip to grab on to to pull and the keyboard clings on as if for dear life. A weaker magnet system, a longer lip to grab on top, or a tab near the edge to pull on are all good ideas that could have been implemented to make your life easier.

The keyboard and the back cover have a soft touch outer surface that has a leather-like finish and generally feels pleasant to touch. The keyboard can be flipped behind the display, at which point it automatically gets disabled and the on-screen keyboard gets enabled.

Unfortunately, neither the tablet nor the keyboard accessory are dust or water resistant, so make sure to take care of them.

Display

The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 has a 11.2-inch, 2560x1536 resolution, 120Hz OLED display. The display resolution is slightly lower than the 2560x1600 panel on the Gen 1 model but the 120Hz refresh rate is new. The device also supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ and DCI-P3 coverage.

The display quality is good, with a wide color range and good brightness. The display is set up all sorts of wrong out of the box but can be quickly set to standard sRGB color range and white point by switching to the Standard mode through settings. The 120Hz refresh rate makes a world of difference while web browsing or playing games that support it. There is a bit of warping while scrolling when using the tablet in portrait mode as the display is wired to be used in landscape mode but it's not easily noticeable.

The display has two issues, one of which is in software and can be easily fixed. The harder to fix issue is with the viewing angles; the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 display, like several cheaper OLED panels on the market, has a noticeable green shift when viewing off angle. Normally, this is not an issue on phones but on a tablet, where the display can be quite large, looking at the screen dead-on in landscape mode causes noticeable green tint on the left and right sides. However, this is only noticeable on white or gray screens and otherwise not an issue.

The easier to fix issue is with HDR. While the display has good performance while viewing Dolby Vision and the relatively scarce HDR10+ content, HDR10 was broken during our testing in the current firmware. This led to raised blacks, which looked gray and caused the entire image to have a washed out appearance with reduced contrast. There also seems to be dynamic tone mapping permanently enabled for HDR10 content, which should never be the case as it interferes with the creator's intent. Hopefully, Lenovo notices and fixes the issue with raised blacks and either disables or provides an option to disable dynamic tonemapping.

The display also has support for the Lenovo Precision Pen 3 stylus, which works really well. You get hover support as well as pressure sensitivity. The latency performance is good, at least for the quick tests we performed, and should also be adequate for most drawing and note taking use cases.

Software

The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 runs on Android 12 out of the box. Lenovo has promised support up to Android 14 but we are yet to receive any info on when Android 13 would arrive. The review unit was also stuck on the July 2022 security patch and no further updates were available at the time of writing. This does not leave us with a lot of confidence on timely future software updates from Lenovo.

The software experience on the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 was mostly similar to using stock Android on a Pixel device but with a few added features. For most of us, this is the ideal scenario, as it lets you enjoy the clean Android experience curated by Google and also enjoy some of the additional features that the manufacturer added that aren't available in stock Android.

Unfortunately, using Android in tablet mode continues to be a subpar experience. Several applications still don't support a proper tablet mode for their UI and the few that do often don't make proper use of it. Apps from major corporations like Twitter and Instagram often leave a bad taste in your mouth, with Twitter showing just the smartphone landscape view on tablets and Instagram locking itself in portrait mode. Of course, none of this is Lenovo's fault but it is still the reality of the situation and something you need to be aware of if you want to get an Android tablet, especially to use as a makeshift laptop. This is something iPadOS is lightyears ahead in and the next best thing to having an actual laptop.

src="https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/reviews/23/lenovo-tab-p11-pro-gen2/sshots/-216x216m/gsmarena_007.jpg">
Lenovo software

Lenovo has included a few additions that try to make the whole 'tablet as a laptop' experience a bit better. The Productivity mode, which can be enabled through the dropdown notifications, enables a desktop OS-style taskbar at the bottom and lets you open apps in smaller windows rather than in fullscreen mode. Unfortunately, the display size and density of the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 is not suitable for this use, as the taskbar just eats into the already cramped display height in landscape mode and the windowed apps also feel difficult to work in.

The overall experience feels compromised as a result, either due to the lack of proper support from third party developers and sometimes because of Android itself, which still often feels like it was designed only with smartphones in mind and does not work as well as it should on larger devices. If you want to use a tablet for work, the iPad still offers the best experience due to an infinitely better app ecosystem and iPadOS just being a far more mature and well thought out operating system.

Performance

The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 comes with the new MediaTek Kompanio 1300T chipset, which includes a quad-core CPU and the Mali-G77 MC9 GPU. The performance on our review unit with 8GB memory and 256GB storage was decent. Using the device as a productivity tablet was quite a good experience, as things like web browsing, emails, working on documents, image editing, and video conferencing were a breeze. Media consumption is another thing the device is good at, with great performance even while watching high resolution 4K 60fps HDR videos encoded in AV1.

What the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 isn't especially good at is gaming. Demanding games like Genshin Impact struggle to maintain a consistent 60fps or even 30fps without hitching, even when turning the settings down. You can play less demanding titles reasonably well and titles like Alto's Odyssey can also run at 120fps natively without much issue. The keyboard and trackpad, unfortunately, do not work in most games as they were never designed for it. You can use a controller, however, and that does work in many titles.

Since we are on the topic of media, the four speakers in every corner do work quite well. You have Dolby Atmos processing enabled by default, which on compatible content sounds quite good. Even without compatible content, the speakers offer good volume and audio quality. Unfortunately, there is no headphone jack, so you have to rely on either wireless audio or getting your own analog or digital adapter for wired headphones.

As an aside, we wanted to note the Wi-Fi, which while working fine when connected, took an awfully long time to connect to the router after the device was booted up. We measured 23 seconds to connect to the Wi-Fi automatically after booting up, which is several times longer than what most other devices take.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022)
  3685
• Lenovo Tab P11 Pro
  2827
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  2583
• Realme Pad X
  2026
• Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
  1904
• Redmi Pad
  1852

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022)
  901
• Lenovo Tab P11 Pro
  767
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  743
• Realme Pad X
  691
• Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
  615
• Redmi Pad
  554

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022)
  5903
• Lenovo Tab P11 Pro
  4279
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  3396
• Redmi Pad
  1242
• Realme Pad X
  1217
• Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
  1092

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022)
  780161
• Lenovo Tab P11 Pro
  616573
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  555079
• Realme Pad X
  395824
• Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
  355430
• Redmi Pad
  319077

Camera

The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 has somewhat of a barebones camera setup, more so than the previous generation model. The Gen 2 has a single 13 megapixel camera at the back with autofocus and lacks the 5 megapixel fixed focus ultra-wide of the Gen 1. Similarly, on the front is a single 8 megapixel fixed focus camera and lacks the second ToF camera of the Gen 1.

Rear camera samples

Both cameras are of average quality, which is to be expected of a mid-range tablet. The back camera is good enough for scanning documents, which is what it would (and should) be mostly used for and the front camera is fine for video calls on the go.

Conclusion

The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 is a very thin and light tablet with very nice display and speakers that makes it ideal for media consumption. The optional keyboard and pen also perform very well but can bump up the cost of the device considerably. The performance from the MediaTek Kompanio chipset is quite good. Lenovo's software experience is also very clean and user-friendly.

The device, however, makes quite a few concessions over its predecessors, which leaves it feeling notably worse. The lack of fingerprint scanner is by far the biggest offender and is inexcusable in this price range. And the price is by far the biggest offender; while the starting price is $300, that's for the model with 128GB storage and a measly 4GB of memory. Get the properly specced 8GB variant with 256GB storage and you are looking at close to $500, with the keyboard accessory adding even more.

At that point, you may as well just get an iPad, especially if your objective is to have some sort of a laptop experience without actually getting a laptop. iPadOS is far better suited to that task and the quality of third-party applications is in a different league altogether. Meanwhile, on Android, the OS itself feels like it was jerry rigged to run on tablets and the third-party app situation is abysmal. If the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 was an all-round outstanding tablet then maybe there would be some case for it, but it isn't so we would recommend considering the base iPad instead. The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 makes sense only if your objective is purely media consumption.

Pros

• Thin and light
• Good display quality
• Great set of stereo speakers
• Clean software
• Good performance for productivity and media consumption
• Optional keyboard and pen work well

Cons

• No fingerprint sensor, plastic body, and smaller battery than predecessor
• Display viewing angles could be better
• Android tablet experience is still lackluster
• 4GB RAM on the base model is too low in 2023

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