Lenovo’s Tab P11 Pro tries to wear multiple hats. It is designed to serve as a portable tablet for when you’re on-the-go and as a laptop for your work-related needs. However, it can only accomplish so much. Hence, it definitely does have its fair share of flaws. But it also performs exceptionally well in certain areas.
Fairly Smooth Performance
While the P11 definitely isn’t meant for running heavy-duty software, it’s a surprisingly efficient machine for basic, everyday multi-tasking. Powered by Android 10, this premium tablet runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G Octa-Core Processor. With a refresh rate of only 2.2GHz, there is some visible latency. However, the overall experience of running several 13 tabs side-by-side was far from being a pain. The P11 performed fairly well without any stutter, lag or crashes.
The tablet comes in two versions with varying memory sizes: 4GB and 6GB. Lenovo sent me the latter and it would be an understatement to say that I was satisfied. The storage on the Tab P11 Pro is 128GB which is already impressive. Its extendable storage then becomes a cherry on top.
While the P11 is an adequately speedy machine for basic browsing and entertainment, it is not a machine you can rely on for hardcore gaming. I played 2048, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and PUBG. And these are ranked according to my experience from best to worst. 2048 is a fairly simple game that gave me no issues. GTA gave me a little delay and PUBG was an unpleasant experience I wouldn’t recommend.
I used the P11 for a variety of tasks including web browsing, gaming and video playback. According to my calculations, it’s battery lasted a total of 12 hours.
Beautifully Built
Lenovo P11 Pro is objectively a good-looking machine. It consists of a 10.4 by 6.74-inch slate grey aluminum body with a thickness of just 0.22 inches. This slim and sleek machine weighs only 1.06 pounds (without the keyboard attached). It sports a matte finish with a lustrous rim on all four sides. The P11 is fairly portable, minimal and simply stunning.
It comes with a tenkeyless keyboard with minimal travel. The punctuation and arrow keys are trimmed down, though, so that could be a problem for people with large hands. Additionally, it isn’t backlit either so you can’t rely on it for when you’re in the dark. The tablet’s touchpad is rather flimsy. It lags enough for you to not use the P11 in productivity mode which is a fancy name for using it with the keyboard attached. While it’s sized and positioned right, it leverages considerable delay.
The keyboard attaches to the tablet with the help of pogo pins and offers secure connection which took significant effort to be pulled apart. Lenovo also provides a kickstand that is a typical accompanying accessory with most tablets these days. It has a fine grey woven exterior that matches the base of the keyboard. The exterior is not just aesthetically pleasing to look at, but it also enhances grip and reduces finger print staining.
The kickstand magnetically attaches to the back of the tablet and provides excellent grip and flexibility. It hosts 180-degree flexibility and retains its grip throughout. We saw in Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet that its kickstand panel was hard to open and required two hands. Lenovo has thankfully come a long way since then and made a stellar kickstand in the P11.
Sufficiently Good Display
P11’s 11.5-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) touchscreen display is sufficiently good. It is not the best screen you will ever find on a tablet. In fact, considering the tablet’s high $599 price point, it has much room for improvement. It’s an OLED display with a maximum brightness of 350 nits which isn’t too great either. Its colors don’t pop and the viewing angles suffered from a considerable amount of glare under the sun. However, the images were sufficiently sharp.
The P11 is great in terms of navigation. It hosts a handful of controls which are easy to get used to. There is no extra fluff making navigation excessively complex nor have the controls been trimmed down too much. They’re just enough. There is a volume rocker, a power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner for quick login, a USB 3.2 Type-C port for charging and a microSD slot for extending its whopping128GB storage. All the ports are strategically placed and tactfully spaced for easy access.
Poor Face Unlock
There are two security features on the P11. One is the aforementioned fingerprint login and the other is face unlock. I set up both while setting up the tablet and my experience with the fingerprint login wasn’t even close to the latter.
While the fingerprint login was fast and simple and never missed a single attempt, the face unlock was equally problematic. I had to readjust my face in front of my tab in different angles, move the tab around a lot and wait for it to scan my face. Sometimes the tab would go back to sleep mode while I did all of that and I’d have to power it back on. Other times, it would simply not detect my face and I’d have to use either the fingerprint scanner or password. And the rest of the times, which is not a lot, it would successfully read my face taking a good three seconds or so.
Should I Buy It?
The P11 is a good tablet in a lot of ways. It hosts four speakers powered by JBL and tuned by Dolby Atmos. You don’t have to be an audiophile to know that these are pretty big names in the world of audio. It has a 13MP autofocus and a 5MP fixed focus rear camera with two 8MP fixed focus front cameras. While you can totally rely on its cameras for video conferencing needs, you obviously shouldn’t expect it to provide hi-def shots for your photography assignment.
All in all, it is not a bad tablet with a few areas that could have used improvement. These areas include its low refresh rate, flimsy touchpad and a poor face unlock feature. However, considering its exceptionally high price, I believe you can easily find a much cheaper option out there that may have the same features, or even better.
Is It Hardcore?
Nope.
The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro could have been much more recommendable if it was cheaper. But considering its steep price, its high-latency display, flimsy touchpad and a poor face unlock feature isn’t worth it.