Lenovo Tab P12 Pro Review: Can This Android Tablet Truly Replace Your Laptop?
The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro was a promising tablet, offering a fantastic entertainment experience, but falling short as a laptop replacement due to its limited productivity capabilities and outdated software. Now, Lenovo has launched the Tab P12 Pro, a more premium offering that aims to address these shortcomings. With a bundled stylus, optional keyboard cover, and a powerful processor, could the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro finally be the ultimate 2-in-1 tablet, or is it merely another large-screen entertainment device?
Let’s dive into the details of the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro and find out if it can truly be your next go-to device!
Lenovo Tab P12 Pro: Price and Availability
The Lenovo Tab P12 Pro is available in India in a single variant with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, priced at Rs. 59,999. The tablet comes in a Storm Grey finish and includes a 30W charger, Type-C to Type-C USB cable, Type-C to 3.5mm headphone adapter, and the Lenovo Precision Pen 3 stylus.
Lenovo also sells a 2-in-1 keyboard cover accessory separately at Rs. 14,999. For this review, Lenovo provided both the tablet and the keyboard cover, allowing for a comprehensive evaluation of its potential as a laptop replacement.
Sleek Design with Premium Feel: Lenovo Tab P12 Pro Design
The Lenovo Tab P12 Pro shares a similar design language with its predecessor, the Tab P11 Pro, featuring a slim and chiselled look with flat sides and rounded corners. However, it feels slightly heavier at 565g.
The tablet boasts a unibody design crafted from matte-finished metal, wrapping around the corners, and a Gorilla Glass 5 protected display on the front. Antenna bands are found along the top edge (when held horizontally), and a small magnetised patch on the rear securely holds the Precision Pen 3 stylus in place. The side-mounted power button doubles as a fingerprint reader, offering reliable unlocking.
The metal body might attract some smudges after prolonged use, but these are easily wiped clean. The display, with its narrow bezels, effectively resists fingerprints thanks to its oleophobic coating.
Lenovo’s Precision Pen 3 stylus offers up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and supports tilt-detection, making it ideal for artists and creators. It’s also a boon for those who frequently sign digital documents, and for taking quick notes. The stylus charges magnetically when attached to the back of the tablet, ensuring it’s always ready for action.
The 2-in-1 keyboard cover case, available separately, exudes a premium feel with its fabric back and front panels. While the keys aren’t backlit, the case incorporates a battery within the keyboard unit, which charges when connected to the Tab P12 Pro. Both the kickstand and keyboard panels attach magnetically to the tablet and can be used independently, providing flexibility.
The kickstand features a sturdy metal construction and a compartment to store and protect the stylus, further enhancing the tablet’s portability. The keyboard layout closely resembles that of most compact laptops, with handy function buttons for volume, display brightness, window resizing, and a back key. The plastic and metal construction, along with a well-designed kickstand offering a wide range of adjustment angles, make the case perfect for any situation. Notably, the keyboard can connect via the pogo-pin connector or wirelessly, providing even more flexibility in usage.
Powerful Hardware Meets Android 12: Lenovo Tab P12 Pro Specifications and Software
The Lenovo Tab P12 Pro comes equipped with impressive specifications that cater to both entertainment and productivity needs:
- Display: 12.6-inch WQXGA (2,560×1,600 pixels) AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 protection.
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC.
- RAM and Storage: 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, expandable up to 1TB via microSD
- Audio: Four speakers with Dolby Atmos support
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC
- Port: USB 3.2 Type-C port (data transfer, power delivery, DisplayPort 1.4)
- Battery: 10,000mAh battery with 30W charging support
- Cameras: 13-megapixel main rear camera, 5-megapixel ultra-wide rear camera, 8-megapixel front-facing camera, ToF sensor for AR effects
- Software: Android 12 (standard version)
Out of the box, the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro runs on Android 11, but it quickly received an update to Android 12. While not the tablet-optimized Android 12L, it still delivers a smooth user experience with the same navigation gestures as on a smartphone. Lenovo has incorporated tablet-friendly features such as a taskbar at the bottom, similar to Xiaomi’s Pad 5, which displays pinned apps alongside opened apps, making app switching more convenient.
Lenovo’s Productivity Mode takes a cue from the Tab P11 Pro, providing a Windows-like layout that lets users open apps in resizable windows. This mode features a minimal taskbar with an app drawer icon, navigation buttons, and status indicators, mimicking the desktop experience.
Performance: Balancing Productivity and Entertainment
The Lenovo Tab P12 Pro handles basic productivity tasks with ease. It effortlessly runs multiple apps simultaneously and can handle demanding tasks such as using multiple Chrome tabs, Google Docs in split-screen mode, and numerous background apps, all without any significant lag. However, the tablet’s performance in Lenovo’s Productivity Mode encounters some hurdles.
Productivity Mode aims to deliver a desktop-like experience with resizable windows and a taskbar, giving users the ability to work in a familiar way. While the hardware is capable of handling the workload, the software implementation presents challenges.
One of the major concerns is the tablet’s tendency to randomly exit Productivity Mode mid-task, which occurred frequently. Despite potentially being a software bug, this issue is frustrating, especially when working on important documents or projects. Leaving Productivity Mode results in the loss of any unsaved changes, creating a significant inconvenience for serious productivity users.
Another issue is the inconsistent display of windowed apps in Productivity Mode. While every app displays a frame with minimize, maximize, and close buttons in a standard windowed view, these buttons disappear in fullscreen mode and only reappear when hovering the mouse pointer over the edge of the screen. The OS, however, doesn’t adjust the app’s height to accommodate these buttons, causing them to obstruct essential elements within the app.
This overlapping often hides crucial controls in popular apps like Chrome (tab switching and new tabs) or Google Docs (Save button), making it cumbersome to navigate and hindering workflow. This oversight in the UI is a major inconvenience and ultimately makes using Productivity Mode less appealing.
The trackpad on the 2-in-1 keyboard case also presents some usability issues. Its high sensitivity, which cannot be adjusted, often leads to accidental clicks or selections while scrolling through pages. The double-tap-to-click feature, which cannot be disabled, adds to this frustration, further disrupting the user experience. In Productivity Mode, the small app and window scaling is uncomfortable to use with fingers, forcing users to rely on a Bluetooth mouse for smoother interaction.
Despite the drawbacks in Productivity Mode, the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro delivers a satisfying entertainment experience. The display boasts excellent brightness, vivid colors, and deep blacks, further enhanced by HDR10+ and Dolby Vision certification. The quad Dolby Atmos-certified speakers offer an immersive audio experience, making external earphones almost unnecessary. The tablet’s performance is also impressive when playing demanding games such as Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9 Legends, showcasing the power of the Snapdragon 870 SoC.
The Lenovo Freestyle app, which enables the tablet to act as a second screen for a Windows laptop, faces performance limitations and struggles with lag, rendering it unusable.
Camera Performance: Just Adequate for Everyday Use
The Lenovo Tab P12 Pro features a 13-megapixel main rear camera, a 5-megapixel ultra-wide rear camera, and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with a ToF sensor for AR effects. The main rear camera delivers average photo quality, suitable for casual snapshots and document scanning. The ultra-wide rear camera, however, falls short in image quality, lacking detail and producing blurry images. The front-facing camera performs adequately for video calls but falls short of smartphone-grade selfie quality.
Battery Life: Long-Lasting Power for Both Work and Play
The Lenovo Tab P12 Pro boasts a 10,000mAh battery, providing excellent battery life for both work and entertainment. During typical daily use with 50 percent screen brightness and a five-minute inactivity timeout, the tablet easily lasted for 13 hours. Even with the demanding HD video loop test, the Tab P12 Pro achieved an impressive 14 hours and 19 minutes of runtime. The bundled 30W charger efficiently charges the tablet to 36 percent in 30 minutes and 71 percent in 60 minutes, completing a full charge in just 1 hour and 41 minutes, a commendable rate considering the large battery capacity.
Conclusion: A Suitable Choice for Entertainment, But Not Quite a Laptop Replacement
The Lenovo Tab P12 Pro is a premium Android tablet with a sleek design, powerful performance, and a stunning display. Despite its potential for productivity, the issues plaguing Productivity mode are a significant drawback for serious work users. While the tablet handles basic productivity tasks with ease, its limitations in Productivity Mode significantly impede its ability to fully replace laptops for demanding workflows.
For creative users and artists seeking a precise stylus and a high-quality display, the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro is a compelling choice. However, for demanding productivity users, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S8+ appears to be a better overall package, though at a higher price (starting at Rs. 67,999). The Galaxy Tab S8+ boasts a more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, optional 5G connectivity, and a bundled S Pen. However, acquiring the keyboard cover separately will be an additional cost.
For casual users primarily focused on entertainment, the Xiaomi Pad 5 (starting at Rs. 24,999) proves to be a capable and more affordable option, delivering a satisfying experience.
Ultimately, the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro excels as an entertainment device, but falls short of providing a truly seamless laptop replacement due to its inherent limitations in Productivity Mode. It demonstrates great potential for productivity but requires further refinement and improvement in its software implementation to truly rival laptops in the market.
