Lenovo Tab P12 review (2023) great tablet for work and play

The Lenovo Tab P12 is an exciting 12.7-inch mid-range tablet with a high-resolution screen, decent performance, an active stylus, and an optional keyboard cover. In Europe, prices start at 399 Euro and in the US, they start at less than 400 Dollars, which is pretty cheap for a 12-inch tablet. This review of the Lenovo Tab P12 shows how good it really is. The Lenovo Tab P12 is in the same price range as the Microsoft Surface Go and is a bit cheaper than its Pro version.

Lenovo Tab P12: Description

It faces tough competition from Samsung, Honor, and Xiaomi, as well as from the Microsoft Surface Go. But, like the cheapest iPad you can buy right now, the Lenovo’s big screen is a plus, which might make it a more clear choice as the cheap portable office. The Lenovo Tab P12 is a great choice if you want a tablet that can do everything and is both big and cheap. The 12.7-inch tablet costs about $435 and has a 3K screen, a fast eight-core SoC, and four speakers.

It also works with an active input stylus and a computer that docks. But because of a number of program problems, I’m not sure that this one is as flexible as it wants us to think it is. The £50 pen that comes with it might be enough to sell it to people who just want a different way to control their big touchscreen devices, but the optional keyboard is way too expensive for the problems it will cause you if you want to use it effectively.

Lenovo Tab P12: Pricing

This mid-priced tablet can be bought in the UK from Lenovo’s website starting at £399.99 or from Currys for the same price. All packages come with a Tab Pen Plus pen, but paying £499/$400 is the best deal. The keyboard case will also come with the Tab P12 for $99, making it a combination laptop. All of these packages are already on sale at Lenovo.

Lenovo Tab P12 Specifications Table

The Lenovo Tab P12 is a great choice for people who want a powerful tablet that can be used for work, play, and other things. It is also a good choice for students and professionals who need a portable computer for work or school.

Design and Build Quality

The Lenovo Tab P12 is hidden inside a fairly simple cardboard case. The pen, which is a nice bonus, is also tucked away in there. Little sections hold small pieces of paperwork and the charging device. After a gentle shake upside down, the whole thing is ready to go into the recycling bin. Lenovo’s devices have been following a certain style trend quite closely for the past few years.

The Tab P12 looks like a very professional piece of equipment, just like the Tab P10 and the Lenovo Smart Paper. The fact that its plastic body is all gray doesn’t make it fun to look at. On the back of the device, along the lighter grey strip that runs along the wider edge, a smart, shiny mark is stamped into the shorter end. From my experience with these in the past, I know that this is the style that defines the P-series slates, and I really like it.

Along the nicely rounded edges, you’ll find separate volume buttons on the long side, the power button on the closest 90-degree turn, a MicroSD drawer in the middle, and two big JBL speaker grills on either side. You have to work hard not to mute them when you have them in your hands, but when you leave them alone, they make good sound.

Lenovo Tab P12: Display

A large 12.7-inch IPS LCD screen, which is a downgrade from the AMOLED technology of the more expensive P12 Pro, powers the viewing experience. However, the clever use of a stock background and Google’s customary array of vibrant app icons help convey the pleasure of spending a lot of time with this panel. It’s usually enough for me to glance over and admire its beauty when a notification pings at the other end of the couch, so it comes as no surprise to learn that watching a little Netflix on this is a sight to behold.

With a resolution of 2944 x 1840, there is no reason to worry that the size of the screen will result in significant amounts of visible pixels around app icons and text. Although it is both clear and colourful, it isn’t quite bright enough to support a good HDR experience or effectively handle that bright light in the sky. However, its fixed 60Hz refresh rate limits it. I firmly believe that for modern technology, at least 90Hz is necessary. The 50% speed uplift contributes to the overall experience feeling fast and fluid, provided the internal gubbins can withstand the strain.

Lenovo Tab P12: Connectivity

Lenovo’s Tab P12 comes with different amounts of storage. At the time of testing, there was only one version with 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 128 GB of UFS-2.2 storage. There are also storage options of 4/128 GB and 8/256 GB. The tablet’s internal storage can be increased with a microSD card that has up to 1 TB of space and can be written in the exFAT file format.

The OTG-enabled USB-C port has a speed of USB 2.0, and you can use an adapter to connect audio devices like headphones. The Tab P12 supports DRM Widevine L1, which is what you would expect from a multimedia tablet. This means that you can watch HD content from Netflix, for example. With Miracast, you can also stream to devices like TVs that can handle it.

Lenovo Tab P12: Software

The Tab P12 is powered by Android 13 and Lenovo’s ZUI 15 user interface. The biggest difference between it and regular Android is how it looks. The app bar at the bottom of the screen, which shows the last apps you had open, is the most noticeable change to the user interface. Also, you can open each app in its own window, which you can move around the screen or change the size of. On the other hand, the tablet has a “split screen” option that lets you use it for two different things at the same time.

Window mode and split-screen view may not work with every app, but they do work with all of the pre-installed apps on the Tab P12. This includes MyScript Calculator 2 and Nebo (notes), which are made to work with Lenovo’s input pen. In apps that support it, you can use a three-dot menu to switch between full screen, window mode, and split screen view. If you want to start an app, press and hold the app icon with your finger or the stylus to bring up the menu.

The three-dot menu is in the middle of the title bar of apps that have already been opened. The Tab P12’s account management lets you set up more than one person, which makes it a good choice for families. Also included is the Kids Space app, which parents can use to show their kids material that is safe for them. Lenovo says that it will give the tablet 2 OS updates and security fixes for four years after it goes on sale.

Lenovo Tab P12: Cameras

With only one 8MP lens on the back left for taking photos on the go, you’re probably going to be unhappy with what this phone has to offer. Even though that shouldn’t be too surprising. The Lenovo Tab P12 works as well as any other tablet, even ones that cost half as much. It’s even worse in some places. Shots taken in a dark room with a lamp on looked noisy and even fish-eyed on the normal 1x lens for no apparent reason. This was because the camera didn’t have a real night mode.

My desk in the right corner of a window shot turned into a creepy mist, and a shelf of colorful manga started to blur from the middle outward. There were no blurring effects on. On the plus side, most of the problems can be fixed by using the flash, which is never something you should take for granted on a tablet. When it was pushed on, the bookshelf shot turned out great, with lots of color. You won’t get the best pictures with it, but for a camera that’s mostly meant for scanning documents, it’s surprisingly good.

The front camera is better than the back camera because it is set up on the long side so that it can be used in landscape mode. That means clearer video calls and more pixels for features like portrait mode to use to figure out what should be blurry and what shouldn’t be. It also means you can record crisp 1080p video at a cinematic 30 frames per second if you’re making short videos.

Lenovo Tab P12: Speakers

The Tab P12 has four speakers that work with Dolby Atmos. Together, they make a good surround sound. Even though there aren’t as many bass tones as there could be in the sound mix, the bass is still more present than in most other tablets. You can choose between the Film, Music, and Dynamic modes in the Dolby Atmos settings. In Dynamic mode, the tablet instantly changes the sound settings based on what is being played. The Lenovo Tab P12 can connect to Bluetooth 5.1 or a USB-C adapter to connect to other music devices. It only has SBC, AAC, LDAC, aptX, and aptX HD as Bluetooth codecs, which is not very many.

Lenovo Tab P12: Performance

The Lenovo Tab P12 is driven by an 8-core MediaTek MT8791V chip. We also get either 4GB or 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage. There doesn’t seem to be a version with LTE or 5G yet. My Geekbench 5 score comparison is a lot of fun. In this case, the P12’s CPU speed is about the same as that of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE. Lenovo’s results, on the other hand, is a lot better. It’s also much better than the Honor Pad 8, and it’s clear that it’s better than the Lenovo Tab P11 Gen 2. The P11 Pro Gen 2 and the P12 Pro, on the other hand, have more power.

The P12 is almost twice as strong as the Galaxy Tab S7 FE and Lenovo P11 Gen 2 on the 3D Mark Wild Life test. At the same time, it’s not as good as the P11 Pro Gen 2 or the P12 Pro, and it’s not as good as any iPad on the market right now.

So, it’s not a high-end computer for games. Still, you can play almost any game on the tablet, though not always with the best images. I could play PUBG Mobile with HD or HDR images, but not with UltraHD. With these choices, it’s nice and smooth, which is great. But yes, Ultra HD would look better on such a big screen. Simple games like Mighty Doom or Rise of Empires run very well. But I could also play Asphalt 9 well, even though it didn’t look as good as it does on high-end screens.

Lenovo Tab P12: Battery Life

Like the Lenovo Tab Pro, the Lenovo Tab P12 has a huge 10,200mAh battery. Even then, it won’t be enough to get you through a whole day of work. It lasted 7 hours and 30 minutes in the PCMark Work 3.0 battery test, which is meant to simulate everyday work situations like web browsing, video and picture editing, writing documents, and data manipulation.

That’s 20 minutes longer than the Pro, but it’s still several hours behind smaller mid-range screens like the OnePlus Pad and the Xiaomi Pad 5. Even the Lenovo Yoga Tab 13, which is about the same size, was able to last longer than 10 hours.

Even though the Lenovo Tab P12 seems to be able to charge quickly with up to 30W, it only comes with a 20W charger. This will get you from empty to just under half full in an hour and to full in about 2 hours 30 minutes. You don’t want to use the “splash and dash” way to clean this before you use it.

Lenovo Tab P12: Pros and Cons

The Lenovo Tab P12 is an Android tablet with a screen size of 12.7 inches that is a great deal for the money. It has a big screen with a high resolution, an active stylus, good performance, and software that is up to date. It also has a good keyboard cover that you can use if you want. But it only lasts a short time on a charge.

Final Words

Lenovo has made some good changes to its mid-range computer. Its 12.7-inch screen is bigger than the 11.5-inch screen on the Lenovo Tab P11 2022 (Gen 2), and its better resolution makes it great for multimedia fans. The Tab P12 is great for families, but it might be a little too big for some children’s hands.

The Lenovo Tab P12 is best for use indoors because its screen can get as bright as 435 cd/m2. Because the MediaTek Dimensity 7050 is so fast, it can even handle complex jobs. The Dolby Atmos speakers are an added bonus. The eight-core SoC also has no trouble with playing games with a lot of details. But you can’t get frame rates higher than 60 FPS because of the 60-Hz screen.