Lenovo Idea Tab Pro

Larger tablets feel less common these days. It's not long ago that it seemed that tablets would just keep growing and growing, and while there are some outliers, many of the best tablets these days stick to the same 10- to 11-inch format.

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The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro bucks that trend, aiming to offer a sizeable tablet that's not as expensive as flagships from the likes of Apple. For the most part, it succeeds, packing a stylus in the box for creatives, offering quad speakers for music and videos, and a big 13-inch screen.

Sadly, there are caveats throughout. The MediaTek Dimensity 8300 is more powerful than its prior version, but it remains less than ideal for getting any real work done or multitasking more than a few apps at a time. The display, as large as it is, remains an IPS panel, so it's not quite as bright as you'd perhaps hope. And yet, with a price of under £400 even with the Lenovo Tab Pen Plus, and access to Google Al features like Gemini, there's definitely a world where this is more appealing than the base iPad for many users – it's just not really for ‘Pros’, despite the moniker.

DESIGN

It's not easy for tablets to stand out these days, and it'd be fair to say the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is fairly nondescript, aside from the included stylus attached to one side. There's nothing wrong with that, however. It has a slim bezel all the way around the display, housing the front-facing camera, and the rest of the front is dominated by the big screen.

The bottom edge has a USB-C port for charging, and there are two speaker grilles at the top and two at the bottom for stereo audio output (more on that later).

The top also holds the sleep/wake button, while the right-hand side is for the volume rocker. The stylus attaches for pairing and charging on the left.

There's no waterproofing here, so you won't want to use it anywhere near liquid, but aside from that wrinkle, it's a well-made tablet that feels sturdy while remaining light. I travelled with it in my backpack for a few days and barely noticed it.