Product test
Vibrating stylus: highlight of the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus
by Michelle Brändle
The Lenovo Tab P12: a budget-friendly all-rounder
24/8/2023
Translation: Megan Cornish
The Lenovo Tab P12 comes with a pen. It’s good for entertainment and doodling, but the tablet only partially has enough power for larger tasks.
With its large 12.7-inch display and pen, the Lenovo Tab P12 looks promising. Including the pen, it’s available for 400 francs/euros. The performance of this inexpensive tablet is good enough for entertainment purposes, but not for much more.
Solid display and accessories
The Lenovo Tab P12 has a built-in IPS display, which has its pros and cons. Generally speaking, it’s cheaper to produce, which is important for the demands of a mid-range tablet. The black is less dark than, for example, OLED displays. It also offers good viewing angle stability.
A tablet for day-to-day work needs suitable accessories. The Lenovo Tab Pen Plus comes with a spare tip. The keyboard is sold separately. For my test, Lenovo provided me with a keyboard with a case. The official version is planned for a later date.
You charge the pen using a USB-C cable. It has an LED that flashes orange when it’s charging. You can connect it to the tablet via Bluetooth at the touch of a button. With a fully charged battery, the pen should last over 30 hours. In my experience, it uses three per cent of battery life per hour of use, so that’s a good extrapolation.
The pen reacts to pressure and tilt. The tablet also recognises the palm of your hand, so you don’t accidentally draw with your hand instead of the pen. Even with a plastic case, it only weighs 14 grammes and sits comfortably in the hand. In the software section, I go on to test the pen thoroughly.
The practical keyboard is made up of two sections. This means I can attach one part to the tablet as a case with a stand and also attach the keyboard if needed. The case also has a recess at the back for the Lenovo Pen, which is secured to the tablet with a magnet.
The keyboard of my test device has a British layout. However, a Swiss layout is also planned for this tablet. I find a whole series of keys that make using the tablet easier. I can set a split screen for two apps side by side, use as a second screen or take screenshots at the touch of a button.
The tablet is stable on a hard, even surface. And you can adjust the degree of tilting. But the stand’s too small in its groove, so I fold the keyboard back and use that as a stand. The keycaps look well made and they’re nice to type on. However, I find that the integrated trackpad takes some getting used to. It reacts unevenly quickly, so I miss some buttons.
Battery and chip: good staying power but weak performance
The Lenovo P12 has 8 gigabytes of working memory and 128 gigabytes of internal storage. If that’s not enough for you, you can add a microSD card to the SIM slot. There’s a MediaTek Dimensity 7050 installed. The SoC is installed in mid-range smartphones and tablets. This means the tablet supports Wifi-6, Bluetooth 5.1
and 5G.
The Tab P12 performs considerably worse. But it can still manage some tasks. To test the user experience, I ran through some different scenarios in the following section.
Software: useful for notes and minor office tasks
The Tab P12 runs Android 13 with Lenovo’s ZUI user interface. It comes with Google services and already has some apps preinstalled.
The tablet is brilliant for entertainment purposes: watching films and gaming are no problem. It’s also suitable for smaller office tasks such as writing documents and internet research, but a keyboard is needed for that. When it comes to creative work, such as drawing and editing images, you need a little more patience than you would with more powerful devices.
For entertainment: good film format
Watching films on the Lenovo Tab P12 is pretty good. The rectangular 16:10 aspect ratio means there won’t be wide black stripes at the edges. However, I would like a slightly darker black for dark film sequences. Also, the display is a bit too reflective for me, depending on the surroundings. The speakers are Dolby Atmos-certified and deliver great sound considering the small device. Even at the highest volume level, the quality is still good.
A tablet for office work: a bit sluggish as a second display
Notes and sketches
Of course, as an artist, I had to draw with the pen provided. The Lenovo Tab Pen Plus is theoretically easy to sketch with thanks to its pressure and tilt sensitivity. In practice, I can’t tilt the pen too much, otherwise I’ll quickly end up with lines that are too wide. The delay is too long for me when I’m doing a quick sketch and the pen is too imprecise when making outlines. Generally speaking, I’d avoid larger artistic works with the Lenovo Tab P12.
Price and verdict: an affordable package
The Lenovo Tab P12 isn’t an outstanding tablet and it doesn't do particularly well on tasks that require a lot of computational power. The tablet and pen combo is good for sketching, taking notes and entertainment. But it’ll also cost you 400 francs/euros. For entertainment alone, I think that’s quite a lot. If you just want a cheap Android tablet with a compatible pen, it quickly becomes an expensive option. That means alternatives are rare.
The keyboard is also needed for office work and typing. If you want an overall package that still fits your budget, you’d be better off with its predecessor. The Lenovo Tab P11 is more expensive at 490 francs, but it has a Swiss keyboard and pen.
Header image: Michelle Brändle
In my world, Super Mario chases Stormtroopers with a unicorn and Harley Quinn mixes cocktails for Eddie and Peter at the beach bar. Wherever I can live out my creativity, my fingers tingle. Or maybe it's because nothing flows through my veins but chocolate, glitter and coffee.
