Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 Review

Last Updated on October 10, 2022 by Ernests Embutnieks and Saad

Lenovo has been coming out with some great products recently. Their Tab P11 Pro Gen 1 was an absolute banger in terms of its price and the value for money it provided. The Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 has just come out and it has some noticeable bumps in its performance and battery life that make it a worthwhile upgrade.

With that said, I was lucky enough to get one in the office. So, equipped with the Lenovo Precision Pen 3 and a curious mind, I set out to explore. And here, I bring to you, the complete review of the Tab P11 Pro 2022!

Specifications 

OS	Android 12
CPU	MediaTek Kompanio 1300T
Storage	128 GB / 256 GB
Display	11.2 inches (1536 x 256) ~267 ppi
Camera	8 MP Front Facing / 13 MP Rear Facing
Wireless	WiFi / Bluetooth / GPS
Battery Life	10-12 hours
Size	10.38” x 6.56” x 0.27”
Weight	1.06 lbs
Price	$400

What’s In The Box?

• 1x Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen)
• 1x 20W Charging Brack
• 1x USB-A to USb-C cable

Rating

Pros & Cons Of Lenovo Tab P11 Pro

Here’s a quick list of the pros and cons that the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) has that you should vary of:

Pros

• Amazing Display: The 120 Hz 1440p display is a sight for sore eyes. The OLED panel has great blacks and vibrant colors. And the large 11.2” size makes it an excellent choice for anyone who’s into media consumption.
• Good Performance: The Mediatek Kompanio certainly is able to keep up when it comes to launching applications and switching through them. Moreover, gaming on the device was also jitter and lag free.
• Reasonable Battery Life: The 8-9 hours of screen on time that you can expect is more than enough for even the most extreme power users. So, you won’t have any qualms with the battery life. 

Cons

• Poor Cameras: The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro has really poor cameras. I am not happy with the low-light performance and there are a lot of improvements that need to be made in the visual department.
• No LTE: The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 1 had an LTE connection. For some reason, the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro 2nd Gen doesn’t. So, you won’t be able to connect to cellular at all with this model.
• No Precision Pen 3 Included: At this price, competitors like the Tab S6 Lite are able to offer their styluses with the tablet. However, Lenovo chose not to. So, you’ll have to buy the Precision Pen 3 separately if you wish to use it. 

Features Of Lenovo Tab P11 Pro

Here’s a quick look at some of the features that differentiate the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2022) from the rest of the pack:

Display

The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro has a big, bright 11.2” 2560×1536 OLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate. The display looks and feels phenomenal. The display shoots up to about 800-1000 nits from our testing and looks great. In every instance, it was able to compete with the iPad Air and even surpass it in terms of refresh rate.

Moreover, I was pleasantly surprised with the overall form factor of the device. Yes, it isn’t as big as the iPad Pro I’m used to, but the vertical frame led to it being very easy to carry and handle. When needed, I could just flip the tablet horizontally and enjoy a widescreen experience.

The resolution was more than adequate, with no visible blurriness or jagged lines to be seen. Even with the larger size, pixelation was unnoticeable, while the colors remained sharp and precise at multiple viewing angles.

Keyboard / Touchpad

For starters, the keyboard seems to lean more towards thinness rather than size. So, we’re going to see less tactile keys and more of that odd mushiness that plagues so many compact keyboards. We do, however, get to see a backlit keyboard with a dedicated Language button for all you bilinguals out there.

The touchpad is fairly decent in size. While it is no Macbook, I feel like with the size of the tablet, there’s only so much you can do in terms of the touchpad. The keyboard itself seems to provide an ample amount of space for your wrists to rest on. But, the package in itself does not come included with the tablet. We aren’t sure of the pricing just yet. But, it is an added premium you’ll have to consider.

Performance

The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro packs a powerful Mediatek Kompanio 1300T processor. The tablet is able to handle multi-tasking quite well; it loads games quickly and has great gaming performance. While I wasn’t able to get to 120 Hz on every game, especially more demanding ones like PUBG Mobile or Genshin Impact, the overall performance was quite substantial.

One added feature in the P11 Pro 2nd Gen that the 1st Gen lacked is the ability to extend your display to an external monitor. This is great for productivity as I was able to open up multiple applications on the wider monitor while still being able to use them seamlessly. 

Camera

The P11 comes with a 8-megapixel front-facing camera with a 13 MP rear facing camera. The cameras are definitely nothing to drive home about, and I personally feel like they’re the tablet’s weakest suit. Yes, tablets are no iPhones and they aren’t meant to have amazing cameras.

But, with the world of remote learning and distanced jobs growing ever so quickly, good low-light performance is a metric most expect out of their tablets as well. Sadly, the P11 2nd Gen doesn’t deliver in that regard. I was getting fuzzy video and image quality on both the front and rear-facing cameras which led to poor quality.

In absolute optimal lighting, the camera can pass off as decent. It doesn’t capture colors quite well but is still able to maintain some semblance of depth and quality. However, as soon as you dim the lights, the difference in quality is quite apparent. 

Battery Life

You get an 8000 mAH battery on the P11 Pro. From our testing, we were able to get about seven and a half hours of screen time with the brightness running on full blast. If we weren’t trying to absolutely drain the battery, I was able to get about 8-9 hours of screen on time which is quite reasonable and downright impressive compared to some other tablets.

You also get 20W of fast charging on the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro. Not that fast, but still decent given the budget. 

Who Is The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro For?

The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro 2nd Gen is meant for the casual user. It isn’t aiming to replace laptops anytime soon. However, with its great screen, performance, and features – it acts as a great mid-range tablet for a student or for a budding professional who is just getting started. 

Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (1st Gen) vs Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen)

Device Name	Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen)	Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (1st Gen)
OS	Android 12	Android 10
CPU	MediaTek Kompanio 1300T	Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G
Storage	128 GB / 256 GB	128 GB
Display	11.2 inches (1536 x 256) ~267 ppi	11.5 inches (1600 x 256) ~263 ppi
Camera	8 MP Front Facing / 13 MP Rear Facing	8 MP Front Facing / 13 MP Rear Facing
Wireless	WiFi / Bluetooth / GPS	WiFi / Bluetooth / GPS / LTE
Battery Life	10-12 hours	9-10 hours
Size	10.38” x 6.56” x 0.27”	10.41” x 6.75” 0.27”
Weight	1.06 lbs	1.07 lbs
Price	$400	$400

Key Differences

• Display: The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) boasts a slightly better resolution which is unnoticeable. However, the primary difference which you’ll definitely be noticing is the 120 Hz frame rate on the Gen 2 compared to 60 Hz on the Gen 1.
• LTE: The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 1 has an LTE SIM card slot while the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 sadly, does not.
• Performance: The MediaTek on the Gen 2 runs circles over the older Snapdragon 730G. So, you’ll see a massive difference in overall performance with the 2nd Gen feeling much snappier.
• Battery Life: With about a 2000 mAH increase in battery size, we’re seeing about a 10-15% increase in screen on time which is great considering the P11 Pro 1st Gen already had great battery life.

The Tab P11 Pro 2nd Gen is an iterative upgrade. It isn’t a complete design refresh or revamp. But, it is noticeable enough that we’d definitely recommend upgrading even if you have the 1st Gen. The better display with the 120 Hz coupled with the better performance and battery life leads to a much more snappier, lag-free experience. 

Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Vs. Galaxy Tab S6 Lite

Device Name	Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen)	Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2022)
OS	Android 12	Android 12
CPU	MediaTek Kompanio 1300T	Exynos 9611 / Snapdragon 720G
Storage	128 GB / 256 GB	64 GB / 128 GB
Display	11.2 inches (1536 x 256) ~267 ppi	10.4 inches (1200×2000) ~224 ppi
Camera	8 MP Front Facing / 13 MP Rear Facing	5 MP Front Facing / 8 MP Rear Facing
Wireless	WiFi / Bluetooth / GPS	WiFi / Bluetooth / GPS / LTE
Battery Life	10-12 hours	10-12 hours
Size	10.38” x 6.56” x 0.27”	9.63” x 6.07” x 0.28”
Weight	1.06 lbs	1.02 lbs
Price	$400	$419

Key Differences

• Display: The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro’s display looks better than Tab S6 Lite in every instance and is also larger by about 0.6 inches diagonally . It goes brighter and allows you to watch upscaled 4K videos. So, the Lenovo definitely has the upper-edge here. Funny thing is, we’re quite certain that the display is made by Samsung.
• Battery Life: The Lenovo has an 8000 mAH battery while the Samsung has a 7400 mAH battery. But, from my testing, both devices ended up having the same screen on time both when gaming and performing daily tasks. However, the Lenovo does have faster charging at 20W while the Samsung does not (15W.)
• Performance: The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro performs marginally better than the Samsung Tab S6 Lite. It isn’t an insane difference. But, when it comes to games, I noticed fewer drops, better frame rates, and the ability to play at higher resolution / graphics. So, if you want the better gaming experience, the better display with the performance makes a huge difference. 

• Stylus: The S6 Lite comes with an S Pen out of the box while you’ll have to purchase the Precision Pen 3. Moreover, from my testing, the S Pen felt more accurate and refined compared to the Precision Pen. This is probably due to the fact that Samsung has spent years perfecting their styluses as they’ve been developing them with the Note series for quite a while.
• Extended Display: You can only connect the P11 Pro to duplicate or extend your monitor. You can’t even connect the Samsung Tab S6 Lite to a TV. While this is not a very important option, it still is worth pointing out. 
• Speakers: The Tap P11 Pro’s quad speakers have better sound compared to the Tab S6’s dual speakers. But, there isn’t as much of a difference as you’d expect considering the fact that the Lenovo has two extra speakers.
• Headphone Jack: The Tab S6 Lite has a headphone jack while the P11 Pro does not.
• Cameras: The Tab S6 Lite has better low light performance even with a lower megapixel count. 

While there are a few differences, it is clear that the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) is the obvious choice for most consumers. Its better display, performance, and speakers make it a far superior media consumption device and productivity powerhouse compared to the S6 Lite. 

Other Aspects Of The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro

	Yes	No
Does the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) have facial recognition?	√
Does the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) have wireless charging?		√
Does the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) have a headphone jack?		√
Does the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) have a SIM card slot?		√
Does the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) have GPS?	√
Does the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) have 5G?		√
Does the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen) Support A Stylus?	√

Final Thoughts

The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro 2nd Gen boasts some great improvements to an already excellent device. The only issues I had with the device were the lack of cellular, the lack of regard for an included stylus, and the abhorrent cameras. But, if you don’t care about any of the three cons I’ve mentioned, then, the Lenovo Tablet P11 Pro (2nd Gen) is the best in class for its price.