The Android tablet space hasn’t been the most prolific in the last few years, but the launches keep coming, including the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus. Announced at CES in January it’s time to take a look at this premium Android tablet.
Priced at $1,399, the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus is a premium 2-in-1 device with a sleek all-metal body, which comes with a removable keyboard, Lenovo Tab Pen and a very cool, removable kickstand.
The spec list is impressive, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 System on Chip (SoC), with 16GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage powering a 12.3” 3K resolution display with Dolby Vision and six-speaker Dolby Atmos sound, with a 10,200mAh battery on-board.
The premium specs and price puts the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus right up against the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 series, as well as the iPad Pro, both excellent options for users wanting premium design and experience from their tablet.
Lenovo sent over a review unit which I’ve been using for two weeks and here’s how it went.
The Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus comes in ‘Tidal Teal’, a colour that’s become a sort of signature colour for the Lenovo range. It’s a subtle, yet colourful option that looks great without standing out too much. Lenovo has also included a number of useful accessories – also in Tidal Teal – that turn this tablet from a useful entertainment device into a real workhorse.
The accessories – the magnetically attached kickstand and keyboard – are part of the appeal for the Yoga Tab Plus. The camera bar stretching across the rear gives it a sort of two-tone look with the glossy bar on the matte rear, while also making a solid ridge for the magnetic kickstand to butt up against when you slap it on the back.
The magnetic kickstand lets you sit the tablet in a range of angles to suit your height, and attaches and detaches easily – while still feeling like it has a very solid hold on the back of the tablet. It’s a real star for me, giving you an easily removeable kickstand you can whip off when you want to relax on the couch.
The detachable keyboard accessory is comfortable to type on and the trackpad is responsive with support for gestures. It attaches using magnetic aligned pogo pins on the base of the tablet which means you can quickly add or remove it when you want
The bonus accessory, the Lenovo Pen, simply adds that extra layer of functionality giving you tight and accurate options for creating art, marking up or just getting more accuracy than your finger.
A large 12.7″ 3K resolution display on the front is surrounded by fairly minimal bezels, which give you a place to hold the tablet without fear of phantom touches – as well as containing the 13MP front-facing camera embedded in the on the long edge.
There’s a volume rocker on the top of the tablet, with the fingerprint enabled power button on the left – when in landscape mode. The left-hand side orientation of the fingerprint scanner is a little odd, however you get used to reaching to unlock the tablet with your left finger after a while.
You’ll find a USB-C port on the base, or right hand side depending on orientation, with speakers either side.
The tablet includes a 12.3” 3K resolution “PureSight” LTPS display enhanced with Dolby Vision, with a 6-speaker Harman/Kardon sound system optimised by Dolby Atmos.
The 16:10 aspect ratio display comes with an anti-glare coating to make it less reflective in brighter light. While the display does still show reflections – the anti-glare coating does have an effect, muting the reflections more than blocking them.
The LTPS display has great viewing angles and it’s bright – capable of up to 900 nits peak brightness. The blacks aren’t quite the OLED blacks, however there’s no light bleed and watching movies was excellent, with fantastic colours and no screen tearing.
The audio has to be heard to fully appreciate it, the six-speaker system (2x Solo tweeters + 4x SLS sub-woofers) can really pump some decent sound with a good register from the low to high-end.
It’s tuned by Dolby Atmos, so you get spatial audio bringing those 3D audio effects.
The hardware inside the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus is top-tier, with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile processor with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The cpu also includes their Hexagon NPU, capable of up to 20 Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS),
Lenovo hasn’t skimped on their hardware here, with DDR5 RAM and UFS 4 storage, so with the combo of Processor, RAM and storage, launching apps, or moving data around is very fast. The only gripe I have here is that there’s no microSD storage expansion to give more storage.
Startup times are quick, and apps/games are easily switched around with multi-tasking with no issues.
It’s hard to really push the SD8 Gen 3 processor, games like Genshin Impact, Call of Duty and Fortnite can certainly try – however the Yoga Tab Plus just eats them up without batting an eyelid.
On the AI front, the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU that delivers 20 TOPS performance for any AI work you need to do – though options are limited to Lenovo AI Now when you first boot it up.
Of course we ran it through 3DMark and GeekBench and here’s how it went.
The tablet includes all the latest and fastest connections, from the USB 3.2 Gen 1 port capable of 5Gbps data transfer, to the Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless connection options.
Lenovo have included a 13MP fixed-focus sensor in the display for video conferencing and face unlock, with a dual-sensor array on the rear consisting of a 13MP sensor with Auto-Focus, and paired with a 2MP Fixed-Focus Macro camera.
While you’re not going to be shooting much with the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus, it does take a decent shot on the rear cameras. I personally find the inclusion of a macro sensor to be a strange trend in the tech industry – they have uses, and this one works decently.
All-in-all, it’s a passable camera system – especially given it’s a tablet and won’t typically be capturing a lot of shots. It’s definitely a far sight from the flagship camera combos we see on smartphones these days though.
There’s a massive 10,200 Lithium Polymer (Li-Po) battery inside the tablet, with a 45W USB-C Charger included in the box.
The battery life is excellent, with the tablet hitting 10 hours of video playback with no issues before starting to alert for low-battery. Playing apps and games, got closer to 7 hours of use – though using purely games ran the battery down a little faster.
As tablets aren’t necessarily used all the time, I checked the standby time and was pleased to see it held its charge for two days with minimal drain.
In terms of charging, the 45W USB-C Charger supports rapid charging, with the tablet taking 5 minutes to give you 10% charge, 30 minutes for just under 50% and just under 90 minutes for a full charge.
The Yoga Tab Plus runs Android 14 straight out of the box, but there is an Over=The-Air (OTA) update to Android 15 ready to be pushed to your tablet as soon as you check, which also includes the latest June 1st security update.
In terms of updates, Lenovo says the Yoga Tab Plus will enjoy an update to Android 16 later this year according to Lenovo’s software update schedule, with security updates set to be pushed out quarterly until 2029. It’s a little disappointing in terms of updates, with Samsung offering 7 years of updates on the Galaxy Tab S10 series, with Apple normally offering similar support for their iPad Pro models.
The Android 15 experience on the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus is ‘enhanced’ by Lenovo’s ZUI – now on Version 17.
The effects of the Lenovo ZUI is minimal from the Android tablet interface introduced and refined with the Pixel tablet back in 2023. The home screen is set up similarly to the default Android layout with an app launcher bar at the bottom, though the settings do look a lot different with the custom theming, which also brings in Lenovo’s Vantage app, which is pre-installed, and offers software updates, support and more.
The ZUI layout also brings a slightly different split-screening setup for apps. When you’re in an app, tapping the top will bring a pop-up, letting you split or window apps for better use on your tablet.
A couple of Google created spaces do exist on the Yoga Tab Plus – Entertainment and Kids Spaces.
The Entertainment Space is a hub for entertainment, with the default home screen showing media from your streaming services where you’ll find recommended media. You can also scroll across to access games, books and audio sources like music or podcasts.
The Kids Space offers a locked down, sanitised version of your tablet, safe to hand to kids with the knowledge that no purchases can be made, or unsavoury content accessed. You can install games, or let them lose on the apps, games, books, and videos recommended by Google as part of Kids Space.
There are some pre-installed apps on the Yoga Tab Plus, including Adobe Express and Lightroom, as well as Clip Studio and Notepad – all great for using the Lenovo Pen, though you’ll find a payment plan needed for ongoing use of most of these, however the Adobe apps come with a two-month trial, but gets a little exxy if you’re not dedicated to using them.
The Adobe Express and Lightroom apps really do showcase a little of how well the Yoga Tab Plus handles photo work while remote. You can edit and update images easily in either app, making the tablet a very good option while on the move.
Of course there’s AI, with the Lenovo AI Now app installed on the Home screen. The Lenovo AI Now Knowledge assistant description lists it as:
Knowledge Assistant – Lenovo AI Now provides an efficient and secure office environment where you can retrieve information, ask questions, summarize content, and generate text based on your personal knowledge. All of these are processed locally to protect your privacy and work data.
It’s basically a tool to help with your documents. I personally found it a little limiting for an AI, especially with Google’s Gemini app also available pre-installed. Gemini does all the above and also offers image generation, search and information gathering to name just a few things. The Lenovo AI is tagged as beta, so hopefully we’ll see some meaningful updates down the track.
The Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus is a heck of a tablet, offering style, performance and a load of accessories to give you options for multiple form-factors to help get the job done.
The brilliant display, super fast operation and plenty of battery life to last you for days, as well as the inclusion of high-quality audio makes it a real treat for watching movies, or working on just about anything. The hardware is high-quality from the tablet to the innovative and high-quality accessories, adding that extra level of usability to the mix.
There’s very little to say that Lenovo have missed with the Yoga Tab Plus. The IPS display holds up, and while it’s not OLED, it also works extremely well and while 512GB of storage is great, a .
Android, with Lenovo’s ZUI, offers a lot of options for work and play, including mobile apps from Adobe, Microsoft, Google and many more making it a very compelling option for work, and the great audio visual experience powered by Dolby makes for a great entertainment device.
This is very much a tablet to take on the likes of the iPad Pro and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra with pure grunt and a great accessory eco-system – so if you are in the market for a premium Android tablet, then this is definitely one to check out.
Daniel has been talking about, learning about and using tech since he was able to toggle switches and push buttons. If it flashes, turns on or off or connects he wants to use it, talk about it and learn more about it. Like this article? Buy me a coffee!
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