TL;DR: The Lenovo Idea Tab is a budget-friendly 11-inch Android tablet with a gorgeous 2.5K 90Hz screen, Dolby Atmos quad speakers, a bundled stylus, and all-day battery life. It’s not premium, and Lenovo’s update track record is shaky, but for under €200 it’s an absolute steal. Perfect for students, streamers, and casual creatives.

InMeet Lenovo’s Mid-Range Force User

Every so often, a gadget drops into my lap that makes me feel like Obi-Wan watching Luke handle a lightsaber for the first time — clumsy, but surprisingly full of potential. That’s exactly how I felt unboxing the Lenovo Idea Tab, Lenovo’s not-so-snappily named but rather intriguing new budget Android tablet. This 11-inch slab comes with an IPS 2.5K display, quad speakers with Dolby Atmos, a bundled pen, and Android 15 out of the box — all for under 200 euros. On paper, it looks like the plucky Padawan of the tablet galaxy, punching well above its price tag.

So the big question is: is this Lenovo’s scrappy little Jedi, ready to swing with the big boys? Or is it more like Jar Jar Binks in disguise, bumbling its way through your workflow until you regret ever inviting it into your squad?

I spent the past couple of weeks using the Idea Tab as my daily companion — for Netflix binges, sketching, note-taking, and yes, even the dreaded productivity grind. Here’s the full geek’s-eye-view of what it gets right, where it stumbles, and whether it earns a place in your tech arsenal.

Design & Build: All Grey Everything

The first thing I noticed pulling this thing out of the box was how light it felt. At about 480 grams, it’s in that sweet spot where it doesn’t feel like a kettlebell after an hour of reading, but it still feels substantial enough that you don’t think it’ll snap in half like a wafer.

The chassis is a matte “Luna Grey” — which is marketing speak for “space grey but we legally can’t call it that.” The finish does a good job resisting fingerprints, and it has just enough grip to stop me from performing accidental drop-tests on my tiled kitchen floor. Bezels are there, but not obnoxiously so, and they actually give your thumbs a decent landing zone when you’re holding it in portrait mode.

Port situation? USB-C for charging (thank you Lenovo, no Micro-USB nonsense here), a 3.5mm headphone jack (surprise, in 2025 this still feels like a luxury feature), and pogo pins for accessories that Lenovo will probably never sell in your region. No premium aluminum unibody here — it’s a plastic build — but a well-made one that doesn’t flex or creak. Think budget Star Wars blaster: plasticky, yes, but reliable when it counts.

Display: 2.5K and Loving It

The screen is the real eye-catcher here. An 11-inch 2560×1600 IPS LCD panel with a 90Hz refresh rate. For a tablet that hovers around the €180–190 mark, that’s borderline ridiculous.

Colors pop nicely, viewing angles are solid, and brightness is enough for indoor use and a bit of shaded outdoor browsing, though you’re not going to want to read Tolstoy under the midday Dubai sun. The 90Hz refresh rate makes scrolling feel smoother than you’d expect at this price, and animations in Android 15 finally feel like they’re keeping up with the modern age.

Watching Netflix on this is genuinely delightful. It’s no OLED, sure, but the extra resolution and the wide aspect ratio make it a joy for content consumption. Think of it as the difference between watching The Mandalorian on a decent LED TV versus your old CRT — it’s not flagship, but it feels modern and immersive.

Performance: Dimensity 6300 Under the Hood

Let’s talk horsepower. Inside you get a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 octa-core processor, paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, expandable via microSD. This is very much a mid-tier chip — don’t expect it to time-travel through benchmarks like a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. But for everyday use? Surprisingly competent.

App switching is snappy enough, multitasking with split-screen notes and YouTube works without drama, and even light gaming is doable. I had a couple of sessions with Genshin Impact at medium settings, and while I wasn’t gliding through Mondstadt at 120fps, the experience was smoother than I expected. Casual games, streaming apps, and productivity tasks don’t faze it.

Thermals are well managed — no “frying pan mode” after an hour of play. Yes, there are the occasional hiccups if you push it too hard, but given the price, I’d call this solid mid-range performance that won’t embarrass you.

Software: Android 15 Out of the Box

Lenovo deserves a slow clap here: this tablet ships with Android 15, which in the Android tablet world is like finding a unicorn in your backyard. Most budget tablets barely crawl out of the factory with last year’s OS.

The UI is clean, close to stock, and Lenovo hasn’t loaded it down with bloatware (beyond the usual Google suspects). Multi-window support works well on the 11-inch canvas, and stylus integration is baked in at the system level. No weird skin, no unnecessary “helper apps” nagging you. It feels refreshingly uncluttered.

The real question mark is updates. Lenovo’s track record on long-term software support is… inconsistent. If you’re the kind of geek who wants three years of guaranteed Android updates, this may not be the safest bet. But if you just want a tablet that’s up to date today, it delivers.

Pen Experience: A Budget Sketch Pad

Yes, Lenovo includes a pen in the box. Already a win compared to, say, a certain fruit-branded competitor that charges you a hundred bucks extra for theirs.

The pen itself is basic — not a Wacom-grade stylus, but more than enough for note-taking, casual sketching, or annotating PDFs. Latency is decent, pressure sensitivity works, and palm rejection is surprisingly good. I found myself doodling little cyberpunk helmets in Sketchbook Pro with no frustration. Artists might want something more advanced, but students and casual creatives will be perfectly happy.

The only bummer is storage: there’s no built-in slot for the pen, so you’ll want a case with a loop unless you enjoy losing accessories to the abyss of your sofa.

Speakers & Audio: Dolby Atmos Quad Setup

The quad speakers with Dolby Atmos are another highlight. Audio is loud, clear, and surprisingly spacious for a budget tablet. Watching Dune felt immersive — the kind of bass that rattles the desk without turning into pure distortion. Vocals stay crisp, and stereo separation actually feels like stereo separation, not “two tin cans yelling at each other.”

Add to that the presence of a 3.5mm headphone jack, and audiophiles with wired cans can rejoice. In 2025, that’s like finding a floppy disk drive in a new car — unexpected, but deeply satisfying.

Cameras: Just Enough to Exist

Look, nobody buys a tablet for the cameras. But if you do insist on using this as a photography device, the Idea Tab gives you an 8MP rear shooter and a 5MP front cam. Both are… fine. They exist. Rear shots are usable in good light for scanning documents or snapping your cat being ridiculous, but don’t expect night mode miracles. The selfie cam is serviceable for Zoom calls, and that’s about it.

In short: cameras are functional, not fabulous. But that’s perfectly acceptable for the category.

Battery Life: Marathon Mode

Packing a 7040mAh battery, this tablet comfortably sails through a full day of mixed use. I averaged around 10–11 hours of screen-on time with streaming, browsing, and some sketching thrown in. For lighter users, you could easily stretch it to two days.

Charging isn’t lightning-fast, but USB-C at least makes it convenient. Expect about 2.5 hours for a full top-up. Not blazing, but reliable. Think of it as the Millennium Falcon: might look a little scrappy, but it’ll get you there.

Verdict: A Tablet That Punches Above Its Weight

The Lenovo Idea Tab is, quite frankly, one of the best value-for-money tablets I’ve tested in recent memory. For the price, you’re getting:

• A sharp 2.5K 90Hz display
• Solid mid-range performance
• Android 15 out of the box
• Quad Dolby Atmos speakers
• Included pen
• All-day battery life

Yes, it’s plastic. Yes, the cameras are meh. But none of that overshadows the fact that this is a ridiculously good deal for students, casual users, and anyone who just wants a reliable Android slab for entertainment and light productivity.

It’s not an iPad killer, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s the budget Jedi — not as flashy as a Skywalker, but it’ll fight the good fight and save your wallet while it’s at it.