The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge launch was rescheduled to May 13, but this delay wasn’t to change the price – the Edge will be the second most expensive S25 model, based on what we’re seeing from retailers that pulled the trigger too early.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge pricing on Zanetti
Italian online store Zanetti lists various S25 Edge devices – the 256GB version is €1,362, while the 512GB option is €1,488. This is higher than the initially expected prices for Europe. Compared to the Galaxy S25+, the Edge is around €100 more – the table below has the pricing breakdown, including the...
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge launch was rescheduled to May 13, but this delay wasn’t to change the price – the Edge will be the second most expensive S25 model, based on what we’re seeing from retailers that pulled the trigger too early.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge pricing on Zanetti
Italian online store Zanetti lists various S25 Edge devices – the 256GB version is €1,362, while the 512GB option is €1,488. This is higher than the initially expected prices for Europe. Compared to the Galaxy S25+, the Edge is around €100 more – the table below has the pricing breakdown, including the...
The original iPhone launched in June of 2007, which means we’ll be celebrating its 20th birthday in 2027, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggests Apple is eyeing a major redesign of its most important device.
Apple will reportedly launch its first foldable iPhone in 2027, alongside a new iPhone 19 Pro model that “makes more extensive use of glass”. The report does not go into much detail about what that entails, but we’re guessing that would mean a larger percentage of the chassis is made from glass. This could mean a wrap-around screen like on the Xiaomi Mix Alpha or something else...
If you haven’t heard, OnePlus is axing the Alert Slider. The company makes the argument that a smart button will be more customizable, which is something that its fans have been asking for. The OnePlus 13T will likely be the first phone to drop the slider in favor of a customizable button.
Li Jie, President of OnePlus China, shared this image and says that “the OnePlus 13T has been upgraded with a new shortcut key.” It will support switching between Silent/Vibration/Ringing modes just like the slider, it will also offer easy access to other features. OnePlus has designed “a very...
The vivo X200 Ultra and X200s are set to launch on April 21 in China. The launch date was confirmed by vivo on its official Weibo profile. The two smartphones will be joined by the vivo Pad5 Pro, Pad SE and Watch 5.
The new teasers show the X200 Ultra in its upcoming Rimowa edition, which features a silver look inspired by the luxury luggage manufacturer.
In related news, the X200 Ultra emerged in a video leak showing its design from all angles. The device in the video is the Rimowa edition X200 Ultra and we get a good look at its huge camera island which sticks out even more than...
This review first appeared in issue 349 of PC Pro.
Where TP-Link’s Deco XE200 opposite takes a maximalist approach, the Asus ZenWiFi XD5 goes in the other direction. Rather than the fastest possible performance, it offers a decent Wi-Fi 6 network at an attractive price, via two or three boxy little stations that are small enough to hide away around your home.
That’s not to say the XD5 units are unpleasant to look at. The rounded cuboid design is clean and modern, with a subtle spiral pattern on top. The base of each station houses a multicolored status LED, although this can’t be seen from all angles as it’s unhelpfully tucked away below the main body.
Internally, the XD5 is a simple dual-band mesh, with a single 5GHz radio connection for both client and backhaul communications. It’s rated at a reasonable 2.4Gbits/sec, however, with 2x2 MIMO and support for 160MHz channels, so there’s a decent amount of bandwidth on hand. The 2.4GHz radio is rated at 574Mbits/sec, which should be fine for the types of device that still use the slower band.
I set up one station in the study of my home and the other in the adjoining bedroom. Asus suggests that two XD5 units will cover an area of up to 325m2, while adding a third extends claimed coverage to 465m2 – although performance will naturally depend on the layout and build of your home.
The stylish design gives the XD5 units a clean, modern look(Image credit: Future)
With my units in place, I took a laptop to various locations around the house, copied a selection of files to and from a NAS appliance connected to the primary XD5 unit via Ethernet, and measured the effective speeds. Despite the XD5’s small size and modest hardware, two stations proved ample to provide strong, consistent performance all around my home, with download rates between 34 and 40MB/sec. That’s nowhere near the speeds you’ll see from the most expensive meshes, but more than enough to handle Zoom calls, Disney Plus, web browsing and whatever else you’re likely to want to do, whether you’re relaxing on the sofa or running a business from home.
On the software side of things there’s no compromise at all: the ZenWiFi XD5 system uses the same full-fat firmware as found on Asus’ most expensive meshes and routers, with management via either the Asus Router mobile app or the traditional web portal. The two interfaces are completely different, which can be a little disorienting if you hop back and forth between them, but they’re both clear and accessible, considering the range of settings and features on offer. Those include not only extensive control over the basic configuration of your network, but a whole slew of advanced features, such as extensive traffic-management and QoS options, plus a configurable built-in firewall.
As if that weren’t enough, the XD5 also offers per-device parental controls, with customizable web filtering for kids’ devices, plus network security scanning powered by Trend Micro. These tools are all free to use forever – a great bonus, as most competing meshes demand an annual fee to fully unlock such capabilities.
(Image credit: Future)
Finally, it’s always good to see Asus’ trademark VPN module. As well as permitting secure inbound connections over the internet, this lets you configure up to 16 third-party outbound VPN servers and bind each one to any number of MAC addresses – enabling you to route your traffic all over the world, if you so desire.
The only thing that’s notably missing is USB support. Older, chunkier ZenWiFi models offered the ability to share USB storage devices and printers over the network, and even to plug in a 4G or 5G mobile internet adapter should your main broadband line go down. The smaller XD5 units don’t have USB ports, so all that’s off the table.
There are only two Ethernet sockets, and no USB ports(Image credit: Future)
It’s also worth mentioning that each ZenWiFi unit has only two Ethernet sockets, both limited to gigabit speeds. It’s a serviceable minimum, but if your network uses a mixture of wireless and wired connections you might prefer a mesh with a few more ports, and perhaps a multi-gigabit option. While the ZenWiFi XD5 is reasonably priced, there are certainly cheaper mesh options. The Huawei Mesh 3 can currently be had for £180 inc VAT, while the Mercusys Halo H80X costs only £135 for three units, or £95 for two. That’s an excellent deal, as the Mercusys mesh provides overall similar performance to the ZenWiFi XD5, with an extra boost for same-room connections. However, it’s a far more basic system, with none of the XD5’s sophisticated software features.
If you want more hands-on control, then, the Asus ZenWiFi XD5 is one of the most appealing meshes around. It doesn’t max out the performance of Wi-Fi 6, but it’s speedy enough that very few people will need to pay more – and its sheer versatility and configurability put cheaper systems to shame.
This review first appeared in issue 349 of PC Pro.
When you think of Asus’ Vivobook range, cheap laptops probably spring to mind. So you may wonder what’s going on here: a Vivobook costing £2,500? Surely that’s more Asus ROG gaming laptop territory? Dig into the specs and it sounds like a gaming machine, too, with a turbo-fueled Core i9 matched with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics.
Here, though, Asus has creators in its sights rather than gamers. It comes loaded with Nvidia’s Studio drivers, a Pantone-validated OLED screen and even a clever dial built into the touchpad. But let’s start with the fundamentals: power.
Top guns, part one
It’s easy to get blasé about such things, but I still find it remarkable to say that there are 24 cores inside this laptop. That’s because Asus has opted for a Core i9-13980HX processor, which is as boy racer as it sounds. The 13980 indicates that it’s right at the top end of Intel’s family, a fact reinforced by the H suffix (which stands for high performance). The X is the overclocking cherry on top.
All this would be for naught if Asus had skimped on cooling, but a double fan and meaty heatsinks mean that the CPU should keep running at its peak speeds – 5.6GHz for the eight performance P-cores – even under duress. No wonder it can gobble up to 105W.
It’s also why this laptop returned such stonking speeds in our CPU-torture tests. A result of 16,581 in Geekbench 6.1 multicore is as fast as we’ve seen from a laptop, making me nervous that our new graphs should have a higher peak than 20,000. This supreme speed was repeated in Cinebench R23’s multicore section, where it scorched its way to 25,660.
Asus has packed plenty of powerful parts inside the Vivobook Pro 16X(Image credit: Future)
Top guns, part two
The RTX 4070 doesn’t sit at the top of Nvidia’s mobile range, but it’s still a potent chip. Its main weapons are the 4,608 CUDA cores, which sounds like a huge number when compared to the RTX 4060 (3,072) but surprisingly few next to the 7,424 of the RTX 4080 and 9,728 of the RTX 4090 (to be clear, these numbers refer to the laptop versions of Nvidia’s chips).
How many CUDA cores you have matters in professional applications such as 3ds Max, Catia and Maya – while there isn’t a linear relationship, it’s a great indicator of how long tasks will take – so there are reasons to opt for an RTX 4080 or 4090. Especially as those products come with far superior memory setups: the RTX 4070 includes 8GB of GDDR6 RAM with a 128-bit interface width, but switch to the 4080 and you get 12GB/192-bit, while a 4090 offers 16GB/256-bit. That’s a huge jump.
However, the RTX 4070 has power efficiency in its favor, getting by on up to 115W (35W minimum) compared to 150W for its siblings. It’s also the reason why this laptop costs £2,500 rather than £3,000 or £3,500.
The good news is that with a Core i9 and 32GB of RAM as the backing cast, the RTX 4070 here is given every chance to excel. I first saw this in our suite of gaming tests. Taking the 1080p High results first, the Vivobook returned 225fps in F1 2022, 93fps in Metro Exodus Enhanced, 183fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and 86fps in Dirt 5.
Switching to the panel’s native resolution of 3,200 x 2,000, those results dropped to 116fps (F1 2022), 49fps (Metro), 95fps (Tomb Raider) and 49fps (Dirt 5). In our toughest test, Metro Exodus Enhanced at Extreme settings, the Vivobook returned 48fps at 1080p and 25fps at native resolution. In other words, its only unplayable frame rates came in that final, brutal test.
(Image credit: Future)
Creative spin
All those results were with Nvidia’s Studio drivers, as supplied; if you know you’ll be using this machine only for gaming then switch to the Game Ready drivers for the latest optimizations. Asus clearly expects people to use this laptop for creativity, however, so I also put it through its paces in Specviewperf R20.
Here, it performed in line with expectations for an RTX 4070 laptop. Highlights included 91 in the 3ds Max viewset, 335 in Maya and 238 in SolidWorks; to put those scores in perspective, the Lenovo P620 Tower scored 147, 439 and 278 respectively. Those results are significantly higher, but so they should be for a desktop workstation with a Threadripper Pro 5945WX and Nvidia’s RTX A4000 graphics.
Asus loves to add little extras to its touchpads, and here that’s a DialPad. This is a dotted circle, with an inch diameter, that sits at the top left of the touchpad, but you need to activate it: press and hold the tiny symbol at the top right of the pad, then swipe in. It’s a clunky mechanism, but this stops you accidentally switching the dial on and off.
Once active, a white circle within the dotted lines lights up. Press it, and the Asus dial overlay appears on-screen, with different options depending on context. In Photoshop, for instance, it offers the chance to cycle through brush sizes, switch between documents, zoom in and out of layers and quickly undo changes. It’s no substitute for a physical dial, but creatives with dexterous fingers may grow fond of it.
The chunky chassis and poor battery life mean it’s not very portable(Image credit: Future)
Getting physical
I ended up leaving the dial on most of the time, as the touchpad is large enough (130 x 83mm) that it didn’t interfere with navigation. With a glass coating it ticks the usual smooth and responsive boxes, although I occasionally found myself reaching for the F6 key to deactivate the whole thing as palm rejection didn’t always work.
Nor will those people who type for a living love this keyboard, which offers surprisingly little travel for a laptop that measures 21mm thick. The keys themselves offer little “feel”, with a lifeless action, but once you move past this and the single-height Enter key (oddly jammed next to the hash key and finished in the same dark grey) the keyboard fades into the inoffensive background.
And there are a couple of positives. All the keys are a generous size and have a sensible gap between them, helping to minimize typos, the spacebar is huge and, while the cursor keys are shortened, they’re also separated from the main buttons. Plus, a dedicated number pad makes sense in a laptop this width.
The keys are a decent size, and the large touchpad is smooth and responsive(Image credit: Future)
Super size
This machine is no ultraportable.
Whichever dimension you measure, it’s chunky. A 356 x 249mm footprint means you’ll need a good-sized rucksack to carry it with you, and while Asus officially states the weight as 1.9kg that’s for the more basic spec: I weighed it at 2.1kg. The 21mm thickness refers to the front of the chassis; once you factor in the orange “foot” – a U-shape strip that lifts the Vivobook from a surface to aid airflow – it’s closer to 2.5mm.
I like the brash orange color (echoed in the Esc key) as it lifts what is otherwise quite a boring-looking design. Asus also makes this Vivobook in black, but the silver version I tested is unlikely to gain any lustful glances from passersby. Its only other flash of styling is a raised area on the lid – almost like a melded-on business card – that reveals the laptop’s name.
Rather than style, then, this laptop is designed for practicality. Head to the left and you’ll find a gigabit Ethernet port, full-size SD card reader, USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbits/sec) port and the power connector. Over on the right, a 3.5mm jack and HDMI 2.1 output are kept company by two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports and a second USB-A port. That’s a strong connectivity offering, backed up by Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
A top-quality OLED panel makes films look great(Image credit: Future)
Power down
To get the most out of this laptop, though, you’ll need to keep it plugged in. I found that battery life varied considerably during my tests, but set your expectations at around four hours – hardly a full working day. And in PCMark’s Gaming test, which pushes the graphics chip in the same way creative graphics tasks will, it lasted only 1hr 41mins.
You can trickle-charge it using the Thunderbolt ports, but I can’t imagine travelling without the 540g power supply. Considering its 240W output, it’s surprisingly compact, and it takes the laptop from empty to 80% in an hour, reaching full capacity in less than two hours.
You’ll probably keep it plugged in much of the time, in which case I recommend you fully investigate the MyAsus app. From here you can switch on the battery care mode, adjust the fan profile (we tested with Performance mode, and the fans get noisy when you’re pushing this machine), and play around with “TaskFirst”, which allows you to set network connectivity priorities – to game streaming, say, or communication apps.
There’s also a bunch of options for the microphone, and unlike many “AI optimizations” I’ve tried, this is worth using. There’s nothing wrong with the plain mode, but the “single presenter conference call” option will bring your voice to the fore. Thanks to the excellent 1080p webcam, which supports Windows Hello and includes a fiddly but effective privacy shutter, you’ll look great on calls, too.
It’s easy to remove the base of the chassis and upgrade the memory and SSD(Image credit: Future)
Entertain me
I have mixed feelings about the speakers, but that’s mainly due to the high expectations set elsewhere. If you listen to music in isolation on the Vivobook then you’ll be impressed by its volume and how clearly instruments and voices emerge – the intricate instrumentation of Björk is normally too much for laptops, but the Vivobook handles the mix of strings and vocals well. Where it falls down is bass, pushing the trebles and mids too much to the fore, but I’m being picky.
Certainly you’ll love watching films on this laptop thanks to its sheer volume (with no sign of distortion), and it helps that Asus includes a top-quality OLED panel. It barely needs saying, but a 3,200 x 2,000 resolution ensures sharp edges on text, and black absolutely punches through to make dark scenes in films look fantastic.
It has DisplayHDR 600 Black certification, confirming that it will hit 600cd/m2 in HDR content, while its peak of 389cd/m2 in SDR mode means it’s easy to read in every condition. Except, as it turns out, bright sunshine, where the screen’s reflectivity became obvious.
Inside, though, it’s superb. You can choose from a variety of settings in the MyAsus app, but for testing I stuck to the standard mode and then switched between the preset gamuts: Native, sRGB, DCI-P3 and Display P3. Native makes most sense if you want to enjoy the widest color range (it stretches 19% beyond even the DCI-P3 gamut), but sRGB and DCI-P3 locked the screen down to those gamuts almost perfectly.
Color accuracy is strong – its average Delta-E never went above 0.72, with anything under one considered excellent – and anyone who values true whites will be pleased by a natural color temperature of 6479K, only 21K off the target 6500K.
The Vivobook Pro 16X is a fine choice for gamers and creatives alike(Image credit: Future)
Final thoughts
If you’re a demanding user, then, this is almost a perfect laptop. It even has the opportunity to upgrade over time: the 32GB of memory comes supplies as two 16GB SODIMMs, rather than being embedded, and if you’re a nimble hand with a Phillips screwdriver you can whip the bottom off this chassis within a minute.
This will reveal the fact that the 1TB M.2 2280 SSD is also replaceable, and note this isn’t the speediest Gen 4 drive around: 4,061MB/sec reads and 2,971MB/sec writes are strong but not exceptional. I would be tempted to replace it with a faster 2TB drive at some future date; sadly there isn’t a second M.2 slot, despite the amount of space available on the board.
Then again, we need to remember that this isn’t a £3,000+ mobile workstation. While hardly cheap at £2,500, it rewards you with all the power and quality that most creative professionals need. In terms of price, that’s certainly competitive when placed next to an equivalent 16in MacBook Pro. And yes, that laptop offers far superior battery life, minimal fan noise and better performance away from the mains, but it lacks the graphical grunt of Nvidia’s RTX chip along with easy upgrades.
Whether the Vivobook Pro is right for you, then, depends entirely on what you intend to use it for. All I can tell you is that Asus extracts the most from its components, while the supporting cast – particularly the screen – come from the top drawer in terms of quality.
The Galaxy A56 kept its impressive form as we enter April, the Samsung mid-ranger once again topping our trending chart. The Poco F7 Ultra once again ended up second, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra climbed a spot to complete the podium.
[#InlinePriceWidget, 13603, 1#]
Newly announced Motorola Edge 60 Fusion captured the fourth spot, edging the Poco duo of X7 Pro in fifth and F7 Pro in sixth.
After them, the Samsung Galaxy A36 is also maintaining its spot in the top 10, suggesting that the 2025 duo has some impressive sales potential. Apple's iPhone 16 Pro Max came in fifth, just ahead...
Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 this week. It's based on a 4nm node, and gets the older Kryo CPU instead of the Oryon core found on the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. The CPU has one Cortex-X4 core, topping out at 3.2GHz. The GPU is an Adreno 825. There's a Hexagon NPU that brings a 44% performance boost over the 8s Gen 3. Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is expected to debut on the iQOO Z10 Turbo later this month with more devices from Xiaomi, Oppo, Meizu and others set to launch with the new chip soon.
Motorola announced the Edge 60 Fusion. It has a 6.67-inch 120Hz P-OLED with a peak...
The new Lenovo Idea Tab Pro could be the best Android alternative to Apple's iPad 10.9 (2022) on the market right now, given its comparable price point
It’s a formidable general use tablet that boasts a number of key upgrades compared to Apple’s slab, namely a larger 12.7” 3K (2944 x 1840) display with a buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate, which makes everything feel breezy, from scrolling social media feeds to watching videos and movies on the go.
The seriously impressive JBL-tuned speakers can easily go toe to toe with the sound systems of some of the best tablets around. With the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro, you have a formidable media consumption machine that’s a fantastic fit for those times when you just want to kick back with some Netflix or Amazon Prime Video on a convenient tablet screen.
(Image credit: Dash Wood / Future)
Equipped with a mid-range MediaTek Dimensity 8300 processor and 8GB of RAM, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is no slouch when it comes to gaming. Graphically intensive titles like Zenless Zone Zero and Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile look great and run smoothly, though the tablet’s heavy weight and large size definitely make it quite an unwieldy choice for those who rely on touch screen controls.
Even considering its larger size, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is a great pick if you’re looking for a capable tablet to keep yourself or the rest of the family entertained on all fronts.
The Lenovo Tab Pen Plus stylus is included in the box, too, and while it's not quite as accurate as the latest Apple Pencil, it comes pretty close with impressive pressure sensitivity. As a result, this would be a very good tablet for students or beginner artists, though users in the latter category should note that leading drawing apps like Procreate are still exclusive to Apple’s ecosystem.
I had some problems with Android on tablet, including the odd stutter and unoptimized app - though I can't fault Lenovo for a poor Android tablet ecosystem.
That said, Lenovo does have control over its custom Android skin and some decisions may prove divisive. I personally appreciate neat features like the desktop-style PC mode and useful Entertainment Space home screen tab, but an awkward set up process that forced me to fight tooth and nail to avoid installing mountains of pointless bloat makes a poor first impression and is a let down, even at this price.
(Image credit: Dash Wood / Future)
Lenovo Idea Tab Pro: Price and availability
Starts at $349.99 / £379.99
Available in the UK, coming soon to the US
Lenovo Tab Pen Plus stylus included
The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is currently available from Lenovo in the UK and starts at £379.99. This price gets you the tablet in its 128GB configuration and the Lenovo Tab Pen Plus, which is included in the box and costs $39.99 / £29.99 as a standalone.
A 256GB model is also available and costs around £400. Outside of Lenovo's direct sales website, the tablet is easy to find at retailers like Amazon, Argos, and Very.
As for the US, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro isn’t available quite yet. It’s expected to launch in April 2025, with a starting price of $349.99.
Value score: 4/5
Lenovo Idea Tab Pro: Specs
Here's everything you need to know about what the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is packing under the hood:
Lenovo Idea Tab Pro: design and materials
Sleek and understated
Premium look and feel
One color option
The design of the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro isn't the most thrilling, borrowing much of its overall look from its 2023 predecessor the Lenovo Tab P12, but it’s still good on the whole.
Its casing is a smooth metal that is both pleasant to the touch and gives the impression of durability. There are some hefty bezels around the large 12.7in display (about 8mm) but, rather than detracting from the user experience, they serve as a handy place to rest your palms without the risk of accidental inputs.
The back of the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro features an embossed, shiny Lenovo logo in its centre, plus the camera module in the top right hand corner. Next to the camera is a subtle striped pattern that seems purely decorative, and a magnetic area marked with a small stylus symbol. This is where the Lenovo Tab Pen Plus can attach to the tablet thanks to some strong magnets.
(Image credit: Dash Wood / Future)
Unfortunately, the stylus is not able to draw power when it’s attached and needs to be charged separately via a USB Type-C cable. Luckily, it has great battery life with more than 150 hours of standby time, so this isn’t something that you’re going to be doing often. I’m not the biggest stylus user, but I still put it through its paces and only needed to charge it once during my testing.
The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro also has a MicroSD card slot (ideal if you want to quickly expand your storage or easily transfer files from a laptop) plus a fingerprint reader on its power key. It’s a very snappy fingerprint reader too, quickly and reliably unlocking the tablet in a single press.
On the bottom of the tablet are three accessory connector pins which allow you to slot it into the aptly named Lenovo keyboard pack for the Idea Tab Pro. This equips it with a tactile IdeaPad style keyboard and touchpad and, thanks to the Luna Grey colorway, wouldn't look at all out of place in an educational or office setting.
At 1.36lbs / 620g this is not the lightest tablet out there, but it definitely feels well built. It’s 6.9mm thick, so still a tiny bit slimmer than the latest iPad, but a little chunkier than the iPad Air.
This is the first base model iPad to do away with the Lightning port in favor of USB-C (Image credit: Dash Wood / Future)
Design score: 4/5
Lenovo Idea Tab Pro: Display
Colorful and smooth display
Fantastic for media consumption
Not the brightest around
Apple iPad 10.9 (2022) Liquid Retina Display in the Magic Keyboard Folio (Image credit: Dash Wood / Future)
The Lenovo Idea Pad Pro features a 12.7in IPS LCD screen at 2944 x 1840 (3K) resolution. It’s not quite as vibrant as OLED options, but it's still got punchy colors and benefits from a smooth 144Hz refresh rate. This is a huge upgrade compared to the 60Hz panel used on the Lenovo Pad P12 and is instantly noticeable when scrolling websites or social media feeds. The viewing angles are also surprisingly good, making it easy to use the tablet propped up against a stand and even when it’s flat on a table.
I tested the display with a wide range of videos in both 1080p and 2160p and was very happy with the results. The only area where I can fault it is in its brightness. Maxing out at 400 nits, it’s completely fine for indoor use but can start to struggle in bright sunlight. This won’t matter for the vast majority of users, but if you want to read magazines or comic books on a sun lounger then you will probably appreciate something brighter. Given the price and strong performance of the display elsewhere, however, it’s difficult to really complain about this.
The 12.7in size is more than enough for most day-to-day functions and perfect multi-tasking. Lenovo’s OS has some extra buttons specifically for this purpose too, making it easy to split the screen between two separate apps or view an app as a floating window - fantastic if you want to view multiple documents or take notes from a website.
Display score: 4/5
Lenovo Idea Tab Pro: Software
Some handy features
Brilliant PC mode
Annoying bloat
The software here is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, I really enjoy Lenovo’s Android skin. This is, of course, subjective, but I find its user interface approachable and packed with useful features.
The Entertainment Space on the home screen for example, which connects to most of your streaming services to provide an all-encompassing page of recommendations, is something that I actually regularly use and a great way to work out what to watch next.
The PC mode is also brilliant, enhancing multi-tasking with the ability to create multiple distinct windows with your apps on a virtual desktop. The tablet’s USB Type-C port supports DisplayPort too, so you could feasibly hook this up to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor with a compatible dock for an effective workstation in a pinch.
Menus are all snappy and the in-built smart connect app lets you connect the tablet to your PC to quickly share files and even directly control it from your desktop - though your mileage here is going to depend heavily on the strength of your internet connection.
On the other hand, the setup process is, in a word, dire. You have to flip through an entire menu of annoying ‘additional apps’ (that’s a polite way of saying ‘pointless bloat’) and even after thinking that I had managed to dodge every single one, I still somehow ended up with the likes of MyScript Calculator 2, Tide, and Nebo clogging up my home screen.
I don’t even know what ‘Nebo’ is and was in no mood to find out, so I had to spend my first five minutes with the tablet uninstalling everything that I could. It makes for a very poor first impression and feels a little like Lenovo is trying to take advantage of users that don’t know any better.
(Image credit: Dash Wood / Future)
Software score: 3/5
Lenovo Idea Tab Pro: Performance,
Really superb speakers
Great for media consumption
Also a decent choice for gaming
Rather unexpectedly, the absolute highlight of using the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is its unbelievably good speakers.
Seriously, the quad JBL-tuned setup here is genuinely among the best that I have ever heard on a tablet at this price, absolutely obliterating the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE and iPad 10.9 (2022). They can go impressively loud without losing detail and offer a great sound profile that’s punchy without being too heavy on the bass.
Throw in the Dolby Atmos support and you have a sound system that can handle intense action movie moments, catchy TV show theme tunes, or long video podcasts without breaking a sweat. One of my absolute favorite things to do on any tablet is watching music videos and that was a real pleasure here, even without any headphones.
It definitely helps that all types of media look great on the big, bright 3K screen though. The 16:10 aspect ratio also leads to minimal black bars in most scenarios. This is a real streaming powerhouse and, if you’re after a tablet to catch up with your favorite series, it comes highly recommended.
(Image credit: Dash Wood / Future)
I put the tablet through its paces with a range of apps, plus plenty of internet browsing, and there was no noticeable slowdown to report. I encountered a few small stutters in the YouTube app when swiping to minimize a video and a handful crashes in the Firefox app, though these seem to be problems with Android itself that I have been able to replicate on other devices, so I won't blame the tablet.
If you’re in the mood for some gaming, then the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is a good choice. Call of Duty: Mobile ran perfectly smoothly, solidly maintaining above 60 fps even after I cranked the settings up to Very High. Paired with a Bluetooth controller, it was a fantastic experience.
The significantly more demanding Zenless Zone Zero ran at a smooth 30 fps on Low. Cranking the frame rate up to 60, the Idea Tab Pro was mostly stable, but the game did cause the tablet to heat up quickly. In more casual games like SimCity BuildIt, performance was flawless throughout.
Lenovo Idea Tab Pro: Battery
Lasts a day and then some
Holds charge well between uses
Average charging speed
Equipped with a large 10,200 mAh battery, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro delivers good battery life.
It can easily get through an entire day of use and then some, provided that you’re not running lots of downloads or gaming frequently.
To give you a practical example, I used the tablet to watch an episode of a TV series every evening and I didn't need to charge the tablet the entire week. The Idea Tab Pro also seems to hold its charge well when idle. This is a tablet that you can leave in a bag for a few days and come back to without needing to run for a charger.
On the subject of charging, the tablet supports up to 45W power delivery and took about two hours to get up to full juice from zero. Nothing exceptional in this regard, but fine for the price.
Lenovo Idea Tab Pro: Score card
Should I buy the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro?
Buy it if...
You’re after great sound I still can’t get over how great the sound is with the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro. The quad JBL-tuned speakers are a delight and a top reason to buy.
You love watching movies With its lovely 12.7in 3K display, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is a great fit for movie lovers. Plus the MicroSD card support means you don’t have to worry about running out of space for all your favorite series.
You want a good all-round tablet This tablet is a great all-rounder. It’s ideal for media consumption thanks to its sound and screen, but also has the specs for productivity and gaming.
Don't buy it if...
You can’t stand the software Lenovo’s Android skin won’t be for everyone, especially the frustrating set-up process. Consider options from other brands if you don’t think you’ll be a fan.
Also consider
Not sold on the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro? Here are two compelling alternatives to consider.
iPad 10.9 (2022) Not quite the latest iPad anymore, but widely available for around the same cost as the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro. You get comparable battery life and decent performance, but a smaller, lower resolution screen and worse speakers. The big draw here, however, is the software which is a seamless delight and offers leading apps like Procreate. The camera is much better, too.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus If you have a bit of a higher budget, then the superior battery life, not to mention thinner design and wider range of colors, might make the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus a compelling option. The processor here is slightly less powerful than the Mediatek Dimensity 8300, though, so don’t expect better performance.
I used the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro tablet as my primary tablet for more than two weeks.
During that time I tried it out with a range of productivity tasks (including the writing of this review!) with apps like Google Docs, Gmail, Slack, and Firefox. I made sure to evaluate the quality of the included stylus using the in-built notes application.
I also relied on it for my entertainment needs, by watching series on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney+. On top of this, I watched lots of videos on YouTube and listened to plenty of music in order to really make the most of its excellent speakers.
On top of this, I managed to squeeze in a fair few hours in Call of Duty Mobile, which I played with both touch controls and an Xbox Wireless Controller, plus plenty of time in Zenless Zone Zero.
For battery testing, I ran the tablet from full charge until it ran out of battery over a few sessions - making a note of the length of each session plus the overall start and end time. I also measured the time it took to charge back up to 100% using a 45W charger.
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