Lenovo Tab4 8 Plus
An attractive 8in device with a good screen and solid performance, but there are better Android tablets
SCORE PRICE £249 (£299 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/290tab8
The Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus is one of three 8in Android tablets on test this month, but unlike the budget-friendly Kindle Fire HD 8 this is a premium device. Indeed, at this price Lenovo no doubt hopes to tempt people away from the Apple iPad mini 4. Its squarer edges set it apart from the curvy iPad, and it’s a good looking, well-built device.
Look around its silvery edges and you’ll find an SD card slot hidden behind a Lenovo-branded flap on the left edge, and a volume rocker and combined power switch/fingerprint reader on the right edge. Power is supplied via a USB-C port on the top and, unlike the Huawei MediaPad M5, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack too. The top and bottom edges house stereo, front-facing speakers. Although the Dolby Atmos-infused audio sounds good, the MediaPad M5 is more dynamic.
Screen quality is often what sets apart the premium tablets apart from cheaper devices, and the 8in IPS panel in the Tab 4 8 Plus is bright and detailed thanks to a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution and 283ppi pixel density. The Huawei MediaPad M5 has it licked again, though, thanks to a superior resolution, higher brightness and stronger colours.
Lenovo includes a Snapdragon 625 CPU, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage underneath the glass of this “Plus” tablet. (Be aware that the Tab 4 8 model more commonly available in the UK has 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, and costs £100 less, so check before you buy.) Its performance is solid, scoring 875 and 4,182 in Geekbench 4, but bad news Lenovo: again the MediaPad M5 is stronger, with its Kirin 960 CPU more than doubling the Tab 4’s single-core result. Gaming performance is solid at 9.3fps in the GFXBench Manhattan test, which sounds okay until you see the MediaPad M5’s score of 27.3fps.
But, while it may not have the greatest performance of the 8in devices on test, it does have a few other tricks. Like Amazon, Lenovo provides a Kid’s Mode to provide a safe environment via age-appropriate apps and parental controls. There’s also a Home Assistant Pack, an attachable speaker that turns the Tab 4 8 Plus into a screen-assisted Amazon Alexa, but this doesn’t appear to be available in the UK.
The Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus, as reviewed, costs £299, which undercuts the iPad mini 4 by £100. However, it’s also the same price as the 8.4in Huawei MediaPad M5, which is a smarter choice for Android at this price. If you’re willing to compromise on performance and storage space, though, check out its sibling with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.