Lenovo Tab Extreme Test: a heavy weight for a tablet!

Lenovo Picture

Lenovo’s brand new high-end tablet, the Tab Extreme, quickly catches the eye. Its format is elongated and its screen size is very large. Put aside, the iPad Pro 13″, to which we have not finished comparing it, would almost look like a square.

Facing the 4/3 format of Apple’s tablet, the Lenovo Tab Extreme stretches indeed while length its 16/10 screen size 14.5 ’!

Yes, it’s a diagonal of more than 36 cm… You’re starting to understand why it’s called Extreme, aren’t you? And the number of pixels and the type of its screen are also rising upwards: 3000×1876 and OLED.
The display of images, photo as video, is splendid. Note, the high contrast, and in particular the depth of the blacks.

Highlights of the Lenovo Tab Extreme

The high quality of the screen
The quality of the audio
The dual USB-C connection
The presence of a micro-SD card reader
The split screen mode
The sufficient power
The relative good autonomy
The quality of the keyboard with touchpad (optional)
The 5G option available

Weak points of the Lenovo Tab Extreme

The perfectible use of the stylus and the interface in some apps
The weight (especially with the keyboard)
The absence of an audio Jack

Technical characteristics of the Lenovo Tab Extreme

Screen : 14.5″, 3K OLED (3,000 x 1,876), DCI-P3, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ color palette, 500 nits, 120 Hz
Processor : MediaTek MT8798 (3.05 GHz)
RAM : 12 GB.
ROM: 256 GB
Audio : 8 JBL speakers, Dolby Atmos
Camera : front 13 Mpx ultra-wide, rear 13 Mpx (zoom X1) and 5 Mpx (zoom X 0.6)
Battery : 12,300mAh
Charger Power: 68 W
Stylus : Lenovo Precision Pen 3 supplied
Keyboard : optional
Ports : USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 and USB-C 2.0, microSD, SIM card optional
Wireless connection : Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3, 5G optional
Weight : 736 g
Price : 1300 €, Precision Pen 3 stylus and Folio Case included, and optionally the keyboard at 350 €

So for video recreation, there should be something to feast on. The sound quality is also at the rendezvous. There would be a total of eight speakers. We can visually count four openings to let the sound pass, two on the left side and the same on the right side. Too bad, however, despite the large size of the tablet, the audio Jack is missing.

The sound, in any case, is powerful enough, quite round and pleasant. In short, watching movies should appeal to future owners of this Tab Extreme.

The Lenovo Tab Extreme should be delivered in France with its Precision Pen 3 stylus (as well as its protective Folio Case). The tool proved to be accurate in use. To draw but also to write. The Nebo PDF note-taking and drawing application, normally paid, is included with the tablet. Here too, so-called “creative” users should appreciate the Tab Extreme and stylus combo.

The Lenovo Tab Extreme tablet attached to the Moctar KANE Photo keyboard case combo/ZDNET France.

Made for the office?

What about this Tab Extreme for office tasks? Lenovo has planned, as an option, to associate it with a dedicated modular keyboard. A keyboard that furiously resembles Apple’s Magic Keyboard intended for the iPad Pro.

As for the latter, the Tab Extreme attaches magnetically to the Lenovo case and keyboard combo. Once the combo is in the open position, the tablet is suspended above, which can be tilted slightly forward or backward. Given the large size of the Lenovo Tab Extreme, its keyboard is just as big. This width therefore advantageously reinforces its comfort when writing, especially since the typing has a responder.

Note that the keyboard is associated with a touchpad of reasonable dimensions. Another good point of this combo is that it is composed of a kind of removable flat kickstand. It sticks magnetically to the back of the tablet.

Unfolded, it is a lighter solution to keep the tablet tilted.
If materially, these tools, keyboard, stylus, touchpad, have satisfied us overall for work in the office, it is at the software level that things are obviously mixed.

For example, with Microsoft’s OneNote Android application that we have used several times to write.

That the use of the stylus and the touchpad was painful, to point the cursor, try to exit the drawing mode or even move the same cursor with the direction arrows which repeatedly no longer responded…

On the other hand, the Nebo app has been more efficient. But it does not have the potential or the diversity of features of OneNote, much more satisfactory on other systems.

The presence of a split-screen mode is appreciable, for those who are adept at multitasking. As is the case on the iPad Pro, it is possible to divide the screen into two, three and even four parts, each occupied by an application. At the same time, several floating application windows, up to a maximum of ten, can be displayed on the screen.

But be careful, we will have to be careful. We managed to crash the system with three, four windows in split screen mode and some floating ones. Otherwise, in general, the power of this tablet has proven to be sufficient for various tasks.

Always in this spirit of exceeding the average as a minimum, the Tab Extreme has two USB-C ports, each capable of recharging the machine. Small regret, both are located on the same side. Isn’t it more practical, especially when you are forced by the position of an electrical outlet, to be able to connect the USB-C cable on the side of this same outlet?

Not extreme mobility

In our usual test of video playback autonomy with the brightness and volume pushed to the maximum, the Lenovo Tab Extreme lasted for a maximum of 4:43 hours. In video streaming use, the manufacturer announces a duration of 12 hours. Overall, the autonomy is good, it should satisfy the needs of an ordinary day of work (or leisure) in a mobile situation.

But to have worn it, we wonder about the limits of the mobility of the Lenovo Tab Extreme. On the scale, the tablet, alone, weighs 736 g, which is not very light for this type of product. As for the keyboard, with the kickstand, it is heavier, at 757 g! So for those who want to get closer to using a laptop, in order to have at least a good typing with the keyboard, it will be necessary to carry almost 1.5 kg.

That’s the weight of a lightweight 15’ laptop (and even the latest 15’ MacBook Air)… Certainly the Lenovo Tab Extreme can be used alone, to just consult data, write little or not at all, read or relax watching videos.

But shouldn’t Lenovo have also offered a second, lighter dedicated keyboard? As is the case with the iPad Pro, which before the arrival of the (also) heavy Magic Keyboard, already had a Smart Keyboard Folio … Copying an additional idea from Apple, was it a little too much for Lenovo?

The Lenovo Tab Extreme tablet and the supplied accessories. Photo Moctar KANE/ZDNET France.

To conclude on the Lenovo Tab Extreme

This Lenovo Tab Extreme has several strong arguments to convince. Among which are the dimensions and the display quality of its screen, the good sound rendering of its speakers, the efficiency of its keyboard and the use of its stylus (with the appropriate applications and any updates to come).

However, at the time we are writing this test, the Lenovo Tab Extreme is still not available for sale on its manufacturer’s website, either in France or in the United States: it should soon be, these sites indicate. However, the Lenovo Tab Extreme had been presented in January 2023 at CES … It should not be that the mammoth disappears even before having taken its first steps.