Nice for avid gamers, higher for everybody

It’s exhausting to really feel genuinely enthusiastic about Android tablets lately. The market has grow to be homogenized through the years, providing choices that every one blur collectively. Samsung’s received tablets for each value bracket, Amazon’s received its Fireplace lineup of tablets on a funds, and everybody else is simply… form of there. They principally look the identical, really feel the identical, and attempt to do the identical issues, simply with totally different logos slapped on high.

So when Lenovo despatched me a “gaming pill” to check, I used to be intrigued. What does a gaming pill even seem like? Does it include RGB and shoulder triggers? I’ve spent the previous three weeks with the Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3, and spoiler alert, it doesn’t include any of these. The excellent news is that it’s a gaming pill, all proper.

However extra importantly, it seems the $549 Legion Tab Gen 3 delivers one of the crucial enjoyable Android pill experiences I’ve had, though I believe there’s a really small chunk of people that would possibly really wish to purchase it.

After I first received my arms on the Legion Tab, I had no thought what it price, and my first response after unboxing it was that it felt like a flagship product. I genuinely assumed it will be priced someplace near $1,000. You may think about my shock after I later discovered it prices half of that.

Lenovo features a surprisingly luxurious set of equipment within the field: a grilled bumper case for the again, a magnetic flap that attaches to it and turns it right into a folio case, a glass display screen protector, a 68W charging brick, and a USB-C to USB-C cable. The folio case even folds neatly to double up as a kickstand whenever you set the pill down in panorama mode.

The pill itself feels simply pretty much as good. Lenovo has gone with an all-metal building that feels sturdy and premium. The matte black end won’t scream “gaming pill” the best way some would possibly anticipate, however the industrial type seems much more polished than the drained gray or silver shades you see on most tablets. Across the again, the etched Legion emblem and an oblong digicam island are the one flashy components, retaining the design clear and refined.

There isn’t any SIM card slot or expandable storage, so the one cutouts on the body are two speaker grilles and two USB-C ports. One is a normal USB 2.0 port, whereas the opposite is a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. That sooner port permits for a lot faster information transfers and even helps Show output if you wish to hook up an exterior monitor.

Lenovo additionally thought of the position, placing one port on the longer edge and one on the shorter edge. Regardless of the way you maintain the pill, you possibly can normally plug it in for charging, streaming, or utilizing equipment with out a lot problem.

That being mentioned, avid gamers would possibly miss a 3.5mm headphone jack. Technically, you possibly can nonetheless plug in wired earphones with a USB-C adapter due to the twin ports, but it surely seems like a missed alternative for many who need simple, zero-latency audio for gaming. There may be additionally no IP score for water or mud safety, one thing Samsung presents with its tablets at related or barely greater value factors. On high of that, Lenovo skipped a fingerprint reader altogether. You get 2D face unlock if you would like, however I ended up counting on outdated sample lock more often than not.

My favourite factor in regards to the Legion Tab is one thing only a few Android tablets even try anymore: its dimension. With smartphone screens getting nearer and nearer to seven inches, it’s solely truthful that almost all tablets lately are chasing display screen sizes of 10 inches or extra by default. Lenovo flips that pattern with a compact type issue that I immediately fell in love with.

The pill measures 7.79 mm x 208.54 mm x 129.46 mm (0.31 in x 8.21 in x 5.10 in) and weighs roughly 350 grams. Most different tablets simply exceed the 500-gram mark, and whereas that distinction won’t appear enormous on a spec sheet, it issues lots whenever you’re really carrying the gadget round.

For context, my typical pill is my growing older however ever-reliable Galaxy Tab S7 Plus. As a lot as I find it irresistible, I hardly take it out except it’s for a long-distance flight, as a result of carrying it seems like an entire manufacturing. I must pack it right into a backpack, take it out, discover area to set it down, and repeat the entire dance when I’m finished. The Legion Tab feels extra like a Kindle compared. You may carry it in your arms on a time out within the park, or simply use it to scroll social media sitting on a sofa with no need to relaxation it on one thing. That ease of use rapidly grew to become certainly one of my favourite issues about it.

The rationale the Legion Tab feels so compact is that it comes with an 8.8-inch show. That’s a lot smaller than the screens you get on tablets just like the OnePlus Pad 2 or any of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab fashions, and as shut as you’re going to get lately to a traditional Nexus 7-style compact pill. The truth is, it is just barely larger than my Galaxy Z Fold 5 when unfolded, though the Legion Tab presents much more usable display screen space due to its side ratio.

The show is a 16:10 LCD panel with a 2.5K decision (2560 x 1600). It helps 98% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and comes with HDR10 help. Beneath regular circumstances, the display screen hits a most brightness of 500 nits and might push as much as 900 nits when Excessive Brightness Mode kicks in.

The display screen will get vivid sufficient to be simply usable each indoors and open air, colours look wealthy and punchy, and the viewing angles are stable too. I used the Legion Tab to binge the most recent Black Mirror episodes, and I performed chunk of video games on it as nicely. It doesn’t matter what I threw at it, the show delivered.

Nonetheless, I couldn’t fairly shake off the sensation that one thing was lacking. I ended up pulling out my Galaxy Tab S7 Plus simply to check my impressions, and though it’s three generations outdated at this level, its AMOLED panel nonetheless matches the Legion Tab’s display screen. Colours popped somewhat extra, and particularly in low-light environments, the deep blacks on the AMOLED display screen created a a lot richer expertise.

I’m not saying the Legion Tab’s display screen is dangerous. The truth is, it’s most likely among the best LCD panels I’ve seen on a cell gadget in recent times. All I’m saying is that if Lenovo had been to make only one improve to the next-gen Legion Tab, it ought to swap out the LCD for an AMOLED show. Nevertheless, I doubt Lenovo will be capable of preserve this value level if and when it makes the swap.

Players and non-gamers alike will certainly respect one factor, although: the 165Hz refresh price. It makes the whole UI really feel extremely easy, and most actions on this pill really feel buttery easy. In case your favourite video games help 90fps or 120fps gameplay, you possibly can take pleasure in that full fluidity right here too, and it genuinely provides to the gaming expertise.

Yeah, gaming. Let’s get that out of the best way now. This pill comes with precisely the form of specs you’ll anticipate for a tool with Lenovo’s Legion branding. It packs 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage. Powering all of it is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Qualcomm’s flagship chip from final yr, and it’s nonetheless a beast.

I attempted downloading the largest, heaviest video games I may discover on the Play Retailer, and the Legion Tab had no bother operating them on the highest or near-highest settings. Genshin Impression, one of the crucial graphically demanding video games on Android, displayed its typical warning about overheating for those who crank the whole lot up. I ignored it and ran the sport at Excessive graphics and 60fps anyway. The Legion Tab saved up simply fantastic, delivering near 60fps more often than not, with just one noticeable drop to round 40fps throughout a cutscene transition.

One other heavy hitter I examined was Vivid Reminiscence Infinite, a fast-paced first-person shooter that may really push 120fps gameplay on this pill. The Legion Tab dealt with it very well, with body charges hardly ever dropping beneath 100fps throughout intense motion.

The expertise was the identical throughout each different sport I attempted. Lighter video games, unsurprisingly, ran flawlessly. Warmth administration can also be finished nicely. The pill’s built-in efficiency overlay confirmed the temperature rising from round 20 levels Celsius to about 40 levels throughout an hour of continuous gaming. The pill’s again received heat to the contact, but it surely by no means received uncomfortably scorching, and efficiency stayed steady the entire time.

The Legion Tab solely packs a 6,550mAh battery in comparison with the 8,000mAh and even 10,000mAh monsters you get on larger tablets. I observed a 20% drop in battery after round half-hour of gaming, no matter which title I performed. Which means it is best to anticipate about two and a half hours of great gaming on a full cost. It’s not mind-blowing, but it surely’s the trade-off for the smaller type issue.

Outdoors of gaming, battery life held up higher than I anticipated. Standby efficiency is particularly spectacular. I left the pill related to Wi-Fi for days at a time, and it will barely lose 2% to three% over 24 hours. One time, I picked it up after 5 days of simply sitting there, absolutely anticipating it to be useless, but it surely nonetheless had over 80% battery left. Common duties like watching movies, scrolling by social media, or mild searching additionally barely dent the battery.

Topping up is quick too. The included 68W charger brings the Legion Tab from almost useless to full in simply over an hour. You should use both of the USB-C ports to cost, however you can not plug into each directly, so save your self the big-brain experiment.

Lenovo additionally added help for bypass charging, which implies whenever you plug in whereas gaming, the ability can go straight to the pill’s motherboard as a substitute of the battery. That helps keep away from warmth buildup and retains efficiency regular throughout lengthy gaming classes.

Gaming extras

The specs race retains pushing ahead for cell gaming, and Lenovo will quickly launch a model of this pill with an excellent stronger chip. The issue is, whereas there are loads of nice video games on Android, there are barely any proper now that may push at this time’s {hardware} to its absolute limits. That mentioned, if you’re somebody who performs aggressive cell video games and cares extra about response instances and smoothness than pixel-perfect graphics, the Legion Tab delivers precisely what you want.

It’ll even be a extremely dependable slate for those who’re into retro video games by way of emulation, whereas nonetheless having headroom to spare for heavier load add-ons like customized shaders. The caveat is that you simply’ll rapidly refill that 256GB fastened storage.

The pill does the whole lot it may possibly to make gaming really feel immersive, too. The twin-speaker setup will get loud and sounds surprisingly good. Whenever you fireplace up a sport in panorama mode, the pill routinely switches to a panoramic sound mode. It creates sufficient stereo separation you could monitor enemy footsteps in video games like PUBG with no need headphones, though pair of earbuds nonetheless provides you one of the best edge.

One other spotlight is the X-axis haptic motor. It’s sharp, exact, and truly provides an actual layer of suggestions to your interactions, each in-game and whereas utilizing the final UI.

I additionally cherished how the Legion Tab’s smaller dimension performs nicely with cell gamepad controllers just like the Razer Kishi Extremely and the Gamesir G8 Plus. Mounting the pill in certainly one of these controllers takes the gaming expertise to a different degree. Vivid Reminiscence Infinite, Asphalt Legends, and even smaller video games felt far more pleasing with bodily controls. And since the pill is comparatively light-weight, the entire setup stays snug to carry for longer gaming classes. It’s most likely among the best methods to take pleasure in cell gaming on a flight or whereas touring.

Software program-wise, Lenovo retains issues fairly easy. There’s a Legion House app that serves as a primary gaming hub, the place all of your put in video games are displayed in a single place. While you’re enjoying, you possibly can pull up a floating overlay from the aspect of the display screen. It provides you entry to fast settings, resembling switching efficiency modes (Stability, Excessive Efficiency, and Vitality Saving), or capturing screenshots and display screen recordings.

There may be one bizarre omission, although. The pill doesn’t routinely disable display screen timeout whereas gaming. In case your display screen is ready to show off after 30 seconds, it is going to nonetheless try this even if you’re in the course of an extended cutscene or a loading display screen. There isn’t any toggle contained in the gaming overlay to maintain the display screen on, both. The one approach round it’s to exit your sport, dig into the settings, and manually change the display screen timeout to “by no means,” which is annoying as a result of it additionally disables display screen timeout all over the place else. It’s a small however painfully apparent factor that Lenovo ought to have dealt with higher.

Common Android with a gamer wallpaper

Outdoors of the gaming extras, the software program expertise on the Legion Tab is… fantastic. Lenovo hasn’t added any particular pores and skin or UI adjustments particularly for avid gamers. It’s simply the corporate’s typical Android pores and skin, with a Legion-themed wallpaper on high. The pill ships with Android 14 out of the field, but it surely received the Android 15 replace the second I powered it on. That’s signal, and Lenovo says it is going to get two extra main OS updates after that, which is ok for the kind of pill that is, however not so good as what you get from Samsung or Google.

Lenovo’s UI feels fairly near inventory Android. It’s light-weight, easy, and perhaps even somewhat too primary. You get a number of customization choices for themes and wallpapers, and you may run split-screen apps or use floating home windows. There’s no built-in AI stuff from Lenovo right here, however you continue to get all the same old Google options like Circle to Search and the Gemini assistant.

There’s chunk of pre-installed apps on the pill, however you possibly can uninstall all of them if you would like. What irritated me extra was the setup expertise. Lenovo tries actually exhausting to push pages of bloatware and random video games onto you, and you must uncheck every app individually simply to keep away from them. It’s annoying, however not less than it solely occurs as soon as, so I’m prepared to let that slide.

Connectivity-wise, the Legion Tab helps Wi-Fi 7, and I skilled no points with velocity or sign throughout my time utilizing it at residence. There’s no mobile mannequin, although. Which may not be an enormous problem for many, however with many trendy cell video games requiring a continuing web connection, it’s one thing to think about. Except you’re okay with tethering your telephone or solely utilizing the pill in Wi-Fi zones, that is just about a stay-at-home gadget.

And sure, the pill does have cameras. There’s a 13MP rear digicam, an 8MP entrance digicam, and a macro sensor that I gained’t even fake to take significantly. The rear digicam works nicely sufficient for snapping paperwork, and the entrance digicam can deal with 1080p video calls or primary streaming wants. You’ll get respectable ends in good lighting, however don’t anticipate something near the standard of your telephone’s digicam, particularly for portraits or Instagram posts.

The Lenovo Legion Tab ($549.99 at Lenovo) targets a really particular area of interest — the cell gamer — and it nails that objective virtually completely. It provides you highly effective gaming {hardware} in a type issue that feels good. It’s larger than a telephone however not as cumbersome or awkward as a full-size pill. It suits neatly into cell gaming controllers, you possibly can hook it as much as an even bigger display screen if you would like, it expenses extremely quick, and there’s little or no to complain about total.

You continue to have a number of issues to remember, just like the lacking headphone jack, the shortage of any biometrics, and the absence of a mobile mannequin. But when your predominant objective is easy, responsive cell gaming, the Legion Tab will get the job finished. What stunned me extra was how a lot this pill began making sense even outdoors of gaming.

Smartphone screens are already large enough for many informal duties, resembling social media and watching movies, and after I want an even bigger display screen for work, I’d moderately open my laptop computer. Most Android tablets additionally don’t have the form of seamless ecosystem integration that iPads take pleasure in, which makes them really feel like an remoted buy as a substitute of a pure extension of your setup. That’s why my Galaxy Tab S7 Plus principally sits round amassing mud till I journey.

The Legion Tab feels totally different due to its dimension. It’s large enough to make me wish to swap from my telephone for issues like watching YouTube movies or casually searching Instagram. On the similar time, it’s sufficiently small that I don’t should overthink choosing it up. I don’t really feel like I must justify utilizing it for a selected job the best way I normally do with full-sized tablets. It’s mild, fast, and straightforward to succeed in all through the day with out even excited about it.

That compact dimension does include trade-offs. This isn’t the form of pill you possibly can deal with as a productiveness machine or a laptop computer alternative. If it’s worthwhile to kind lots, multitask with a number of apps, or browse spreadsheets, this isn’t the suitable instrument for the job. Plus, the battery life takes an apparent hit.

In case you are wanting particularly for a gaming pill, the closest competitor to the Legion Tab is the OnePlus Pad 2 ($549.99 at Amazon). It additionally presents flagship-grade efficiency, an enormous battery, quick charging, and a a lot bigger show for a similar value. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10 FE ($499.99 at Amazon) is an alternative choice in the same value vary, and it provides options like a bundled S Pen, an IP score, and a mobile mannequin possibility. Nevertheless, it doesn’t supply the identical degree of uncooked efficiency because the Legion Tab. Plus, each of those options are a lot larger and heavier units.

If funds just isn’t a serious concern, you could possibly additionally think about the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus ($999.99 at Samsung). It presents an unbelievable 12.4-inch AMOLED show, flagship efficiency, and tons of premium options, however it is going to price you almost twice as a lot because the Legion Tab.

In case you are merely searching for a compact pill, there are virtually no actual rivals on the Android aspect proper now outdoors of the Pixel Pill ($499 at Amazon), which hasn’t aged that nicely, and is bigger anyway. The one actual various is the iPad Mini ($459 at Amazon), however that call comes right down to which ecosystem you favor greater than anything.

I nonetheless don’t suppose small tablets will enchantment to the lots. There’s a motive why firms usually abandon smaller flagship telephones after a number of generations. The identical would possibly occur with compact tablets. However whether or not the world embraces them or not, the Lenovo Legion Tab made me keep in mind how enjoyable and sensible a well-designed pill will be.