Lenovo Picture
Lenovo’s newest 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.
Faced with the 4/3 format of the Apple tablet, the Lenovo Tab Extreme indeed stretches its 16/10 screen 14.5” in length!
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: 3000×1876 and OLED. The display of images, both photo and video, is splendid. Note the high contrast, and in particular the depth of the blacks.
Lenovo Tab Extreme Highlights
- The high quality of the screen
- Audio quality
- Dual USB-C connection
- The presence of a micro-SD card reader
- split-screen mode
- Sufficient power
- The relatively good autonomy
- The quality of the keyboard with touchpad (optional)
- 5G option available
Weaknesses of the Lenovo Tab Extreme
- The perfectible use of the stylus and the interface in certain apps
- The weight (especially with the keyboard)
- The absence of an audio jack
Technical specifications of the Lenovo Tab Extreme
- Screen : 14.5″, 3K OLED (3000 x 1876), DCI-P3 color gamut, Dolby Vision and HDR10+, 500 nits, 120 Hz
- Processor : MediaTek MT8798 (3.05GHz)
- RAM : 12 GB. ROM: 256 GB
- Audio : 8 JBL speakers, Dolby Atmos
- Camera 13MP ultra-wide front, 13MP rear (1x zoom) and 5MP (0.6X zoom)
- Battery : 12300mAh
- Charger : 68W
- Stylus : Lenovo Precision Pen 3 supplied
- Keyboard : optional
- Ports : USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 and USB-C 2.0, microSD, optional SIM card
- Wireless connection : Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3, 5G optional
- Weight : 736g
- Price : 1300 €, Precision Pen 3 stylus and Folio Case included, and optional keyboard at 350 €
So for video entertainment, there should be plenty to enjoy. The sound quality is also on point. There would be a total of eight speakers. You can visually count four openings to let the sound through, 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 absent.
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 normally paid Nebo PDF drawing and note-taking app 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/ZDNET France Photo keyboard case combo.
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 looks furiously like Apple’s Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro.
As with the latter, the Tab Extreme magnetically attaches to Lenovo’s case and keyboard combo. Once the combo is in the open position, the shelf is as if suspended above, being able to be tilted slightly forwards or backwards. Given the large size of the Lenovo Tab Extreme, its keyboard is just as large. This width therefore advantageously reinforces its comfort when writing, especially as the typing has respondent.
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 crutch. It sticks magnetically to the back of the tablet.
Unfolded, it is a lighter solution for keeping the tablet tilted. If materially, these tools, keyboard, stylus, touchpad, have generally satisfied us for work in the office, it is clearly at the software level that things are mixed.
For example, with Microsoft’s OneNote Android app, which we’ve used several times to write.
That the use of the stylus and the touchpad was painful, to point the cursor, to try to leave the drawing mode or to move the same cursor with the direction arrows which many times no longer responded…
On the other hand, the Nebo app performed better. But it doesn’t have the potential or the diversity of features of OneNote, which is much more satisfying on other systems.
The presence of a split screen mode is significant, 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 windows of applications, up to a maximum of ten, can be displayed on the screen.
But be careful, you have to be careful. We managed to crash the system with three, four split-screen windows and a few floating ones. Otherwise, in general, the power of this tablet was sufficient for various tasks.
Always in this spirit of exceeding the average at least, 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 constrained by the position of an electrical outlet, to be able to connect the USB-C cable to the side of this same outlet?
Mobility not extreme
In our usual video playback autonomy test with the brightness and volume pushed to the maximum, the Lenovo Tab Extreme lasted for a maximum of 4:43. 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 having worn it, we wonder about the limits of 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 crutch, it is heavier, at 757 g! So for those who want to get closer to the use of a laptop, in order to have at least a good keystroke 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 nothing at all, read or relax while watching videos.
But shouldn’t Lenovo also have 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 Keybord Folio… Copying an additional idea from Apple, was it a bit too much for Lenovo?
The Lenovo Tab Extreme tablet and included accessories. Photo by Moctar KANE/ZDNET France.
To conclude on the Lenovo Tab Extreme
This Lenovo Tab Extreme has several strong arguments to convince. Among which the dimensions and the display quality of its screen, the good sound reproduction of its speakers, the efficiency of its keyboard and the use of its stylus (with the appropriate applications and any future updates).
However, at the time of writing this test, the Lenovo Tab Extreme is still not available for sale on its manufacturer’s website, neither in France nor in the United States: it should soon be, indicate these sites. However, the Lenovo Tab Extreme was presented in January 2023 at CES… The mammoth should not disappear before it has even taken its first steps.