Lenovo unveils two interesting new tablets with 5G and one super-affordable AirPods rival
Lenovo's recent surge in a global tablet market that has somehow managed to thrive during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic has been as sudden as it's been surprising, but the company is certainly playing all its cards right on the path to more growth and possibly challenging Samsung's silver medal placement.
Unlike said rival, whose movement on the tablet release front this year can best be described as timid, Lenovo has unveiled more than half a dozen different Android-based slates in the last four months alone, putting three of those devices up for grabs stateside just a couple of weeks ago before taking the wraps off another two such products today.
Curiously enough, the Tab P12 Pro and Tab P11 5G are announced alongside a somewhat humble new pair of true wireless earbuds simply dubbed the Lenovo Smart Wireless Earbuds. But let's see what each of those three products is all about.
The closest thing you can get to an iPad Pro (2021) alternative
As the name suggests, the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro follows in the footsteps of the undoubtedly very popular Tab P11 Pro, replacing the middling Snapdragon 730 processor with a high-end (ish) Snapdragon 870 silicon.
That brings this bad boy on par with the Yoga Tab 13 in terms of raw speed, but while the built-in kickstand and micro-HDMI port are likely primarily responsible for making that existing model cost $679.99 in the US with just 128 gigs of internal storage space, the conventional design will help the Tab P12 Pro squeeze twice as much local digital hoarding room into a configuration priced at $609.99.
That's quite reasonable for a 12.6-inch giant with a silky smooth 120Hz 2K AMOLED display in tow, as well as 8 gigs of RAM, a hefty 10,200mAh battery supporting blazing fast 45W charging speeds, and four top-notch SLS JBL speakers.
Obviously, that's not enough to give Apple's latest iPad Pro generation a run for its money in a head-to-head battle, but the huge price difference makes us relatively confident the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro could easily become one of the best tablets available in 2021 next month.
October, mind you, is when a Wi-Fi-only variant is expected to go on sale in the US, with a 5G-enabled model unfortunately heading exclusively for the EMEA region around the same time at a recommended price of €899 and up.
Lenovo's first Android tablet with "dedicated" 5G connectivity
It's true, the slightly humbler Tab P11 5G will come with built-in (sub-6GHz) 5G speeds in EMEA next month starting at €499.
That's another decidedly affordable price point for a Snapdragon 750-powered mid-ranger with up to an 8GB RAM count and 256GB storage, an 11-inch 2K IPS screen, 7,700mAh battery capacity, 20W charging capabilities, four JBL speakers, and a number of handy optional accessories supported.
Of course, said accessories are older and less impressive than the Lenovo Precision Pen 3 and full-size keyboard with built-in trackpad the Tab P12 Pro can be combined with for maximum productivity, and unlike its bigger and costlier brother, the Lenovo Tab P11 5G doesn't support Project Unity, which is a cool new software solution designed to seamlessly pair your Android tablet to a Windows PC.
Still, we'd certainly love to see this 5G-capable always-connected mid-ranger go after Samsung's Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G on US carriers, which may or may not happen eventually.
An affordable AirPods rival with stellar battery life
As far as we can tell, Lenovo doesn't currently sell any true wireless earbuds under its own brand in the US. That's set to change at some point during Q3, which just so happens to end this month, but at least at first glance, it doesn't look like the company plans to go for the AirPods Pro or AirPods 3's jugular.
Compared to the second-gen AirPods, which are normally available for an arguably excessive $159 and up, the $99.99 Lenovo Smart Wireless Earbuds look objectively great (on paper), promising to deliver up to 7 hours of uninterrupted listening time by themselves and bump up that battery life rating to a grand total of 28 hours when also taking their bundled wireless charging case into consideration.
Bizarrely enough, Lenovo seems intent on burying potentially the number one selling point of these ultra-lightweight and IPX4 water-resistant earbuds, mentioning ANC just a couple of times in the press release announcing the three products detailed in this here article.
Yes, you apparently get active noise cancellation technology at only one Benjamin, so maybe you should consider this a decent (budget-friendly) alternative to the impending AirPods 3 and existing Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 after all.
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