Lenovo launched the Legion Tab, a powerful 8.8-inch tablet (sort of)

Below you see a Lenovo Legion Tab Y700 Android tablet, officially called a “gaming tablet”, and which has an 8.8-inch 144 Hz screen. I specifically went to the launch to see it because I’ve been looking for a high-performance Android tablet with an 8-9 inch screen for years.

I have an iPad Mini that is three years old soon (I pre-ordered it the day Alice was born, so I know the exact date), but I’m not very happy with it. It’s small and powerful, that’s for sure. iPadOS, however, is inferior to iOS in a few minor but important aspects on a tablet, and besides, I really want the freedom of configuration that the Android interface offers from a tablet. On a tablet, I really want more widgets on the screen, more screens configured for various modes of use (work, fun, etc.), I want to be able to put the icons where I can and the Google Calendar widget for all the days.

On an iPhone these don’t matter so much and I can use it without much discomfort, but on a tablet I miss them.

The Lenovo Legion Tab is close to what I’m looking for. It is small (209 x 130 x 7.6 mm), light (306 grams), fits well in one hand. It has an 8.8″ screen of 1,600 x 2,560 pixels and 144 Hz, which even supports Dolby Vision, it has a 6,500 mAh battery with 45W charging.

It’s called gaming because it has that big refresh, but also two USB ports, one on the big side to charge the tablet there when you’re holding it for gaming. Both ports are USB 3.1 Gen 2 and I also output DisplayPort through them when needed.

So far everything is fine. The part that doesn’t sit as well is that the chipset is a Snadragon 8+ Gen 1, which means the best performing chipset in… 2021. It was announced in December 2021 and later released to the market. At least it comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. I’m not saying, the chipset is powerful and runs any application or game, but I’d like something more up-to-date.

Another detail is that the screen is an IPS LCD, not OLED. iPad Mini also has LCD. I would have wanted OLED if I were to upgrade. In the specifications it also says that it has Android 13 on board, but it is eligible for upgrade to Android 15.

One thing in the tablet’s favor is the price, being listed on eMAG at 2,399 lei now, but likely to be 2,000 lei soon. The tablet is actually relatively new. Lenovo launched it last year in China and now the international launch is also starting, Romania being the first country in the region to have it. Why did Lenovo choose an SD 8+ Gen 1 in 2023? I don’t know, maybe to keep the price under control.

So it’s not exactly a model to jump on, but it holds up well against the competition in the market. The iPad Mini costs about the same, but in the version with 64 GB of storage. The Samsung Tab A9 is entry-level. Others are no more.