Lenovo drops five new Android tablets, including $70 Tab E7
The new Tab E family walks right into Amazon Fire country.
- Coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015)
Lenovo is doubling down on budget tablets, introducing three new models that will run Google's Android Oreo operating system.
Starting at $70 -- about what the previous-generation Tab 7 Essential cost -- the entry-level Tab E family comes in three sizes: 7, 8 and 10 inches. The company has also announced two other tablets, the Tab P10 and Tab M10, but declined to provide pricing information. Based on design and specs, however, they are likely to be more expensive -- perhaps significantly so -- than the Tab E series.
At the low end, anyway, Lenovo walks into some pretty stiff competition from Amazon. The $70 Tab E7 goes up against the $50 Amazon Fire 7 tablet, which has a user-friendly operating system and more than 9 hours of battery life, as well as a microSD card slot expandable up to 256GB. The $100 Tab E8 will need to contend with the $80 Fire HD 8, which has the superior firepower of a 1.3GHz quadcore processor, 1.5GB of RAM and up to 12 hours of battery life. In the 10-inch category at least, Lenovo has the price advantage; the $130 Tab E10 costs about $20 less than Amazon's Fire HD 10.
We'll need to get our hands on Lenovo's tablets before we can make a decisive judgement about how well they stack up, but for now, here's a breakdown of the specs.
Lenovo Tab E series
- Lenovo Tab E7: $70, 7-inch display, MediaTek CPU, Android Oreo Go Edition, up to 5 hours of battery life
- Lenovo Tab E8: $100, 8-inch HD display, MediaTek CPU, 5-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera, Dolby Atmos, up to 10 hours of battery life
- Lenovo Tab E10: $130, 10-inch HD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 CPU, 5-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera, Dolby Atmos
The 7-inch Lenovo Tab E7.
Lenovo Tab P10
The Tab P10 comes equipped with decent hardware: Qualcomm's 1.8GHz Snapdragon 450 octacore CPU -- a chip that powered a host of lower-end phones in 2017 -- up to 4GB of RAM, a microSD slot and a battery that Lenovo says will deliver up to 15 hours of performance. It also has four Dolby Atmos-powered speakers and a multiuser fingerprint sensor that will recognize different family members. Like all of the Lenovo tablets announced on Thursday, it will run Google's Android Oreo operating system. Lenovo hasn't yet announced pricing for the P10, but says it will be available for preorder on Amazon toward the end of the year.
Lenovo's high-end Tab P10 in aurora black.
Lenovo Tab M10
Weighing in at just over a pound, the Lenovo says the Tab M10 is designed for family use, with an emphasis on entertainment. It has a 10-inch HD display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon octacore 1.8GHz CPU as well as Dolby Atmos-enhanced sound. Lenovo says it will be available for preorder on Amazon this winter, but we don't yet know how much it will cost.
The Lenovo Tab M10 in Polar White.
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