The Lenovo Tab M10 HD is a full-sized tablet that is reasonably priced and has good appearance and build quality for the money. Unfortunately, a poor display, poor performance, and a short battery life detract from its reputation as a low-cost media player.
Key Features
- This is one of the cheapest tablets we’ve reviewed and it offers some decent features for the price
- Nice DesignFor the price, the metal design looks and feels good
- Big ScreenIf you’re looking for a tablet on a budget with the a big screen, this offers that
Introduction
Expectations for the Lenovo Tab M10 HD should be appropriately low given its inexpensive pricing. This is a full-sized tablet aimed towards kids and digital newbies who are looking for their first tablet.
But it offers more than meets the eye thanks to a surprisingly high-end design, clear software, and cutting-edge features like stereo speakers.
Despite its low price, the Lenovo Tab M10 HD falls short in most important respects, thus these promises aren’t fully fulfilled.
Design and screen
- Surprisingly classy metal body
- Lightweight for a full-sized tablet
- Poor 10.1-inch LCD with lowly 1280 x 800 resolution
The Lenovo Tab M10 HD’s biggest feature is that it doesn’t appear or feel at all as inexpensive as it actually is. With its full metal body (in smart Iron Gray or Platinum Gray) and 85% screen-to-display ratio, it resembles the kind of tablet you’d expect to pay two to three times more money for.
It’s quite compact for a full-sized tablet (in the old sense of the word), with dimensions of just 241.5 x 149.4 x 8.3mm and a weight of 420g.
The good news keeps coming with a set of stereo speakers that have been Dolby Atmos calibrated. They won’t be able to compete with the sound output of a recent iPad, but keep in mind that this is a budget tablet.
A 3.5mm headphone jack is included by the Lenovo Tab M10 HD, continuing the concept of audio.
The complete absence of any trustworthy biometric authentication is one indication that this tablet is more inexpensive. When held in landscape orientation, the power button is located on the top left edge and is a standard textured button without an in-display facility.
There is a face unlock feature, but it uses a standard, simplistic 2D scanning method and shouldn’t be completely trusted.
Of course, turning on the Lenovo Tab M10 HD’s display is the first indication that this is a less expensive tablet. Although it is 10.1 inches in size, it isn’t at all sharp due to its low (1280 x 800) resolution.
It also makes use of a rather basic IPS LCD panel with a maximum brightness of only 400 nits and a refresh rate of 60Hz. It simply doesn’t do media material like Netflix films and games any favors when the colors appear somewhat washed out.
Camera
- Bog standard 8MP wide sensor
- 5MP selfie camera
We expect very little from tablet cameras, even so-called ‘Pro’ tablets selling for more than four times the price you’re paying here. Such cameras don’t necessarily need to be good, which is not to suggest that they can’t be.
Because of this, it’s not too harsh to criticize the Lenovo Tab M10 HD’s single 8MP back camera and 5MP front camera as being subpar. Images taken with that main camera are lacking in detail and really quite anaemic, with little of the vibrant colours or HDR balance that you get with even a bog standard budget smartphone.
Having said that, it’s still not completely useless in excellent illumination, which is more than acceptable. We advise you to reevaluate your priorities if you regularly use a tablet of any kind, much less a full-sized budget tablet, for any type of photography.
When taking a selfie in a shady environment with a bright sunny background, the 5MP front camera entirely failed to handle even mild HDR scenarios. But once more, who uses a tablet to take selfies?
Performance
- Sluggish Mediatek MT6762 Helio P22T chip
- Scant 2GB RAM
- Android 10 with thoughtful customisation
The Mediatek MT6762 Helio P22T, a highly constrained 12 nm semiconductor designed for inexpensive tablets, powers the Lenovo Tab M10 HD.
In addition to having a little SoC, our model only has 2GB of Memory, which is insufficient for modern Android experiences. For starters, it leads to extremely aggressive memory management. I hurriedly opened Gmail and saw Slay the Spire closing.
All of this combined may not come as a surprise when considering how poorly this tablet performs. Throughout our time with the device, we noted many pauses—from awakening it from sleep to launching and moving between apps. It simply takes one or more extra beats.
We have benchmark testing to support that. The Moto G22’s single-core Geekbench 5 score of 164 and multi-core score of 898 are inferior to that of budget tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 and even very inexpensive, slow smartphones like the Moto G22.
The GPU’s story is comparable. On such little hardware, the 3DMark Wild Life test will not run, and a Slingshot Extreme test score of 463 represents the very bottom of the mobile performance spectrum.
Normally, I’d be telling you about Genshin Impact’s performance on the Lenovo Tab M10 HD right about now, but unfortunately, the game doesn’t even appear to be available for download there—clear evidence that the hardware doesn’t even match the minimum standards.
Android 10—now two versions out of date—is the operating system that powers the Lenovo Tab M10 HD. Even yet, at least in terms of the icons and menu design, it’s a pleasingly stock-like interpretation of Google’s mobile OS.
But it doesn’t mean there aren’t some embellishments. Most notably, Lenovo has replaced the customary Google Feed screen to the left of the main home screen with its Entertainment Space screen.
This screen compiles every type of media from the various streaming services into a format that may be browsed like a magazine. It works well for video content but not so well for other types of content. Even so, it merits being included on a gadget designed largely for casual media consumption.
The availability of the Kids Mode app also qualifies. When you activate it, the tablet may be used as a kid-safe media player, replete with pre-loaded kid content, a customizable avatar, and built-in parental controls.
Battery life
- 5000 mAh battery small for a tablet
- Mediocre battery life
- Slow 10W charger
The 5000 mAh battery in the Lenovo Tab M10 HD is large. That’s not particularly big for a 10-inch Android tablet, but it’s quite a respectable size for a smartphone.
Comparatively, the Nokia T20 has an even bigger 8200mAh battery, while the slightly more expensive Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 has a 7040mAh battery. Although having a display with a considerably lower resolution than the Lenovo Tab M10 HD, it is still not very promising.
According to Lenovo, the Tab M10 HD can play videos for up to 8 hours and browse the web for up to 10 hours on a single charge. In my experience, listening to music online for an hour used up 3% of a full charge whereas watching Netflix used up 8%.
In summary, the battery life is not bad, but comparable low-cost tablets can go longer between charges.
Lenovo only includes a little 10W charger in the box when it’s time to recharge. In comparison to a full charge, which took just over 3 hours 15 minutes, this got my test model from 0 to 40% in an hour.
Verdict
The Lenovo Tab M10 HD is a budget full-sized tablet that certainly looks and feels good for its price, and it really doesn’t cost very much at all. However, its positioning as a budget media player is undermined by a lowly display, terrible performance, and mediocre battery life.
