As you know, the coronavirus pandemic with its quarantine restrictions has revived the global need for devices called tablets. Sitting at home and working remotely, watching videos, playing games on smartphones was not exactly a comfy experience, so people rushed to buy tablets, often the same smartphones, but with a larger display.
Tablets “for the whole family” became especially popular, one of which is Lenovo Pad M10 (3rd Gen), which we review today. I’m sure that Lenovo doesn’t need any special introduction, let me just remind you that it is a very reputable brand in the IT world. 3rd Gen, or the third generation, is a testament to the longevity of this model and the recognition of consumers around the world.
Appearance, design and configuration
The tablet comes in a sturdy cardboard box of good printing quality. The front surface immediately mentions two features on board: Google Kids Space and Entertainment Space, from which we can immediately conclude that the device is family-entertainment.
The opposite surface is more informative. Here you can find out that we are dealing with a personal (tablet) computer Lenovo Tab M10 (3rd Gen) in Storm Gray color with WiFi and 4G+64G memory. The tablet has a UNISOC T610 processor, 10-inch display, 1920*1200 TDDI LCD, WLAN: 802.11 A/B/G/N/AC+BT5.0. OS: ANDROID 11. Battery: 5100mAh/19.7Wh(TYP) 5000mAh/19.3Wh(MIN).
So, let’s take the tablet out of the box and conduct an external inspection.
I’ll say right away that the package is spartan, without frills. The box contains a 19.7 W “slow” charger with a 99 cm long USB-C connection cable, a paper clip for the SD card slot, and paper documentation (manual and warranty card). In my humble opinion, a silicone case or at least a protective film would have been nice. However, it would have added to the overall cost of the device.
The appearance is just candy. The tablet looks solid. Almost the entire area of the back is covered with a matte metal panel. The back cover is a 2-component, a stylish combination of metal (aluminum) and plastic (under which are antennas for better communication). The materials of the case are solid, the assembly is of high quality, nothing is loose. It is edged with plastic inserts along the edges. The bezels are thin and the design is modern. In short, the tablet has a “rich”, premium look.
The tablet itself is convenient for work. It is very comfortable in the hands. You can work in both portrait and landscape formats. The main format for using Tab M10 is landscape. This conclusion can be drawn based on the location of the stereo speakers and the headphone audio output. It is pleasant to hold it in your hands and it fits easily into a bag or backpack. That is, you can easily take it with you wherever you go.
Slim and light
The Tab M10 is only 8.1 mm thick.
Weighing makes some adjustments – the manufacturer slightly underestimated the weight of the device (460 g). In fact, the tablet weighed 472 g.
Convenient buttons and ports
On the left side of the device there is a grooved power button, which allows you to turn on the tablet even in pitch darkness, by touch (I checked it – it really works!), as well as a volume rocker.
On the top edge are two stereo speaker grilles. These holes remain open during the operation in landscape mode and sound perception is not disturbed or drowned out.
On the right side edge there is a microphone hole, a 3.5 mm audio port for headphones, a USB-C input and access to an additional memory slot.
The bottom edge of the device is innocently clean and sparkles with the absence of any contacts typical of cooler devices with docks. Nevertheless, I tried to work with the wireless keyboard.
The attempt was successful, although the device was “showing off” for a few minutes and could not find the “keyboard”, but persistence and rebooting brought positive results, so the docking station is not really necessary to use the tablet for office work. You can connect an external keyboard anyway, and you’ll be happy.
Easy setup
So, a few minutes after the first power on and setup (intuitive, I won’t dwell on it much, you just need to follow the instructions on the display), the first pleasant surprise is an invitation to update to Android 12. Well, it’s a sin to refuse.
The family nature of the tablet proves the possibility of having several accounts for each family member, including children.
So I highly recommend setting up a children’s profile right away. This is possible by registering a personal account for the child and linking this account to the account of one of the parents, which makes it possible to reduce the child’s activity on the Internet, as well as to impose time limits on the use of the tablet. It’s time to communicate with your friends live!
Display
The Lenovo Tab M10 3rd Gen features a 10.1-inch screen with a resolution of 1920×1200 pixels, which at this diagonal provides a pixel density of 224 ppi. This 10-multitouch display has a glossy finish and offers excellent image quality and is fingerprint-resistant.
However, during active use, it was noticed that the display is quite electrified and collects dust particles on its surface. The IPS-matrix of excellent quality protects the eyesight and gives wide viewing angles, and the brightness of 320 nits makes the images clear and realistic, full of colors even in intense sunlight.
I can’t help but note that there is an adaptive brightness mode, which adds to the premium nature of the device.
Subjectively, I liked the quality of the display: bright, contrasty, with good color reproduction and image detail.
Hardware
The hardware is assembled on the basis of an 8-core Unisoc Tiger T610 central processor, equipped with a Mali-G52 3EE graphics chip and 4 GB of RAM. The device’s own memory is a modest 64 GB. Of course, this is not enough for today, but the memory can be expanded by connecting a microSD card.
I added a microSD card to increase the storage capacity, and everything was fine. By the way, among the user reviews, 256 GB and even 2TB (!) cards were mentioned. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a physical opportunity to check this, but the tablet worked with 64GB and 128GB cards without any complaints.
The tablet is equipped with a Wi-Fi ac module, which provides fast and reliable Internet connection. There is also Bluetooth 5.0. With the Lenovo Tab M10 3rd Gen tablet, enjoying unlimited access to online content has become even easier. It should be clarified that we tested the TB328FU model, which has only a WLAN module, while the TB328XU model is equipped with WLAN+LTE. But there were no problems with Internet distribution using a smartphone.
The “brain” of the tablet is a reliable 8-core Unisoc T610 processor that responds quickly enough to requests and commands. A few words about this “brain”. The Unisoc Tiger T610 is an octa-core chipset that was announced on June 1, 2019, and is manufactured using a 12-nanometer process technology. It has 2 1820 MHz Cortex-A75 cores and 6 1820 MHz Cortex-A55 cores. Of course, this “processor” is not very new, but it is hardworking, pulls almost everything within reason, so the practicality is at a high level
Cameras
The Lenovo TAB 10M includes two cameras – the main 8 MP and the front 5 MP, but their capabilities are more likely to be enough for video calls and re-shooting documents. Optics are standard for the TAB series: the main camera has autofocus, which allows you to take good pictures quickly. There is a separate mode for taking photos of documents, which automatically aligns the text and saves it to memory in monochrome format. There are no blurs, and the detail is good.
The front-facing camera does an excellent job of capturing images during video calls, and you can take selfies. Its advantages include good color reproduction. The front-facing camera is also in demand for facial recognition.
The tablet is capable of shooting HDR video at a maximum frequency of 30 fps.
Below you can see photos taken with the tablet’s camera, so judge the quality for yourself.
Multimedia
The tablet’s two speakers, placed on opposite sides, provide high-quality stereo sound. The manufacturer assures that if you hold the tablet in your hands, the volume is enough to listen to music, watch movies, and communicate via video. In my subjective opinion, the maximum sound could be both louder and more voluminous, although the device has Dolby Atmos technology, and the application of the same name allows you to select a sound preset (3 options) and adjust the equalizer to your preferences.
You can easily connect the tablet wirelessly to your TV and enjoy watching videos on the big screen.
Battery life
Unfortunately, the battery slightly spoils the overall positive impression of the tablet. The manufacturer could have equipped the device with a more powerful battery, but we have to be content with a 5000 mAh battery (the level of smartphones!). The documentation states that it can last for 10 hours. Practical use has shown that, in principle, this is true, provided that the device is used in economy mode. If you constantly play games or watch movies on the screen with maximum brightness, the battery will last for 5-6 hours. This is an average figure, but not critical.
The tablet charges very slowly indeed: up to 22% in half an hour, 42% in an hour, 64% in 1.5 hours, 83% in 2 hours, 93% in 2.5 hours, 98% in 3 hours, and fully (100%) in 3 hours and 3 minutes.
Performance
When running standard applications, the tablet works briskly. No lags or freezes of any kind were noticed during the test. The “parrots” in the AnTuTu test score a little more than two hundred thousand. The games are “pulling”, but, of course, I would like to do better.
The preinstalled apps include a full set of Google apps, including an entertainment center on the far left screen and a children’s space, plus Microsoft Office and Netflix.
Expert opinion
First and foremost, this is a balanced, productive device for the whole family with a premium look. This is a representative of the category of relatively inexpensive multimedia tablets with a large screen, launched by Lenovo in 2022.
The consumer gets a typical model of a moderate price range (up to UAH 8000 or $200). But the model is branded!
Unfortunately, there is only face unlocking with the front camera. I think a fingerprint scanner would be nice.
The Lenovo Tab M10 3rd Gen 4/64 Storm Gray tablet is equipped with a powerful “filling” for performing complex tasks and running resource-hungry applications. In power saving mode, the device operates for up to ten hours on a single battery charge.
Simply put, this is a normal workhorse for the whole family.
So, Lenovo Tab M10 (3rd Gen) is a multifunctional device aimed at family use. It has a high-performance “stuffing” that provides effective multitasking for any needs, including office work, teaching students and schoolchildren, and entertaining children.
By the way, many retailers are currently running nice discount promotions for this model, so now is the time to buy.
