Lenovo ThinkTab X11

When we review tablets here at Gamereactor, it's usually with a very specific consumer-oriented focus. And why not, really? After all, it's you who are reading this, isn't it? You who need a helping hand every now and then. Lenovo's ThinkPads may not be cheap enough to appeal to the average consumer, but they are popular, which is why we've long tried to imagine what a ThinkPad-inspired tablet might look like.

Now they've sent us the ThinkTab X11 to test, and it turns out that although this tablet replicates many of the strengths that have made ThinkPads so popular with businesses, the focus here is quite different.

You see, the ThinkTab X11 isn't really designed for personal use. It can certainly handle it - it offers a fairly clean Android installation, has a lovely WQXGA display, and a relatively high-end Snapdragon 7s SoC - but this tablet's features point to a rather specific focus on retail, a tablet for "front-line staff", as Lenovo itself puts it.

There's nothing unusual about the display. We're talking a 10.95-inch 16:10, 2.5K WQXGA IPS display capable of around 600 nits, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. Nor is there anything out of the ordinary about Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage (which can be expanded via microSD).

Where the ThinkTab X11 reveals its B2B focus is via its front-mounted NFC tag, which is solely intended to allow others to pay directly on the tablet via dedicated software. There is also a battery-less mode, where the battery can be removed entirely, allowing the device to run directly from one of the two USB-C ports. Yes, there are two, partly because it needs to operate battery-less whilst connected to a B2B-related system.

There are also B2B features that could benefit ordinary consumers, such as a large 10,200mAh battery, and perhaps in particular a combination of MIL-STD 810 certification against hot and cold weather, as well as shocks and other impacts, and IP68 certification against dust and water.

The point here is that these features are rather difficult to assess based on our specific experiences and expectations of what a tablet should be capable of. We can say that the build quality, as is always the case with Think products, is absolutely superb. This is a proper piece of kit, and the soft-touch back is a genuinely exciting alternative to the industry's otherwise relentless focus on frosted glass or aluminium.

This also appears to be the main reason for the rather high price. We're talking around $430, and probably a little more, and for a tablet that only just delivers satisfactory performance with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, weighs in at 650 grams, and has a slightly dim screen, it simply misses the mark.

It's these B2B features, this "rugged" build, that drive up the price, so it's precisely these aspects that need to convince you, perhaps as a business owner in one capacity or another. It's not a bad tablet by any means, especially if you're going to use it for precisely these kinds of tasks, but we're still patiently waiting for Lenovo to try its hand at an Android tablet for ordinary consumers, and one that's absolutely top-of-the-range.