Lenovo Tab M9 Review: Beating All 8-Inch Tablets?

Tablets usually come with an 8-inch or 10-inch display, and 9.7 inches were also popular for a long time. With the Lenovo Tab M9, an exactly 9-inch tablet has been released now that costs around 160 Dollars or Euros. Besides the 9-inch display, we get a Helio G80 processor and Android 12. In this Lenovo Tab M9 review you learn if it’s better than its counterparts.

Display: Exactly 9 Inches

With its 9-inch screen, the Lenovo Tab M9 is only marginally larger than many 8-inch tablets. This is because these 8-inchers either have wider display bezels or are just a tiny bit smaller anyway, like the 8.7-inch realme Pad mini. I can hold the M9 in one hand only but just barely. However, it no longer fits in my back pocket.

The resolution of 1340 x 800 pixels is about as high as in 8-inch Android tablets like the Nokia T10. This is not ideal, because when you hold the tablet directly in front of your nose, texts don’t look as sharp as on the iPad Mini. It’s roughly an HD resolution on 9 inches, which I think is just about good enough. Unfortunately, all direct competitors also have such a pixel density.

Read: These are the best 8-inch tablets

Apart from that, I like the IPS display of the Tab M9. Viewing angles are very wide, colors look saturated, and above all, it’s nice and bright with 400 nits. Bright enough to see something well outdoors in daylight.

Lenovo specifically advertises a reading mode that allows you to set colors chromatically or to grayscale. This is supposed to make it more comfortable to read e-books with the tablet, and I think that is true. It’s certainly a decent reader.

The M9 can also be used as a media tablet because the speakers are surprisingly loud for this price range. Sure, the bass could be better and the sound could sound fuller. But considering the price, the sound is great.

You can watch Netflix and other streaming services with HD resolution because it has a Widevine Level of L1.

Hardware & Performance

The Lenovo Tab M9 is powered by a MediaTek Helio G80 octa-core processor, which is supported by 3GB or 4GB of RAM, as well as 32GB up to 128GB of internal storage. A version with LTE is also available. I have the cheapest version with 3GB and 32GB.

It’s interesting to see that in my Geekbench 5 benchmark comparison, the results are roughly on par with the slightly larger 3rd generation Lenovo Tab M10 Plus. Graphics performance is stronger than the realme Pad mini and Nokia T10, but processor performance is about the same.

In the 3D Mark Wild Life test, the graphics performance is also better than the realme Pad mini and Nokia T10. The next best tablet in this size is the iPad Mini, which is vastly superior in all benchmarks, but also significantly more expensive.

As long as you don’t want to play games with the highest graphics settings, the Tab M9 is quite suitable as a gaming tablet. I couldn’t play Apex Legend with the highest settings, but it runs well and smoothly with medium graphics. World of Tanks also runs quite well with relatively high settings.

Read: The best Gaming Tablets you can buy today

Asphalt 9’s graphics look much worse than on more expensive devices and stutters are noticeable from time to time. Here, it helps to turn down the settings even further. Less demanding games like Banana Kong 2 run well.

Apps like Google Chrome, YouTube, Feedly, OneNote and the Kindle Reader run flawlessly, especially when used alone. Simple multitasking is also possible. Chrome and YouTube can be used side by side. The tablet is too weak for more complex multitasking, though. Especially when you quickly switch between individual apps, you will notice stutters and jerks.

Software: Android 12

The Lenovo Tab M9 runs Android 12 out of the box, but on the website it sounds like it will get an update to Android 13. I think that will be the end of major version updates. However, it will get security updates for three years. That is great.

As is typical for Lenovo, the interface is barely customized. There are a few additional features like the reading mode. Apart from that, though, it’s pure Android including Google’s apps. This also includes Google Kids Space, a children’s mode, and Google Entertainment Space. This can be turned off in the settings.

Design & Build Quality

The Lenovo Tab M9 looks like a typical Lenovo tablet. What is new is that a pattern of triangles is drawn on the back. For the most part, the body is made of metal, but there is a plastic cover on the top and bottom. It’s quite light at 344g and it’s 7.9mm thin.

It’s charged using a USB C 2.0 port. Additionally, we get a MicroSD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack. A fingerprint reader is missing. You can unlock it via facial recognition, but it’s not very secure. As with many competitors, it’s lacking a second sensor for this..

Sadly, an earpiece is missing and I’m guessing that’ll be the case with the cellular option too. So, you won’t be able to replace a smartphone with the LTE version, at least not as well.

The webcam has a resolution of 2 megapixels and the main camera has 8 megapixels. The main camera is not bad at all, especially considering the price. However, the front camera is so low-resolution that even a video chat with perfect light looks pixelated.

Battery Life

In my battery test, the Tab M9 got a runtime of 9 hours, which is a pretty good result, especially considering the fairly bright display. As always, an HD YouTube video runs in an endless loop for this test.

Lenovo Tab M9 Review: Final Verdict

So, is the Lenovo Tab M9 a tablet you should buy? Yes, it might be. Considering its starting price of around 160 Dollars, it offers a bright display, enough performance, a solid build quality, pure Android and a long battery life. The graphics performance is better than direct rivals.

Obviously, it’s far from perfect. For example, the display resolution could be higher and the front camera could be better. But its competitors have the same problem. I think it’s a pity that Lenovo does not release a higher-quality version. There hasn’t been a very high-end Android tablet of this size in years. This is more of an entry-level tablet, but actually the best current 8 or 9 inch Android tablet on the market. Just because there’s no good competitor.

You get significantly more performance with the iPad Mini, which I reviewed as well. Not only is the processing power better, but we also get a higher resolution display, Apple Pencil 2 support, a fingerprint reader, and very likely much, much longer updates.