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Lenovo has announced a new affordable Android tablet, the Smart Tab M9. It’s an “Android 13-ready” nine-inch slate slated to arrive in the first half of next year. The tablet offers a modest set of specs but boasts a surprisingly premium design. Let’s have a closer look at it.
Lenovo Smart Tab M9 design and specs
The Lenovo Smart Tab M9 comes in a metallic housing with a dual-tone design that you seldom see in Android tablets in this segment. The device is pretty slim too, measuring just 7.99mm in thickness. This gives the tablet a premium look though you aren’t getting a powerful gadget inside.
MediaTek’s Helio G80 chipset powers this tablet. This SoC features two ARM Cortex-A75 CPU cores clocked at 2.0GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.8GHz. Lenovo is offering the slate in three memory and storage configurations: 3GB+32GB, 4GB+64GB, and 4GB+128GB. Fueling the Smart Tab M9 is a 5,100mAh battery that supports 15W fast charging via a USB Type-C 2.0 port. Lenovo touts up to 13 hours of continuous video playback on a single charge.
Speaking of video playback, the nine-inch LCD panel on the Smart Tab M9 has a rather modest resolution of 1340 x 800 pixels. Lenovo says the device supports Netflix HD, while Dolby Atmos-powered spatial audio and dual stereo speakers add to the multi-media experience. And if you want to take photos or make video calls on this device, you have a 2MP front camera and an 8MB rear camera.
The Smart Tab M9 misses out on Android 13, though. It ships with the previous generation of the Android OS. Lenovo says it is “ready for” the new Android version. But by the time it reaches consumers, Android 14 will be nearing its release. Worst yet, there’s no commitment from the company regarding updates beyond Android 13.
Nonetheless, other highlights of the Smart Tab M9 include a built-in microphone, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, TÜV Rheinland certification for eye care, face unlock support, and a Reading Mode that simulates the color of real book pages. The whole package measures 215.43×136.76×7.99 mm in dimension and weighs around 344 grams.
Price and availability
Lenovo has priced the Smart Tab M9 pretty aggressively. The tablet will start at just $139.99. That’s for the 3GB+32GB model, of course. You will have to pay extra for more RAM and storage space. The device comes in Arctic Grey and Frost Blue colors. Unfortunately, there’s a pretty long waiting time for the tablet. It will not go on sale until the second quarter of next year.