Lenovo’s biggest and most powerful tablet ever is here alongside a costly Kindle rival

Going “beyond what’s expected to deliver more of everything”

Yes, we know exactly how pompous that tagline sounds, but one thing the Lenovo Tab Extreme is definitely not is predictable. 

While you’d obviously expect an ultra-high-end slate starting at a whopping $1,199.99 to sport a super-high-resolution 3K OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate capabilities and promise to deliver stellar battery life of up to 12 hours of uninterrupted video playback, the “purposeful design behind it” is certainly a nice little surprise and an ingenious way to stand out from the pack of Android-based iPad Pro rivals out there.

That’s a pretty distant release window, unfortunately, but the rest of the specs and features make it sound like the Lenovo Tab Extreme could absolutely be worth the wait, including 12 gigs of RAM paired with 256GB internal storage space, no less than eight built-in high-performance JBL speakers, a blazing fast 68W charging adapter included in the standard retail box, dual 13 + 5MP rear-facing cameras, one 13MP front-facing shooter, microSD support, and Android 13 software pre-installed with three, yes, three major OS updates guaranteed.

In terms of raw power, this bad boy will rely on MediaTek’s Dimensity 9000 processor, which is not that far behind Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 beast in most popular benchmarks.

“Elevating the magic of note-taking”

Now that‘s some pompous marketing mumbo jumbo! Clearly, there was no magic involved in the making of the Lenovo Smart Paper, which doesn’t appear to be advertised as either a tablet or e-reader.

At 227ppi, the 10.3-inch anti-glare E-Ink display on Lenovo’s market newcomer is not quite as sharp as what Amazon’s priciest Kindle offers in that same department, although the Smart Paper does compensate with its generous 50GB internal storage (enough to hold more than 50,000 note pages) and fancy built-in pen capable of tilt detection and 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.

Said Lenovo Smart Paper Pen never needs to be charged, which is always a plus, while the “digital notepad’s” 3,550mAh battery promises to keep the (energy-efficient) lights on for more than 7,000 pages read or 170 pages of notes written.

That’s obviously a little more specific than Amazon’s blanket Kindle family battery life claim of “weeks” on a single charge, but to be honest, we have no idea which rating will prove to be higher in real-life use.

What’s interesting about the Lenovo Smart Paper is that it apparently runs a (basic) form of Android at its core, although without Google Play access or many pre-loaded apps, the software’s utility is… unclear. Still, this remains a pretty unusual product, especially for a company like Lenovo, and with a lower price tag attached to its name, we could definitely see it achieve at least moderate commercial success.