Lenovo Tab Plus features its own JBL Bluetooth speaker

Lenovo is going back to that oft-attempted formula of making devices that traditionally sound crap sound better via an built-in speaker unit.

The new Lenovo Tab Plus looks like a pretty standard Android tablet from front-on, but begin to peer around the side and you’ll see a Dolby Atmos-enabled speaker poking out to say “Hi!”

The speaker, which adds a lip to the bottom half of the tablet, offers 26W of audio thanks to eight JBL Hi-Fi speakers. There are, Lenovo says, four matrix tweeters and four force-balanced woofers.

It goes a little deeper than the ability to play audio content through the tablet, and it also doubles up as a Bluetooth speaker for playing content from your phone or other devices.

Furthermore, probably due to the accommodation of a DAC within the speaker, the tablet also supports high-res audio of 24-bit and 96Khz when connected to headphones via the 3.5mm jack.

There’s also a smart “app volume control” setting that will boost volume when you’re enjoying your favourite streaming or podcast app, or lower the volume, for example, when the browser is open. Users can customise these settings.

If you’re enjoying the audio from video content, there’s an 11.5-inch 2K display with a 90Hz refresh rate and 4000 nits of brightness. Battery life is rated at 12 hours of streaming, while it can be replenished in 90 minutes via 45W fast charging.

The mid-range specs include a MediaTek Helio G99 processor and 8GB of RAM, which can be paired with up to 256GB of storage, expandable via MicroSD. Lenovo is also promising 2-years of Android updates (it ships with Android 15) and 4 years of security patches.

Lenovo says the new Tab Plus is coming out in “select global markets” from today from €279 and $289.99. The UK price was not revealed at this time.