Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 22911NU Pro Reviews

The Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 is an approachable device. It doesn't have any sort of cluttered or clunky interface laid on top of Android, it has appealing design features (even if I personally don't care for its shape), and it's very much on the affordable side for a 10-inch tablet. At the time of this writing, Lenovo's website has both the 8 GB and 16 GB models listed at prices below their MSRPs; oddly enough, the 16 GB model is currently cheaper at $349.00, while the 8 GB model is going for $389.00. Bizarre, but still a decent deal.

You could do a lot worse than the Lenovo IdeaTab S2109. For $350, you get a comfortable, lightweight design, an IPS display with good viewing angles and a clean build of ICS. Sure, you're sacrificing Tegra 3 power and a higher-res panel, but those specs usually entail a steeper price anyway. Still, while the IdeaTab is hardly a bad product, we found ourselves getting irked at the device a little too often. There's not one huge, glaring reason to stay away; no, it's the combination of a middling CPU, unimpressive battery life and design quirks such as an overzealous accelerometer and an awkwardly placed webcam. All that adds up to an experience that leaves us wanting more. And more you deserve, dear reader. Thankfully, with great slates such as the Transformer Pad TF300 and the Iconia Tab A510 priced just slightly higher (and the 16GB Nexus 7 at $100 less), you won't have to adjust your budget to get it.

While it’s not the fastest tablet or cheapest tablet around, the Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 is a decent tablet with above average speakers. The included case is a nice touch, and if you really can’t stand widescreen displays, the S2109 is one of the only tablets available from a big-name PC maker to feature a 4:3 aspect ratio display. Lenovo often sells an 8GB IdeaTab S2109 for as little as $311, but the tablet technically has a list price of $399, and I’ve regularly seen Lenovo sell it for $389. If you decide to buy this tablet and that’s the best price available, wait until it goes on sale before adding it to your cart. It’s a much better buy at $311 than at $389. But if you don’t need the 4 speakers or the larger (and lower resolution) display, it’s hard to see why you would spend $311 or more on the Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 when you can pick up a Google Nexus 7 for $199.

When using this tablet over the past few weeks we decided that for $349 you could probably do worse, but at the same time you could easily do better. Overall Lenovo has designed a decent mid-range tablet with ok specs, and a low price. With the iPad 2 being just $399 these days, and powerful quad-core Android tablets being similarly priced we had a hard time giving this a thumbs up of any kind. If you’d like to stay under the $400 mark we’d easily have to recommend the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T. It rocks a quad-core, higher resolution, and an optional keyboard for only $379, as well as the brand new Google Nexus 7 16GB for just $249. For those looking for a 9.7+ tablet the iPad 2 or even the new Acer Iconia Tab A510 would be a great option.

The S2109A is a decent device and $350 is an appealing price, but the tablet is less than the sum of its parts. When you start paying close attention to what else is out there, this becomes readily apparent. If you're strictly looking for a 10-inch tablet in this price range, I recommend the $400 iPad 2. If you prefer Android, however, the $380 Transformer TF300 is worth the extra $30 (or more) you'd be paying over the S2109A. It has most of the S2109A's ports and is much faster and more stable, with really good cameras, and useful Asus software features. If you absolutely have to save that last $30 or so, then money is probably too tight and a tablet may not be the wisest of investments. If you have the disposable income, however, the TF300 is the better Android buy, with the iPad 2 being the overall recommendation in the $300-to-$400 10-inch tablet subcategory.

The Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 is an Android tablet with low-end specs, but a midrange price tag, making it a hard sell when compared with some less-expensive and better-equipped alternatives.