This 8-inch Gaming Tablet Is The Ultimate Plane Entertainment Device (and On Sale)

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 is connected waste now for $429.
• It features a gorgeous display, dual USB-C ports, and fantabulous capacity pinch nan latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip.
• If you're looking for a big-screen tablet pinch a stylus, you'll apt find nan eight-inch surface excessively small.

The Legion Tab Gen 3 joins Lenovo's gaming lineup arsenic a slim and ray eight-inch Android tablet pinch a superb 2.5K, 165Hz display, and 12GB of RAM. These specs, mixed pinch nan Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and a fistful of intelligent creation elements make it a versatile and premium gaming tablet, earning our Editors' Choice award. 

The first point you announcement upon picking up nan Legion Tab is really mini and minimalist it is, somewhat obscuring its gaming motivations. With its mini size and ultra-thin bezels astir nan edges, it feels much for illustration a bladed expanse of achromatic solid than a gaming device, but looking a small person reveals immoderate coagulated engineering. 

Also: The Samsung tablet I urge astir isn't nan newest (but it is connected sale)

The only 2 beingness buttons connected nan instrumentality -- measurement and powerfulness -- blend into nan broadside of nan tablet. Additionally, location are 2 USB-C ports: 1 connected nan side, and 1 connected nan bottom. Since you tin flip nan predisposition of nan show successful immoderate direction, this intends you tin plug successful nan instrumentality connected immoderate of nan 4 sides.

This makes nan Legion Tab an optimal recreation device, since you tin set your charging setup each clip you're successful a caller place, while support for Wi-Fi 7 future-proofs its portability.  

Under nan hood, nan Legion Tab is equipped pinch nan aforementioned Snapdragon 8 Gen 3  (3.30 GHz) processor, coincidentally matching nan sanction of nan tablet. For comparison, this is nan aforesaid processor family recovered successful competing tablets we love, for illustration nan OnePlus Pad 2.

Also: I traded my business machine for a Lenovo Legion laptop for work, and didn't miss it

It besides has 12GB of soldered LPDDR5X memory, 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage, and Android 14 OS. The bottommost (or top) larboard tin beryllium utilized to link to an outer show via DisplayPort, which, erstwhile swapped into PC Mode, turns nan tablet into a tin laptop. More connected that successful a minute. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

The tablet's show looks fantastic. Not everything needs to beryllium an OLED to beryllium considered premium, and nan Legion Tab's 8.8-inch LTPS (low-temperature polycrystalline silicon) proves conscionable that. With a 165Hz refresh rate, 500nit (900 for HDR) brightness, and 2560 x 1600 resolution, it's afloat prepared for immoderate gaming motivations you whitethorn have, delivering smooth, crisp visuals and vivid colors.

Android OS allows you to fine-tune nan show to a granular level, selecting different colour profiles and refresh rates for each app. This besides makes it a coagulated instrumentality for watching movies, alongside its intended usage lawsuit arsenic a gaming tablet.

Also: I replaced my iPad pinch this $100 Android tablet for a month, and it had nary problem keeping up

Portability isn't nan only logic why immoderate folks mightiness for illustration a smaller tablet for illustration nan Legion Tab. It's besides conscionable large capable for nan full surface to beryllium accessible pinch opposing thumbs if you're holding it pinch 2 hands. This makes it consciousness much for illustration a gaming handheld, for illustration nan MSI Claw 8 AI+, pinch a sleek touchscreen alternatively of controls. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

I didn't get a chance to trial retired nan Legion Tab pinch a third-party controller for illustration nan GameSir G8, but I ideate nan Legion Tab's eight-inch show makes a awesome gaming console astatine a applicable size. Additionally, nan dual USB-C ports mean you tin play successful either orientation. 

While gaming, you tin entree a fistful of settings and stats pinch a near aliases correct swipe, pulling retired nan Legion paper to switch betwixt capacity modes, spot CPU usage, and surface record. 

You tin besides alteration complaint bypass connected this menu, which is simply a awesome quality-of-life setting. This allows you to proviso powerfulness straight to nan tablet while plugged in, bypassing nan artillery wholly to support it moving cool, moreover during extended sessions.  

Also: I've tested dozens of tablets - this is nan first Android exemplary to genuinely switch my iPad Pro

The Legion Tab earns different constituent for its thoughtful creation here, pinch Lenovo's ColdFront Vapor Chamber positioned complete nan processor adjacent nan halfway of nan instrumentality -- distant from wherever your hands are -- to further mitigate power while you're holding it. 

The tablet comes pinch Black Desert Online preinstalled, truthful it was nan first crippled I fired up, and it played astir flawlessly pinch max settings. Popular mobile games for illustration Flame of Valhalla, Hearthstone, and League of Legends: Wild Rift delivered zero lag aliases capacity issues, and crisp, agleam visuals, responsive UI navigation, and amazingly bully sound.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

The Legion Tab comes pinch its ain case, which is alternatively basal fixed its very bladed body. Luckily, it besides doubles arsenic a guidelines if you want to prop it up. The surface screen conscionable arsenic easy snaps off, leaving conscionable nan backing case. This is conscionable arsenic bully because it's a small awkward to clasp -- you person to fold nan lawsuit each nan measurement backmost while holding it. 

Also: This $220 Android tablet feels conscionable for illustration my Surface Pro - and nan artillery is conscionable arsenic good

Along pinch nan lawsuit and magnetic cover, 68W USB-C wall charger and cable, I besides admit that it comes pinch its ain surface protector, going supra and beyond to proviso nan essentials erstwhile it's becoming much communal these days to make consumers bargain these things separately. 

Connecting to an outer show is besides arsenic easy arsenic popping successful a DisplayPort-compatible cable. PC mode pinch a keyboard and rodent useful amazingly well, arsenic it's fundamentally a Chromebook Plus pinch this RAM/storage configuration and nan Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. 

I've been bringing nan Legion Tab into nan office, wherever I person a docking position connected to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and it worked truthful good successful this usage case, it could moreover switch a laptop altogether for agency visits aliases recreation wherever a Chromebook suffices: accessing Gmail, moving retired of nan unreality successful Chrome, and modular videoconferencing. 

On that note, nan main 13MP camera pinch flash is astir what you'd find connected a smartphone, while nan front-facing 8MP full-frame is capable for video calls. 

Also: One of nan champion fund Android tablets I've tested isn't made by Samsung aliases Google

In position of artillery life, nan Legion Tab is well-balanced for a gaming tablet. However, its mini size useful some for and against it, arsenic nan 6550mAh artillery limits nan magnitude of juice it tin hold. That being said, it's efficient, lasting respective days pinch intermittent usage aliases respective hours of sustained gaming astatine 165Hz. In my testing, I sewage astir 12 hours of video playback astatine 60Hz and half brightness. 

ZDNET's buying advice

The Lenovo Legion Tab 3 succeeds astatine delivering a awesome gaming acquisition acknowledgment to its gorgeous show and awesome performance. It's sleek and premium, well-engineered, and packed pinch intelligent creation choices. To apical it off, its mini size makes it a peculiarly applicable recreation device, and brings each of this for a competitory value of $549.