Lenovo Tab M8 Gen 4 Review

Look, the Lenovo Tab M8 Gen 4 is a cheap Android tablet. That's the whole story. It runs Android 12 Go edition, which is a lightweight version of Android made for low-end hardware. It's got an 8-inch screen, 32GB of storage, and 2GB of RAM. That's the baseline for a functional tablet in 2024.

Let's be real. The MediaTek Helio A22 processor and 2GB of RAM are not fast. This thing is built for checking email, reading articles, and maybe watching a single video stream. It scores in the 23rd percentile for CPU and the 0th percentile for RAM, which tells you everything. Gaming is basically a no-go, scoring a 13.3 out of 100. The only bright spot is a weirdly high GPU percentile, but that's against all products and doesn't translate to real-world gaming power on this hardware.

At $170, it's one of the cheapest new tablets you can find. But you get what you pay for. The value is only there if your needs are extremely basic: reading, light web browsing, and as a secondary screen for recipes or music. If you need to do more than one thing at a time, the 2GB of RAM will make you hate it.

Don't even think about comparing this to the listed 'competitors' like a MacBook Pro or a Legion gaming laptop. That's nonsense. For a real comparison, look at older refurbished iPads or Amazon Fire tablets. A Fire HD 8 often costs less and has a better ecosystem for media. If you need a better Android experience, spending a bit more on a Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 gets you more RAM and a better screen. This Lenovo is at the absolute bottom of the barrel for new devices.

Only buy this if you need the absolute cheapest possible new Android tablet and your expectations are rock bottom. It's for a very specific person: someone who needs a simple, portable screen for reading or videos and nothing else. For anyone else, especially if you want to use more than one app, save up a little more money.