Lenovo Legion Y700 unveiled with 8.8" screen and Snapdragon 870 chipset

Lenovo's first gaming-centric Android tablet under the Legion sub-brand shows a lot of promise as a genuine iPad Mini contender.

While Android tablets, in general, has been gaining high popularity due to the rise of hybrid work or school, there has never been a genuine contender for Apple's iPad Mini model. With more and more Android brands focusing on foldable screen smartphones as the future, it's easy to dismiss small-sized tablets with the existence of large-sized tablets. Despite the current circumstance, it doesn't stop anyone from keep trying as Lenovo made a splash with the launch of their new model called Legion Y700.

Photo: Lenovo China

This is the first Android tablet to be launched under Lenovo's gaming division. Lenovo settled for a modest 8.8" screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio, a 2.5K screen resolution, and 7.9mm thickness. It has HDR10 with Dolby Vision support and a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut. Being a gaming-centric device, it has a 120Hz screen refresh rate with a touch sampling rate of 240Hz.

Photo: Lenovo China

Powering this mini-tablet is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 870 chipset with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 internal storage. Battery capacity is rated at 6,550mAh and support 45W wired charging. Lenovo claimed that it can fill the whole battery from 0% in just 45 minutes. Android 11-based ZUi 13 is in hand for the whole software experience.

Photo: Lenovo China

While the hardware spec equals a flagship-grade smartphone, what separates this tablet from the rest of the field is the inclusion of a dedicated microSD card slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. The USB-C 3.1 Gen2 port itself has HDMI ALT video output support, which allows you to do wired screen mirroring or enable Lenovo PC Mode. The speakers are tuned by JBL with support for Dolby Atmos.

At the moment, pre-order is only available in China with the choice of 8/128/WiFi and 12/256/WiFi retailing for ¥2,199 (~$350) and ¥2,499 (~$400) respectively. Lenovo also has no official word about Global availability, so only time will tell if this tablet will go outside China.

Are you interested in Lenovo's latest offering? Do you always have an eye for small-sized Android tablets with flagship firepower? Let us know in the comment section down below.