Lenovo announces five new Android tablets including $70 Tab E7

Lenovo is doubling down on the budget tablet space, introducing three new models that will run Google's Android Oreo operating system.

Starting at $70 -- the approximate current price point of the previous-generation Tab 7 Essential -- the entry-level Tab E family comes in three sizes (7-inches, 8-inches, and 10-inches). The company has also announced two other tablets, the Tab P10 and Tab M10, but declined to provide pricing information. Based on design and specs, however, they are likely to be more expensive -- perhaps significantly so -- than the Tab E series.

At the low end, anyway, Lenovo walks into some pretty stiff competition from Amazon. The $70 Tab E7 goes up against the $50 Amazon Fire 7 tablet, which includes a user-friendly operating system and more than 9 hours of battery life, as well as a microSD card slot expandable up to 256GB. The $100 Tab E8 will need to contend with the $80 Fire HD 8, which comes equipped with the superior firepower of a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM, and up to 12 hours of battery life. In the 10-inch category at least, Lenovo has the price advantage; the $130 Tab E10 costs about $20 less than Amazon's Fire HD 10.

We'll need to get our hands on Lenovo's tablets before we can make a decisive judgement about how well they stack up, but for now, here's a breakdown of the specs:

Lenovo Tab E series

Lenovo Tab E7: $70, 7-inch display, MediaTek CPU, Android Oreo Go Edition, up to 5 hours of battery life
Lenovo Tab E8: $100, 8-inch HD display, MediaTek CPU, 5-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera, Dolby Atmos, up to 10 hours of battery life
Lenovo Tab E10: $130, 10-inch HD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 CPU, 5-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera, Dolby Atmos

07b-tab7-ultra-low-end-hero-4g — The 7-inch Lenovo Tab E7.
Lenovo

Lenovo Tab P10

The Tab P10 comes equipped with decent hardware: Qualcomm's 1.8GHz Snapdragon 450 8-core CPU -- a chip that powered a host of lower-end phones in 2017 -- up to 4GB of RAM, a microSD slot, and a battery that Lenovo says will deliver up to 15 hours of performance. It also has four Dolby Atmos-powered speakers and a multi-user fingerprint sensor that will recognize different family members. Like all of the Lenovo tablets announced today, it will run Google's Android Oreo operating system. Lenovo hasn't yet announced pricing for the P10 but says it will be available for pre-order on Amazon toward the end of the year.

07-tab-p10-hero-thin-and-light-wifi-father-lockscreen-aurora-black — Lenovo's high-end Tab P10 in Aurora Black.
Lenovo

Lenovo Tab M10

Weighing in at just over one pound, the Lenovo says the Tab M10 is designed for family use, with an emphasis on entertainment. It has a 10-inch HD display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8-core 1.8GHz CPU as well as Dolby Atmos. Lenovo says it will be available for pre-order on Amazon this winter but we don't yet know how much it will cost.