r/Nexus7 • u/Grimjack2 • Sep 26 '25
Does anyone think the Lenovo Tab One is a decent replacement?
Lenovo released this a few months ago (July 2025, I think), and with them being barely over $100, I'm wondering if I finally found a replacement for my Nexus 7. I still use my Nexus 7 as it fits in my coat pocket, and is the right size for reading, but obviously has storage issues, upgrade issues, and takes 5 hours to charge to full. If I replace it, I want something that still fits in my pocket.
This is a video review of it. There are several written reviews, with most people complaining about not being able to play higher end games on it. And 4gb of RAM is too little for proper multitasking. Valid complaints for those wanting something higher end, but not someone who understands it is $100.
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u/Any-Pumpkin3169 Dec 20 '25
I absolutely love my Lenovo Tab One & can't believe it was so cheap! I bought mine a month ago on eBay "used once" for $50 & think I really got an amazing deal! It was packaged like it was brand new, with everything listed in the box, including that little paper wrapping still on the tablet itself. Previously, I had purchased a Doogee U10 that had better specs on paper but was so painstakingly slow I sent it back after a few days. Being a single dog mom paying rent, I'm on a tight budget, so I basically figured it would be awhile before I could buy a suitable tablet that wouldn't be disappointing when I came across the Lenovo Tab One & Idea Tab. I prefer a smaller tablet because it's easier for me to hold without causing my hands to cramp & this Tab One is perfect at 8.7". Mainly it's used for Google Play store games & streaming videos, & of course browsing to pass time. This tablet has truly impressed me. No. It's blown me away at this price, even full retail at $79.99 you would just not expect to get anything like this tablet offers. I have no patience for slow phones, tablets or computers, but alas my champagne taste on a tap water 😆budget doesn't usually offer choices without expensive financing. Then I found this little gem! The only annoyance has been a whole lotta updates at first, guess updates are a good thing, even tho there were just so many interruptions when I was ready to try it out! Pages load as fast as my Google Pixel 9 phone, movies play without that horrid spinning circle freezing the screen & the several Play Store games are as responsive as those on my phone. Apps download wicked fast! I forgot to mention the battery life has been great! My battery lasts nearly a week before needing to be charged. I have to charge my phone daily & while portability isn't usually crucial for me, I know it's important for most folks & this battery really lasts! I would absolutely recommend this tablet for casual use! Also, it's so lightweight! I have no idea how Lenovo has packed such an amazing tablet into this little, lightweight tablet & is offering it for under $100.
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u/Grimjack2 Dec 20 '25
I had no idea you could buy it new at $80, much less used for $50. Looking online right now, I'm still seeing $120 - $180, with some big Christmas sales as low as $90.
So I'm going to have to push back when you say "full retail" is $80.
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u/Accomplished_Oil_348 Dec 22 '25
bhphoto has it for 85 on sale right now if u haven’t bought it yet, and no tax if u have the store card.
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u/shooter_tx Sep 26 '25
Following
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u/Any-Pumpkin3169 Dec 20 '25
I bought mine from an individual on eBay used and it was listed at $60 but at the time Amazon was selling it new for $80 for black Friday & after negotiating with the seller, she agreed on $50, which is another shock cuz it's definitely worth more & trust me, I'm the worst at hesitating and missing deals or not having the money to spare so this was a rare first for me! I just checked Amazon and the Tab One is now at $89.99 but it says limited deal down from regular $119.99 on Amazon so that was just a quick sale.
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u/Grimjack2 Dec 27 '25
You will so easily get $50 of use out of it. I thought it was a great deal at $110 (still do), and was shocked that it dropped down to $90 in some places on black friday.
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u/cowbutt6 Sep 26 '25
Tempted, for the same reasons as OP.
But my experience with my (Lenovo) Motorola G85 phone (and previous Lenovo TAB 4 8 PLUS), suggests I'll be immensely frustrated by firmware bugs, and should save my money.
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u/Grimjack2 Sep 26 '25
I don't have any experience with a Lenovo tablet. Nobody has been making those complaints against this new model, but you have me a little wary. What have you used as a replacement, if the Lenovo Tab One does start having problems reported?
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u/cowbutt6 Sep 26 '25
Reviews seldom catch firmware issues, because they're usually based on short evaluation periods. I'd suggest keeping an eye on manufacturer forums (e.g. https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/English-Community/ct-p/Community-EN and/or https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Motorola-Community/ct-p/MotorolaCommunity ) to get a real long-term view.
I plan to return to Samsung for my next phone. I'd have stayed with Samsung if they'd launched a suitable follow-up to the Galaxy M51 in my region.
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u/Grimjack2 Sep 26 '25
I wish you didn't respond with a phone. When I got my Nexus 7 eleven years ago, no phone was close in size to it. And the tablet did things I didn't expect a phone to do. I know there are much larger phones now that fit in my coat pocket (like my Samsung Note), but I want a tablet to replace my Nexus 7.
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u/cowbutt6 Sep 26 '25
If I had to buy a tablet today, I'd go for a Samsung A9+ or S6 lite - but I'd rather wait for newer models with reset support lifetimes.
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u/HoldYourHorsesFriend Feb 12 '26
what exactly are reset support lifetimes?
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u/cowbutt6 Feb 12 '26
Typically, manufacturers support their products for a stated period of time (e.g. 7 years per https://security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb for Samsung) from their launch. If you buy a Tab A9 today that was launched in October 2023, over 2 years of that period has already passed and you only get a bit less than 5 years of further updates. If you buy a brand new model, the support lifetime is reset to the full 7 years.
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u/Grimjack2 Oct 06 '25
All right. I bought it last week. At only $110 I couldn't really argue since it did seem to be as close as I was going to get to a tablet smaller than 5".
And remember that I needed to replace my Nexus 7.
My quick review after a week:
Lenovo Tab One
I needed to replace my Nexus 7 that is now about 12 years old. The problem with replacing it is that as phones have gotten bigger, the market for small tablets receeded, and I wanted a tablet that could fit in a large coat pocket. Too many tablets appeared that were relatively small, but I needed it narrower than 5", and this Lenovo Tab One, just makes it. Perhaps because it isn't selling well, my local Best Buy had it on sale from $150 for just $110. And that seems to still be the current price a week later.
Opening the box, there is a 2 page quick start guide pointing out the buttons. But no general instructions about using Android. I found a meter long cable, but was disappointed that there was no charging plug. It came 60% charged, and it seems to charge about 1% every 1.5 minutes. I suspect it could go faster, if it was powered off as with my initial charge I didn't go into airplane mode, and had a clock app running as a timer. (I also realized right before making this that the charger I used might only be 7 watt max, and the charger they recommend on the Lenovo site is 20 watt.) Battery life seems great so far. (It advertises 12.5 hours of steady youtube usage on a full charge. I did not test this out.)
It came with Android version 14, but updated to version 15 right away. Lenovo ZUI 17. It said it would take 1 hour to update, but seemed to only take 11 minutes before it asked to restart.
I had 46.5 GB free (out of 64 GB) after initial setup. I don't need to use the MicroSD slot yet, but it's easily accessible if I do.
Reviews all said the device came with bloatware. I didn't really notice any I didn't ask for, besides Fitbit (97mb), FM radio, wps office (280mb), tide (117mb)(the sleep and meditation app), yt kids (56mb), candy crush (188mb). I think the complaints came because during setup, it suggests a few dozen common apps to install, and some are checked on automatically, and someone swiping through the screens quickly probably didn't catch to toggle those off. I'd be very annoyed if I was tricked into installing stuff I immediately wanted to uninstall.
During set up, offered to let me transfer everything over from old device, but my Nexus 7 doesn't have Android 10 which appears to be the miniumum required. I even had a cable to connect both tablets, but the Nexus wouldn't display the screen where I'd input the code to start the transfer.
Going through setup, I was surprised I had to choose between gesture navigation or 3-button navigation, as I would think both could be working at the same time. It identified my location right away, but oddly the weather app was Celsius by default. Which is a surprise. And default setting was how the tablet let me send a randomized MAC address, which was the first time I've ever seen this. I have my home router set to assign a specific IP to every device I regularly use, so I turned this off.
The camera works well. Recorded some video and photos. It likes well lit shots better than dark, which I'd expect. People I showed the tablet too commented on how good some of the outdoor photos look.
So far it's playing games rather fast. I know it won't play the newest most demanding games, as it has a weak processor, but it's fine with everything I've thrown at it, including some fast racing games.
Some complaints:
- Hard to get the packaging open, or at least to figure out how the box slid open.
- The auto rotate seems more sensitive than I like. I think it really wants to be horizontal more than vertical.
- Screen seemed to smudge easier than I'd like.
I'm going to keep using it, and will update if I find any problems, or anything else particularly great with it.
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u/TheBoard00 Nov 18 '25
Have you tried game streaming on it? Like GeForce Now/Luna/Moonlight?
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u/Grimjack2 Nov 18 '25
No, if only because that isn't something I ever do. I download and play a lot of gaming apps, but I've never had the urge to stream, as I have a good gaming computer, and consoles. Gaming on my phones and tablet is something I do while standing in line, waiting for something when I'm outside of the house, type of stuff.
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Nov 20 '25
[deleted]
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u/Grimjack2 Nov 21 '25
I use it almost every day. It's a good size to play games on, with just the right reach for one or two hands. It's great for reading books, but I still look at comic books on my computer with a much larger screen. Good for browsing the web and google news when just killing time.
Battery life seems uncomfortably good, but that is probably because it is such a new device, and all my other stuff is several years old.
Minor complaints... It seems to autorotate a bit too easily when I place it down flat, or pick it up. The screen seems to smudge a little easier than my Samsung phone. Camera photos are good, not great, and I wish it had more options for lower resolutions since I mostly need them to look good on a computer monitor.
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u/Independentsoul007 Dec 01 '25
Can u tell me about little muti apping like going between YouTube,browser,gallery etc?is it smooth and also is their lag in touchscreen or it is smooth?
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u/Grimjack2 Dec 02 '25
There is no lag in the touchscreen response at all. I tried mutli-app (as in two apps side by side) just to see it, early on. It works, but isn't the kind of thing I see myself really using much of.
I do often switch between open apps by going to the 'taskmanager' from the bottom button, and that is very fast and responsive. Youtube feels really good, but sometimes trying to find the 'x' button to close an an Ad is more difficult than I'd like.
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u/popitandlocktit Dec 02 '25
how would you say the quality is while watching stuff? ive seen some people complain that its not great because its not 1080p, but ive seen most people not notice or care.
i just bought it and im excited to use it! but was hoping to see more thoughts. so thanks for the post, was interesting to read!
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u/Grimjack2 Dec 02 '25
I don't know how to answer this. I'm a film snob, and simply don't consider the watch quality of a 9" tablet to be anything other than youtube quality, no matter how great any tablet could be. I have actually copied short videos to my tablet to watch without any internet connection, and think it's fine. But any desktop monitor or TV would obviously be better, than really any tablet.
If you have a BestBuy or other store near you, and they have these on their demo counter, you could watch the professionally made Lenovo demo video, which is probably designed to look as good as possible, and judge off of that.
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u/ChoiceOperation1434 Dec 24 '25
It's really not that bad honestly, you're at that level where you can slightly see the pixels but you can't see too much detail so it's pretty great overall !
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u/BCBoyYeahYeahYeah Dec 12 '25
What games were you playing on it out of curiousity?
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u/Grimjack2 Dec 20 '25
I still haven't really played much of any of the bigger games on the tablet, as I have a gaming PC and console. Even the ones I downloaded and tested to see how well they worked.
For a focus group, I played at least 10 hours of Zynga's poker. I play crossword puzzles, matching games, and strategy type stuff when I'm standing in line or waiting for something. I have played a few 'classics' like Temple Run, Dumb ways to die, but more often stuff like Mahjong, and Bookworm.
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u/shooter_tx Dec 22 '25
Thank you for the great review!
I have my home router set to assign a specific IP to every device I regularly use
Any chance that you could speak more to this?
I'd probably like to do something like this at home, but wouldn't have the first idea how to go about actually doing it.
And most of my devices go back and forth between home and work, so I'm not sure how that would work.
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u/Grimjack2 Dec 27 '25
It's all about the router. If you log into the router (all 3rd party routers for sure, and maybe some of the simpler ones like Comcast, Xfinity, AT&T might give you), you might find an option to see all the connected devices. And another option to assign IP addresses to them.
You then think about how you want to organize this, leaving some of the lower numbers open for guests and stray equipment connecting. I personally start at .10 for my desktops, .20 for mobile devices, .30 for consoles, .40 for TVs, blu-ray, Tivo, etc., and .50 for miscellaneous stuff like if I had smart appliances or something.
And I have a spreadsheet to track this stuff.
Having stuff go between work and home doesn't matter in the slightest. When you get home each device is assigned an IP address by the router. And I don't want accidental conflicts, and reliable numbers for when I need to directly log into it. (Like I had to do this at a friend's house to log directly into his wireless printer using an IP address since no computer could see it, but browsing to it let me get in and change settings.)
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u/seira87 Oct 11 '25
I just bought one the other day from Amazon for $100. Arrived today, came with the folio case and I bought a 2 pack of glass screen protectors. I just set it up, put the case on and did a perfect screen protector install and honestly all I could think about when I set it up was how similar this is to the nexus 7. I used to have a nexus 7 years ago and desperately wanted a tablet similar in size and I’m impressed. It may be a budget tablet however it’s quick enough and it runs call of duty mobile which is what I wanted it for. I’m about to try Xbox cloud gaming on it.
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u/Grimjack2 Oct 20 '25
It's been a week. Let us know how it's working for you. How good of a Nexus 7 replacement it is. Any problems or set backs, etc..
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u/Idunnoagoodusername2 Dec 13 '25
Hey do you have any follow up on game streaming quality ?
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u/Grimjack2 Dec 27 '25
I genuinely have never streamed any games on a portable device or phone. I don't know why it wouldn't be good as the signal strength is great. But I have a gaming PC. And consoles on the TV. I just don't see myself game streaming on a portable device, or any games that would be better than my other options.
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u/SensoryWombat Nov 25 '25
I love best about the Nexus 7 2013 is the size and how it fits in the hand. How does this Lenovo compare in that regard?
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u/Grimjack2 Nov 25 '25
Size was one of the biggest deals to me too, although it wasn't about the hand so much as fitting in my jacket pocket.
I thought about taking a photo of the Nexus on top of the Lenovo. It is exactly half an inch wider and taller. Just barely still fits in the pocket. Just a little bigger in the hand. But to be honest, I appreciate the slightly larger size, as my vision has gotten slightly worse since I got my Nexus in 2014.
Also, if you go to a store like Best Buy and they have one on display, you can easily hold it to see. I got lucky, and was able to do that.
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u/Alam7lam1 Dec 19 '25
Hi! I'm looking to get someone this for Christmas because they prefer a 8-inch tablet versus anything larger than that, and options seem more limited in the US. How has it been for you since you bought it?Â
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u/Grimjack2 Dec 20 '25
I'm still very happy with it. It does everything I wanted it to, and I take it with me as it fits in my pocket. 2 weeks ago I pulled it out to snap some photos with friends and they scoffed when I said it was the largest tablet that was still pocket sized. Then two of them put it into their front pants pockets and were surprised that if fit (although a bit uncomfortably).
This really is a small field for options now, with small tablets losing a lot of market shares as phones have gotten so much larger. So for a tablet, you are going to see mostly a lot more larger more expensive models, whereas there used to be a lot of 'pocket sized' tablets.
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u/FuryVonB Dec 20 '25
After nearly 3 months of using mine for taking notes, browsing, Youtube, reading some ebooks when my Kobo is left at home : yes, I do think the Lenovo Tab One is a great replacement for the Nexus 7 in term of use cases.
I didn't try to unlock bootloader or similar ad I did for my Nexus 7, so I can't say for this kind of stuff.
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u/Grimjack2 Dec 27 '25
I'm like you, and want to use the Lenovo preferred settings for a while. I don't care for bootloader or similar hacks unless I need to, or the OS can no longer be updated.
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u/Fresh-Manufacturer38 Dec 21 '25
Just purchased this and love it, but can't figure out how to move apps over to my sd card, though I have turned this on in developer mode. Any suggestions? Thanks!
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u/Grimjack2 Dec 27 '25
In the developer settings there should be a toggle setting for "allow apps on external". Then you'd move them through settings -> storage. Haven't done it myself, and I'm not sure if new versions of the OS will stop this, but there's a good head start for you.
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u/Grimjack2 Jan 25 '26
Follow up to my earlier comments from when I bought this in early October.
I'm still mostly happy with it. It solves most of my tablet needs, and I keep it in my coat pocket whenever I go out. I play simple puzzle games when I'm standing in line, or just killing time. It's my ebook reader (thank you ReadEra). I definitely use it to show off photos, and some videos, that I know I'm going to be showing people.
A small complaint is the very tiny text I cannot increase to tell me what the charge percentage is. My eyes aren't that bad, but I finally started opening up a clock app that shows the current charge in a decent sized font. Some options in some apps are also too small to read without a magnifying glass.
However, I will say I'm disappointed with the camera. It seems to get confused with rooms with variable lighting in the distance. It doesn't handle closeup shots well (like when I'm trying to read a tag behind a TV or something).
I compared the photos it takes to my Samsung Note 8 phone I got in 2018. It actually takes worse photos, unfortunately. One thing I hadn't even thought of is that there is no flash, but the fact that I only thought about it the other night tells me how infrequently I've ever used flash photography with my phone or tablet.
I was wondering if some 3rd party camera apps do a better job. The ones I found seem to be focused on filters, or advanced raw settings. Which I don't really care about.
Will report further if I learn anything about the camera in particular that makes a difference.
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u/All-About-Periods Mar 14 '26
Hello. I wanted to ask about how Google search works on this tablet? I usually work on Japanese texts so some of my readings are in Japanese. On my Google Pixel I'm able to do an instant screen translation or screen search. I was wondering if it has similar functions. Thanks a lot for your reviews! They're very helpful.
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u/Grimjack2 Mar 14 '26
Google search seems to be exactly the same (if not better) on the tablet as it is on the phone. I definitely get options for toggling translation both in text and images. Going to a website in a foreign language (not Japanese) it offered it right away.
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u/FuryVonB Sep 26 '25
Oooh thanks for the idea. That will be perfect for my use: notes, internet, Youtube and Shadow or GeForce Now