When we set out to find the best tablet in the Rs.15,000 price range we found very few capable options. We started by looking what most websites like Digit and TechRadar suggest, what we found was most of their picks were miles away from being called as best! So we started by searching on Amazon and Flipkart best sellers and reading through user reviews to see what they felt was the best tablet in the category.

Best 4G Tablet Under Rs.15000

Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus

The Tab 4 8 Plus remains one of the last few Android Tablets that bundles great performance and price. With an 8-inch Full HD display, Snapdragon 625 and front facing speakers, the Tab 4 8 Plus is a great media consumption device and is certainly the best tablet in the  Rs.15,000 range.

Best 4G Tablet Under Rs.15000 (Budget)

Alcatel Pop 4 With Keyboard 16 GB 10.1 inch With Wi-Fi+4G Tablet

The Alcatel Pop 4 has a rather unique offering at a budget price. It comes with a large 10-inch Full HD screen and Bluetooth keyboard. Together you get great productivity and entertainment on the go. Like the Lenovo, it too has dual speakers and 4G support. But that’s where the similarities end, the Alcatel comes with a much slower Snapdragon 430 processor and 2GB RAM only. But for the price, it offers great productivity and entertainment for people on the go. Click here to read more about the Alcatel Pop 4, which was also our pick for the best tablet under Rs.10,000.

Why Trust Us?

While searching for the best tablet in the Rs.15,000 budget we knew there were not going to be a lot of tablets available. A glance through the most reputed tech websites like TechRadar and Digit gave very few good picks, while most of the other tablets were either outdated or too poor in terms of specifications to be selected. 2GB of RAM and HD display for Rs.17,000, we think is a joke bordering on a scam.

Not entirely happy with what most websites had to suggest we started looking into Amazon and Flipkart best sellers to find something which is actually usable in the real world. By looking through user reviews we got two good picks that we felt offered better value for money than most other tablets in their class.

How We Selected?

Given that we did not have a great experience finding great tablets under Rs.10,000 we kept a very small set of specifications to consider like Full HD screen, large battery, 4G support and a processor capable of driving the screen.

Glancing through some of the most reputed websites like TechRadar and Digit for their picks of the best tabs under Rs.15,000 gave us disappointing results. Most of their suggested products had a horrible HD screen with 1.5GB RAM in 2018! Then there was the software on these tablets that was more than 4 years old! We know tablets rarely get updates but 4 year-old software?

So, as usual, we decided to stick to best sellers on Amazon and Flipkart. Reading through verified users opinions about the products. From our research based on the reviews and a rough set of specifications we found two picks that offered more than their competitors.

Pros

  • Superb 8-inch Full HD IPS display
  • Gorilla glass-protected display
  • Powerful Snapdragon 625 processor
  • Supports 4G, Wi-fi-ac dual-band, USB OTG, BL 4.2
  • Expandable storage up to 128GB
  • 3GB of RAM is decent
  • Superb front firing speakers
  • Has USB-C connector
  • 7mm thin and 300gms weight
  • Stock Android experience
  • A fingerprint sensor is present
  • Good battery life
  • Comes with a 4GB/64GB version
  • Update to Android Oreo 8.1 confirmed by Lenovo

Cons

  • Front and Back glass will be difficult to maintain
  • Uses almost 1-year-old Android 7.1.1
  • Hybrid sim-slot (1x Sim + 1x Sim or 1x Sim + 1x SD Card)
  • Only 16GB internal storage for Rs.16,990!!

Apart from Apple and Samsung, Lenovo has been the only major brand that has still remained pretty relevant in the tablet space. They even have a Windows Tablets under their YOGA lineup and always keep experimenting in the tablet market. Their Yoga tab series was very cool that came with some cool features like the top that swivelled to show the camera. The Yoga Book was another brilliant device which was essentially two tablets fused to make a laptop: the top part became the screen and the bottom was the keyboard.

The Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus doesn’t have anything as unique as some of Lenovo’s past offerings but what it is, is better. Better than any other overpriced and under-specced tablet in its category. The Tab 4 8 Plus’ main differentiating design feature is the all-glass design which looks cool and in tune with the modern smartphone design language. What is also noteworthy is how slim the tablet is with a thickness of only 7mm, less than most smartphones out there. It also weighs 300 gms which means it’s great to hold for long movie sessions.

The volume rocker and power button (which also doubles as a fingerprint sensor) are positioned to the right. The USB-C and Headphone jack are placed at the bottom. The front of the tablet has the screen and the front facing the camera. The speakers too are placed at the front at an angle. While the rear has the camera and dual led flash.

Now being a tablet the screen is of utmost importance and the screen on the Tab 4 8 Plus is simply superb. Before we begin do note that the screen is 8-inches and not 10-inches, you do get a 10-inch version but that costs nearly Rs.30,000. With the size out of the way let us talk quality. The screen has a 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution in a 16:10 aspect ratio. The aspect ratio is to compensate for the bottom navigation bar in Android so your content is shown in true 16:9 and not less. The panel is an IPS LCD one which has great viewing angles and is sufficiently bright at nearly 400 nits. The front is also covered with a Gorilla Glass for protection against scratches. TechRadar found the display to be bright, offer excellent viewing angles and true colors albeit a little cool. They even felt the 8-inch size was a boon as it offers more screen space than smaller sized tablets but was far more portable than the 10-inch tablets. AndroidGuys also found the screen to be pleasing to read text in emails, social media, and websites. This is down to the relatively high pixel density of about 283 ppi which is more than that of even the iPad Pro 10.5 (265 ppi). If you have been reading through the latest tech news and have seen bezel less smartphones and are in awe of it, do remember the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus has bezels, really thick ones at the top and bottom. That because it’s from the older generation of tablets and a budget one at it.

Powering a screen of Full HD needs decent processing power and Lenovo hasn’t skimped here with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. The 625 isn’t the latest mid-range processor out there but it is very capable, designed to provide great performance with low power consumption and heating the 625 makes perfect sense in this tablet. The eight cores of ARM A53 processor and the powerful Adreno 506 make gaming and entertainment hassle-free. TechRadar too loved the tablet for its performance which they found was capable enough to take on smartphones at a similar price point.

For people who like a few numbers, the Tab 4 8 Plus scores 851 in single-core and  4,202 in multi-core GeekBench Benchmark. These scores are close to those achieved by other smartphones having the same processor like the Redmi Note 5, Mi Max 2 etc.

The base variant of the Lenovo comes with 3GB of RAM.  Which should be sufficient for most tasks but an extra gigabyte of RAM for the price would have made it even better. However, we did not like the 16GB of internal storage which is frankly too less for a tablet this good. 32GB should be a standard for smartphones. Fortunately, you do get an sd card slot that can hold up to 128GB of storage so you can carry a lot of movies and music. There is a USB-C port as well with OTG so you can even hook up a pen drive.

Now we come to the software of the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus. Lenovo for long has had a reputation of loading their devices with tons of bloatware and custom skins and what not. But even since they bought Motorola, Lenovo has tried to mimic Moto’s near stock software experience with almost no bloat. The Tab 4 follows this to the T, shipping with Android 7.1.1 and a few Microsoft (this is due to a licensing deal) and Lenovo Apps. Thankfully some of these apps are uninstallable. TechRadar loved the stock experience which was smooth and bug-free. During the time of testing, their review device also received two updates. In the meanwhile, Lenovo has confirmed the Android Oreo 8.1 update for the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus which will be out by November 2018. A feature of the tablet is that you can program the fingerprint to different people, each having different accounts on the tablet. This is a very cool and convenient feature provided on the tablet that will come in very handy when you lend your tablet to your kids.

Great Screen? Check.

Powerful Processor? Check.

Stock Software? Check?

What else do we need for a great multimedia experience? Ya right, audio!

Audio duties are handled by the two front firing speakers that come with a Dolby Atmos software that lets you tune the audio to your preference. Talking about audio performance TechRadar found the audio to be loud enough to drown out a shower and the quality to be impressive for the price. The audio and the screen make it great for watching movies and listening to music on the move.

For surfing the internet you have 4G support but no VoLTE, you can, however, use the Jio4GVoice app to make voice calls over the internet. You also get dual-band Wifi ac, Bluetooth 4.2 and A-GPS.

For the rare occasion when you feel obligated to click a picture or two with your tablet, Lenovo provides you with an 8MPx rear camera and a 5MPx front camera. TechRadar found them to work very well in good lighting conditions but get poor once the lighting goes down.

The 4850mAh battery runs the show under the hood and we found almost all the verified buyers on Flipkart were satisfied with the battery life of the tablet. TechRadar found the tablet would last a whole day under moderately heavy use clocking a screen on time of around 5 hours. Cutting down on the usage saw the tablet last for at least 3 days, which even we feel is impressive given the large screen. Talking about charging people reported the charging was reasonably fast taking around 2+ hours to charge from 10-90%. This is far better than any iPad in the market.

To sum up, the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus comes with a very good set of features: 8-inch Full HD screen, Snapdragon 625 processor, 3GB RAM, 4G support, dual speakers and a large battery and a very good price making it one of the best tablet in the Rs.15,000 range.

After Sales Service

Lenovo offers a 1-year warranty on its tablets and 6 months on the accessories. For any issue, you have to take the product to the service center for repairs/ replacement.

Who is Our Best Pick For?

In a market that doesn’t offer a lot of variety and a lot of bang for the buck, the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus stands out with its sharp and bright screen, slim design, beefy performance, loud audio and good battery life. Its price of around Rs.16,990 is also good considering its specifications and screen size.

Final Thoughts

In a market that doesn’t offer a lot of variety and a lot of bang for the buck, the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus stands out with its sharp and bright screen, slim design, beefy performance, loud audio and good battery life. Its price of around Rs.16,990 is also good considering its specifications and screen size.