New tablet with 9 JBL speakers sounds better than some soundbars

When Lenovo says they’re building a tablet with a really good sound system, they seem to mean it: We recently tested the Lenovo Tab Plus Gen 2, and the tablet features a total of nine speakers optimized by JBL that also support Dolby Atmos.

And the Tab Plus Gen 2 is available at a mid-range price—on amazon.com, the tablet currently costs around US$ 470.

Not a slim tablet, but it has great sound

A bulky, round module on the back houses five speakers—namely, three subwoofers and two passive membranes—while four additional tweeters are built into the left and right sides of the tablet, providing a wider stereo soundstage.

The sound experts at JBL, with no less than 80 years of experience in speaker design, helped develop this audio setup. Additionally, Dolby Atmos can be used to create virtual surround sound and place every sound exactly where the artist intends it to be—which could be in front of, beside, or above the listener.

Objective and Subjective Impressions

In our sound test, the speaker system performs really well: it even reproduces bass frequencies. Of course, it doesn’t come close to a truly high-quality speaker system at home, but for a relatively compact tablet, the sound is impressive.

We listened to a few more songs to give a subjective impression as well: Pop songs, in particular, often sound very treble-heavy—and sometimes even unpleasant—on mobile devices. Not so with the Tab Plus Gen 2: The sound is warm and full, and even high-pitched voices don’t sound harsh.

The tablet handles pop, classical, and movie soundtracks

With classical music, individual instruments are clearly distinguishable, and even with a full orchestral sound, the speakers don’t seem overwhelmed.

Movie sound is also powerful and reproduced with great detail.

We’ve already tried soundbars with our TV at home that, subjectively speaking, sounded worse than the Tab Plus Gen 2. 

So it’s no wonder that Lenovo even allows external devices like smartphones to connect to the tablet via Bluetooth and use the sound system as Bluetooth speakers.

You can find even more details about the Lenovo Tab Plus Gen 2 in our in-depth review.