Lenovo Tab M9 9" Arctic Grey 2023

The Tab M9 is a budget tablet with a decent chip and a crippling RAM problem. Buy it only if you find it dirt cheap and only plan to stream video.

The MediaTek Helio G80 is actually a pleasant surprise here. It lands around the 72nd percentile for CPU and 70th for GPU, which is solid for a tablet in this price range. But that chip is fighting a losing battle against 3GB of RAM. Our data shows the RAM is one of the weakest points on the entire spec sheet, and owners back that up. Multiple buyers report app crashes and unresponsive touch navigation, which tracks with what we'd expect from a memory-starved Android device. The 5100mAh battery is about average, nothing to write home about.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE and Apple iPad 10th Generation are in a completely different league, but they also cost several times more. The real comparison is against other budget options like the Xiaomi Redmi Pad or UMIDIGI Active T1. The Redmi Pad typically offers a better display and more RAM for similar money, which makes the Tab M9 a harder sell. The UMIDIGI Active T1 is more rugged but less polished. If you're already spending USD 200 or more, the Redmi Pad is the smarter pick. The Tab M9 only wins if you find it at the very bottom of its price range.

Pricing is all over the place. We're seeing USD 99 to USD 349 across four US listings, which is a wild spread for the same tablet. At the low end, around USD 99, this is a defensible purchase if you know exactly what you're getting. At USD 349, it's a bad joke. The Best Buy listing is for a refurbished unit, so factor that in. If you can snag it near the bottom of that range, it's a decent throwaway tablet. Anything above USD 150 and you should be looking at the competition.

The Lenovo Tab M9 is a budget tablet that gets the basics right and not much else. The one thing to know: it's fine for streaming and light browsing, but the 3GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage put a hard ceiling on what this thing can do. Our database puts the RAM at the 10th percentile and storage at the 9th, which means it's near the bottom of the barrel even among cheap tablets. If you just want a couch companion for Netflix and YouTube, it'll do. If you want to multitask or run anything heavier than a few browser tabs, look elsewhere.

If you're looking for a tablet that can handle multitasking, productivity apps, or anything beyond light streaming, this isn't it. The 3GB of RAM will have you pulling your hair out. Go get a Xiaomi Redmi Pad or a used iPad instead. And if you're tempted by the USD 349 listing, just walk away. That's highway robbery for this hardware.

The Lenovo Tab M9 is a budget tablet that works, but barely. The Helio G80 is a decent chip trapped in a device with too little RAM and too little storage. Owners like the value and portability, but the memory limitations are a recurring complaint that we can't ignore. If you need a cheap screen for streaming and light browsing, and you can get it for around USD 99, it's acceptable. Otherwise, spend a bit more and get something with at least 4GB of RAM. This one will frustrate you sooner than you'd like.