#Lenovo chromebook duet review full#
#Lenovo chromebook duet review android#

Especially if you plan to use Android apps and Linux. If you can get the version with 8GB of RAM, definitely do. This isn’t necessarily Lenovo’s fault, but as the company putting the hardware together, it’s Lenovo who will bear the disgruntlement. But more is always better and ChromeOS is getting to that point that 8GB should be the minimum. On one hand, it helps keep the price down, and in plenty of scenarios, it’s ample. Where it falls down a little is having 4GB of RAM as this review sample does. Performance is surprisingly good even when using Linux, but 4GB of RAM is still not enough.Īway from synthetic tests, the Duet 3 has been a joy to use, even handling that most daunting of tests, opening a heap of Chrome tabs. The metal back of the tablet can warm up, but nothing more than you’d experience from a Snapdragon-powered smartphone. There are no fans, so it’s always quiet, and since the keyboard isn’t part of this Chromebook you never feel any warmth even under load. It’s actually even a fairly big step up from the first-gen 7c, so to have it in a compact device like the Duet 3 is impressive. The Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 is a huge improvement.

To say Lenovo upgraded the CPU in the Duet 3 versus the original is an understatement.

4GB of RAM still trips up ChromeOS at times.

Decent but not outstanding battery life.

The Latest Qualcomm CPU is a huge improvement on the original Duet.

Gaming is a bit of a mixed bag, but for reading, watching videos, browsing and the like it’s pretty fantastic. And because it’s so compact you can take it and use it anywhere. The size of the device is perfect for mobile games and especially reading.

On the previous generation Duet just swiping to home was a jittery mess, but on this one, it’s smooth, fluid, exactly the sort of experience you would want. You would probably want Lenovo’s pen anyway since it’ll attach neatly to the little cutout on the back of the kickstand. The team at Chrome Unboxed did a deep dive into this (our sample didn’t come with a pen) so if you’re interested in the Duet 3 for doodling on it’s worth checking out. It only seems to support Lenovo’s own USI 2.0 digital pen, there hasn’t been any kind of backward compatibility with the panel. The display also supports a digital pen but with a caveat. The kickstand can be adjusted with precision though so you can at least get it at the best angle to mitigate ambient light interference. As with most touch displays though it’s really glossy and while it is bright enough to use outdoors on a sunny day, you’re still going to see more of your own face. It’s a shade under 16:9, but media fills it nicely and the 2K resolution means text is sharp and everything generally looks lovely. The bezels trimming it are nice and slim for folks who are into that, and while 5:3 isn’t the most common aspect ratio, it doesn’t feel strange. The display is a hair under 11-inches, but not far enough that we can’t refer to it as that. You can only use Lenovo's USI 2.0 pen right now with the Duet 3.

#Lenovo chromebook duet review full#

Despite the confines of the small form factor, it carries a full ChromeOS keyboard layout with cursor keys. The ChromeOS search button is quite small, which I like, because it’s harder to accidentally hit, and the trackpad is surprisingly good for something of this type. It’s fine to type on though, which is still more important. It frustrated me on the original and it frustrates me still, now. The display always seems like it’s at a slight angle along the horizontal. The other, perhaps bigger issue, with the fabric hinge is that on this review sample at least, the tablet portion never felt like it was properly aligned with the keyboard.

It doesn’t completely ruin the experience, but given the opportunity, I’d take an angle any time. It’s flat or flat, those are your choices. For one, you can’t raise the angle of the keyboard as you can with something like Microsoft’s Surface Type cover. The connection is incredibly strong using the pogo pins, but the fact it has a thin fabric hinge is still less than ideal. While the kickstand feels a little better this time around, the keyboard hasn’t really changed. The bezels are narrower now so there's more screen without making the tablet larger.