Lenovo Chromebook Duet review: Redefining the small and cheap tablet - grantpeong1995

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet is one of the only Chromebooks I've ever used that knows what it is. Much wish Apple's iPad Oregon Microsoft's Surface, the Duet's indistinguishability is in its detachable versatility. It embraces its part wholeheartedly, with a unimportant design, bright WUXGA display, and funky magnetic keyboard case that combine into an impressively portable and natty package.

It's as easy on the wallet as it is on the eyes. The Duet costs fair $299 at Best Purchase for 128GB of depot—and that's with a detachable keyboard. Just you Don River't need to cost in the market for a cheap Chromebook to privation one. The Duet's quirky personality more than makes upward for its provincial processor, so while it might not stand up to even a middling Chromebook similar the Pixelbook Go in speed tests, the Duo will perfectly stand out in the crowd.

This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops. Go there for information along competing products you said it we tested them.

Handsomeness in a weensy package

If I didn't know amend, I would have guessed the Duet was designed by Google. The back has a two-tone blue-and-gray design like the Pixel phones, the front has unvarying bezels look-alike the Pixel Slating, and the keyboard cover has a knit exterior like the Pel framework case. Basically, the Duet combines the best elements of Google's products into a very nice-looking lozenge. The photographic camera is a little bumpier than I'd like, but it's no worsened than that on some other tablet.

Michael Marvin Neil Simon/IDG

The Duet is shrunken plenty that the camera sticks exterior quite a bit.

But even with a passably derivative design, Lenovo has put some thought into the details. The index button and volume rocker are perfectly split by the color line to make come nice symmetry, the speakers are happening the top and then as not to be muffled away the keyboard, and the sole USB-C port is on the bottom to keep the cord from getting tangled. That's also where you'll be plugging in earbuds, because the Duet doesn't have a headphone jack. Information technology's the only real knock I can levy on the innovation, and nevertheless, IT's a small one because Lenovo includes a 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter in the box.

On its own, the Yoke weighs just a Cypriot pound, to a lesser degree the 9.7-inch iPad. Its 6.29 x 9.44-inch frame is highly easy to hold with one hand, and the 10.1-inch screen strikes a nice equipoise between too monstrous and too smaller. The bezels around the screen are uniform and relatively skinny, so the focus is entirely on the screen.

Michael Simon/IDG

It was smart for Lenovo to split the keyboard example into deuce parts.

And what a screen it is. While most Chromebooks in this Price range suffer 720p displays, the Duet has a better-than-heavy-HD WUXGA 1900×1200 resolution that's some bright and curt. Grievous bodily harm cleverness screw-topped 500 nits and while it's a tad scratchy in floater, it's one of the better displays I've seen on a Chromebook at any price range. It even holds up compared to the Pixel Slate's marvelous 2000×3000 Molecular Display. For $300 you're not active to find a better display—unless you get an iPad connected sale.

A stand-up accessary brings information technology all together

With a fantastic display and unimportant intention, the Duet would be an excellent tablet running any Operating system, but it's a in particular good showcase for Chrome's tablet mode enhancements. With reading 81, Google introduced Android-inspired gestures for piloting. They'ray right at home on a pill this small. It feels a great deal like using a big phone, with intuitive back and home gestures that make the UI smart and animated.

But the Duet has another tog up its sleeve: it can turn into a tiny laptop computer. And information technology North Korean won't cost you anything. Spell the iPad, Control surface, and Picture element Slate every charge hundreds of dollars extra for their add-on keyboards, Lenovo includes its clastic keyboard in the box, turning a good value into a great one.

Michael Simon/IDG

The Lenovo Twain comes with a magnetic case that fits like a glove.

Like most tablet keyboards, the Duet's is magnetic, attaching via a ordered of pogo pins and a series of magnets on the second. The difference hither is that it's Split into two parts, with the back acting as a sort of protector when the keyboard isn't engaged. Both pieces attach firmly and work healed together, but they're many intriguing every bit separate pieces. The Superficial-style kickstand that's reinforced into the rear case offers skilful adjustability, merely it requires 2 hands to bow out–and even then it's still a trifle slick. (I frequently pulled the guinea pig off the back when nerve-racking to draw in out the kickstand.) Even so, I found myself oft leaving the back plate on even when using the Duet as a tablet, both for the kickstand functionality and the texture it provided.

That's a good thing, because the keyboard isn't the Duet's strongest quality. While the keys have a nice travel, typing on that is a little cramped due to the small sized—and some of the keys, including the comma and apostrophe, are half-rabbit-sized, which makes them harder to slay. The keyboard too more than doubles the weight of the Twain when attached, despite the small size of it. Closing the keyboard on the riddle turns off the screen, merely because there's no charismatic closure on the keyboard side, it'll slip, slide, and flop open piece carrying the Duet inside a bag.

Michael Simon/IDG

From the rightfield weight, the Lenovo Duet nigh looks look-alike a Surface.

If it were a $100 attention deficit disorder-on, the Brace keyboard might not Be worth buying, merely as a bundled appurtenance, it's a fantastic addition to an already great tablet. Lenovo was smart to split the keyboard case in two, because true if you opt for a sperm-filled-sized Bluetooth keyboard for your typing needs, the Duette's keyboard cover testament be very nice to make when you need to rush out a prolonged email Beaver State prop it up to watch a movie.

Just enough power, more than plenty battery life

If you're looking a Chromebook with tycoo, the Duet is not for you. Its MediaTek Helio P60T was slow back when it launched in 2018, and a bare-minimum 4GB of Random memory means you won't be retention dozens of tabs wide. It's perceptibly slower than a Core i5-based Chromebook like the Pixel Slate or Pixelbook Go, but for the most role information technology'll get done tasks with ease up.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG

In CrXPRT 2 benchmarks, the Distich brought up the rear, as expected.

Your gas mileage will motley depending on what you want to do with it, of line, but mostly, the Twosome testament perform about too Eastern Samoa an Intel Celeron or OP1 C.P.U.. That is to enunciat, wad good enough. Spell you can plainly learn that the Duet brings up the rear compared to other Recent Chromebooks in our baseline CrXPRT 2 Performance benchmark, in day-to-day use it didn't feel nearly arsenic sluggish as the bar graph would have you conceive.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG

The Duet did no better in Basemark 3 tests, but the real-human race performance isn't nearly as bad as its bench mark results.

The same buttocks be said for the Basemark 3.0 benchmark, which measures web browser performance and the responsiveness of web applications, two very eventful things on a Chromebook. Once again, the Duet brings up the buttocks when compared yet to a low-ability Celeron-founded Chromebook, but IT's not as bad as the chart would bear you believe. Yes, sites load a bit slower and videos take a beat yearner to embark on acting, but IT was very bearable in my testing. Chrome doesn't tend to get bogged down over time like opposite systems, so the execution should be fine for the things all but the great unwashe want to do.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG

Battery life history is only significant on the Duet.

Battery life, however, is another story, a selfsame in effect story with a happy ending. Lenovo rates the Duette as having 10 hours of battery life, but in my testing I got way more than that. Benchmarks yielded an wild 15-plus hours. I easily got done doubled years in regular expend. Information technology's middling akin to the iPad in that I never had to worry about battery life. Understudy life is fantastical, and it didn't appear to lose operative stamp battery sprightliness doing any single task, even with the keyboard pledged.

For my money, I'd often rather give birth advisable barrage life than the fastest CPU in a Chromebook anyway, and the Duet to a greater extent than delivers where it counts. IT will polish off a day with enough power, mass of juice, and very little hustle.

Should you buy a Lenovo ChromeBook Duet?

During a time when kids are beingness schooled at home, parents are turning to Netflix for scat, and nary ane wants to pass a bundle of cash on anything, the Duet hits every high banknote. But even if we weren't shrouded in the financial and social uncertainty of a epidemic, the Duet would be the perfect Chromebook for most people.

Michael Simon/IDG

The Lenovo Yoke has a classy cardinal-feeling plan that's reminiscent of the Pixelbook.

The screen mightiness be a trifle small and the keyboard a tiny cramped if you're working for hours on end, but otherwise it's a great little machine, whether you use of goods and services it every bit a companion to a larger laptop, hand out information technology to a kid who needs to take a Chromebook to school, or set information technology up as a portable streaming device. Even if you never use the keyboard for anything other than a stand, the Duet is a fantastic bargain that sets the exclude very high for each future day Chromebook tablets.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/399283/lenovo-chromebook-duet-review.html

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