Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook Review

The Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook is far from being perfect. But, if you look at its price and features, you’d realize that it is better than the rest of its competitors. You’d notice that the Chromebooks falling in this price range, i.e., under £300, are extremely chunky and provide only entry-level features.

The base model of the Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook offers 64GB storage and 4GB RAM. It includes a kickstand and a keyboard. Apart from the basic design of the Chromebook, my other disappointment is that it measures just 10.1 inches. This is a typical size for a tablet but a bit too small for a laptop. Let’s break down the review of Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook a little further and look at what this laptop has to offer.

Design and build

If you were to ask me, the biggest drawback of the Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook is its design. Even though the design of the latest Chromebook is a little better than its predecessor, there’s still a lot of room for improvement. That said, it does have a minimalistic charm to it with a 10-inch full HD screen. The display is also a bit underwhelming because of the thicker bezels at the front. On the side of the laptop, you’ll notice a volume rocker and a power button. It also features a USB type C port which is a good addition but that’s all that you get with this laptop.

On the longer edge of the laptop sits a front-facing 2MP camera and the top-left corner of the laptop features an 8MP camera. Both these cameras deliver outstanding picture quality and the front camera can compete with even the most premium laptops on the market in terms of image quality. The kickstand panel features a fabric cover that gives this device a chic look as compared to other metal finishes and silicone plastic laptops.

Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard and trackpads of Chromebooks have always been a bit underwhelming with less than stellar specs and flimsy attachments. For some people, the keyboard size of the Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook can be its restrictive keyboard size and less-responsive trackpad. The keys on the keyboard are very tightly packed and restrict your space to work. Furthermore, neither the keyboard nor the trackpad responds well to tactile feedback. Therefore, repeatedly tapping a sluggish trackpad will become quite frustrating while carrying out your everyday tasks.

Not just this, there’s no way for you to know whether the laptop is physically registering the feedback by your fingers or not. That said, most of the time the trackpad will respond well but once every blue moon, you’d find that it stops responding for no solid reason.

lenovo ideapad duet

Screen and speakers

The Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook features a 10.1-inch IPS display with a 1920×1200 screen resolution which is a huge step up from the other Chromebooks under the same price range. The brightness of the device maxes out at 495 nits which is quite impressive.

The color contrast offered by the device is also pretty good. The text is sharp, the graphics are immersive, and the visual quality is clear as well. It sports Twin Dolby speakers along the top of the laptop which produce an acceptable sound quality. This sound quality is apt for watching your favorite TV shows on Netflix or scrolling through YouTube videos but not ideal for listening to music. The bass on the speakers is below-average but that’s expected from a laptop this cheap.

Performance

The Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook comes with a MediaTek Helio P60T octa-core processor which is the same old processor that’s been available in the Android market since 2018. If we talk about the speed of the laptop, then it is not going to provide you the speed you desire but can handle everyday tasks promptly.This is a casual use device and if you desire to push it to its limits with demanding software and games, then your laptop will get bogged down pretty quickly.

However, if you intend to use this laptop for general video streaming, web browsing, and other basic activities, then you’ll be able to do so without any hiccups. Furthermore, the laptop puts up an average performance when it comes to light gaming. Now talking about the battery life of the device, you’d be surprised to learn that the laptop maxes out at 21 hours and 29 minutes. Compared to other Chromebooks on the market that shut down after a maximum of 10 hour usage, the Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook is certainly a breath of fresh air.

The reason behind this is the light-duty GPU, CPU, and hardware used by the laptop. However, even though the device offers an excellent battery life, it loses out on performance with just a 4GB RAM.

Specifications

CPU	MediaTek P60T 8-core/8-thread 2.0GHz (boostable to 2.80GHz)
GPU	ARM G72 MP3 800GHz
RAM	4GB
Storage	128GB
Display	10.1-inch, 1920×1200 IPS touchscreen

Camera	8MP auto-focus (back), 2MP fixed-focus (front)

OS	Chrome OS
Battery	7,180mAh/27.6Wh (max)/7,100mAh/0Wh (min)
Dimensions	9.44 x 6.29 x 0.29 inches
Keyboard Dimensions	9.64 x 6.66 x 0.71 inches
Weight	Tablet: 0.99 pounds With keyboard and cover: 2.03 pounds

Price

The Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook sells at a price of £279.99 at Amazon and Lenovo. This price is inclusive of the keyboard and a kickstand.

If you’re looking for a tablet-size device that helps you carry out your everyday tasks with ease, then the Lenovo Ideapad Duet Chromebook is an ideal solution. It is appropriately priced and well-designed with excellent battery life. Even though you’d have to make some compromises on performance due to the cheap asking price, the laptop is a good pick for those of you looking for a lightweight, budget-friendly 2-in-1 laptop.

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