Hands-on with the new Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11″: ready for far more than before [VIDEO]

I’m so glad to finally be able to tell you all about my experience thus far with the brand-new Lenovo Chromebook Duet. Unveiled last week at Google’s latest Chromebook Showcase, the new Duet doesn’t go wild with a bunch of changes to the already-working formula, but it does refine some stuff that makes an impact; and the processing power is finally here to make it the best Duet yet.

Keep an eye out for our unboxing video soon; we actually have this one in the office and had the opportunity to take a review sample with us when we left the event last week. While I still haven’t fully gone in on my review process with the new Duet just yet, I’ve spent a day or so using it and want to offer up a bit more than the surface level impressions we had when we were at the event.

The build quality you’ve come to expect

First up, let’s talk about the hardware. If you’ve come across a Duet in the past – specifically the Duet 3 – you know what we’re dealing with, here. The tablet is all aluminum and glass, feels great in the hand, and is light and thin enough to use in one hand with ease. Again, these things were all true with the Duet 3, and all that good stuff is back in this latest version.

Where Lenovo took a turn is in the kickstand and keyboard department. Again, both are included in the box, and both feel excellent. While a tad thicker than what we had on the Duet 3, the new Duet’s keyboard deck is a bit firmer and key travel feels a bit more satisfying, too. Additionally, it is spill-proof, so if you accidentally spill your coffee on it while at the cafe, it’s no big deal.

You get two well-placed USB Type-C ports, a headphone/mic jack, and stereo speakers along the sides of the device. And those seemingly oddly-placed USB Type-C ports foreshadow a really handy trick that this kickstand possesses: the ability to prop the Duet up in both landscape and portrait mode with ease.

The kicksatand back can still be removed and is still thin and light, but this new diagonal hinge is a stroke of genius. This feature also makes the seemingly out of place USB port on the top edge of the device make a lot of sense as it is near the bottom when the Duet is set up in portrait mode. And that’s exactly how I plan to use it at the desk once I really get into my review process.

The Pen has a proper home and comes in the box

A big improvement this time around is definitely in the pen department. Though we may see some SKUs where the pen isn’t included, we’re told by Google that both the 4GB and 8GB versions will be available with the new Lenovo USI 2.0 pen in the box.

It’s a nice pen and with the Duet, it has a magnetic place to live, too. Even without the kickstand in place, you can slap the pen on the back for safe keeping. But with the kickstand back, the pen is ultra-stable when attached and in and out of my bag a few times over the past couple days, I’ve not had the pen fall off once.

I’ve not used the pen a ton thus far, but in the usual weak places for USI on Chromebooks, this one has performed quite well. Google’s own Cursive app has been hit or miss on many Chromebooks over the years, and loading it up on the Duet, I’m already impressed by the overall lack of pen input lag and hopeful that when the Goodnotes arrives shortly, it’ll be just as good. Also, Google’s claims that they reworked palm rejection for this device seem legit so far, too. More testing is needed, but I’m impressed thus far.

The Kompanio 838 is for real

Another massive step forward for the Duet series is the inclusion of the new MediaTek Kompanio 838. We knew it was coming, but in my limited time with this device so far, I can tell you that it is a very capable processor. I did quickly hook it into my QHD monitor at the desk and it was able to push it at full resolution and 120Hz as well. Color me impressed.

The general performance feels a lot better as well. I’ve played a couple light games, browsed the internet, pushed multiple windows and virtual desks and the Kompanio 838 handles it all with ease. And because it is ARM, the battery life will likely be stellar as well. For now, I can’t speak to that for sure, but a cursory glance at the battery right now indicates we should be looking at 10+ hours pretty easily.

A genuinely good camera

Finally, there have been wild amounts of work done on the camera for this new Duet, and I’m impressed so far. We’ve had a few really great front-facing cameras on some Chromebook Plus devices of late, but we’ve still yet to have a rear-facing camera that is worth using on a tablet outside of scanning a document here or there.

But this 8MP rear camera (accompanied by the 5MP front-facing cameras) might actually be more useful than that. I’ve been able to snag some detailed, colorful photos with it already, and it seems like you can actually use this camera when the lighting is decent enough. Take a look at a decently-lit area in the office I just snagged a photo of with the Duet:

While it’s not winning any awards anytime soon, this is a very usable photo. Additionally, because of this better camera hardware, videos taken with the new Duet are usable as well. Again, not amazing, but in a pinch you could use this Chromebook to actually snag some video content if needed.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed with this little Chromebook tablet. I genuinely loved the Duet 3 and Duet 5, and this device stays in that same lane. With a better processor, better cameras, better pen input, better keyboard, and better kickstand, I think Lenovo has done it once again with the Duet. And getting the version with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (and the pen in the box) for just $389.99 is impressive as well. Be on the lookout as we share more about this device and let you know when and where it shows up first!