It’s official: a new Lenovo Chromebook Duet is coming soon

Yep, you are reading that right! After months of heavy speculation and detective work, the new Chromebook tablet from Lenovo is now out in the open for all to see. Sure, it’s still a tad bit hidden and only viewable if you know where to look (we got a heads-up from a reader), but the name of it is out there in public repositories, and I have to imagine its launch is just around the corner at this point.

Back to the basics

The images below are from cros.tech and Chromium Dash, and both of these sites pull directly from Google’s ChromeOS update servers. Between the two, there’s no denying now that the same ‘Ciri’ we’ve been tracking for quite some time is nearing launch as the Lenovo Chromebook Duet.

For the time being, it seems Lenovo is going away from the Duet 3 and Duet 5 naming scheme and back to the simple Chromebook Duet just like we saw in the first iteration back in 2020. That device was a massive success for Lenovo, so cleaning up the naming scheme a bit isn’t too surprising this time around.

As we’ve covered before, this new detachable will come bearing the new MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor (shown by its internal name MT8188G above) and should present a big performance leap over the current crop of Chromebook tablets. While we don’t expect it to be a performance monster, it will represent a large step forward for ARM-powered Chromebook tablets for sure.

I know many of you were very interested in a larger, 13-inch tablet update, but for now that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Clearly, the new Lenovo Chromebook Duet will be an 11-inch tablet more closely related to the original and the Duet 3 that came after it.

But there’s hope for a larger version down the road as both the new MediaTek MT8189 and MT8196 have been discovered and in the works for upcoming Chromebooks. So far, there’s no indication that either will end up in a tablet, but that could change quickly. Additionally, there’s no reason ‘Ciri’ (the code name for this new 11-inch Duet) couldn’t spin off as a larger version of the Chromebook Duet in the future, either.

The return of an EDU model

Just like the first Lenovo Chromebook Duet, this time around we’ll get an EDU model as well. If you recall, the EDU model was the first Duet we actually had in the studio many years ago, so it’s good to see Lenovo return to that formula.

Likely the EDU model will come with some extra durability and hopefully this time around, the keyboard solution will be a bit better. There were a few options for the first-gen model, but they weren’t good. With the success Lenovo has seen in their Duet Chromebooks and included, detachable keyboards, I’m hopeful they can make a more compelling option for the classroom here in 2024.

Things are beginning to heat up a bit as we approach the fall, and I’m more and more confident that we’ll get news about a Chromebook event in September or October at some point in the next few weeks. From the looks of it, we’ll likely see the new Lenovo Chromebook Duet there among other, fun inclusions like a new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus. Who’s getting excited?