More evidence of a new 11-inch Lenovo Chromebook Duet emerges

While chances are pretty low that we’ll see it as soon as CES 2024, I now have some pretty firm evidence that has emerged in the Chromium Repositories that has me feeling quite good about the likelihood of a new 11-inch Lenovo Chromebook Duet with the still-unannounced MediaTek MT8188 on board.

Where we are with ‘Ciri’ right now

For those a bit behind the curve, let me get you quickly caught up. ‘Ciri’ is a development board that is an offshoot of ‘Geralt’ in the Chromium Repositories. ‘Geralt’ is the main development board for a line of Detachable tablet Chromebooks that will house the new MediaTek MT8188 – a chip that shares cores with the fast, effective Kompanio 1380 in the Acer Chromebook Spin 513. The only difference is the MT8188 swaps 2 of the 1380’s larger cores for an additional 2 of the smaller cores. So, instead of 4 big, 4 little, the MT8188 will be 2 big, 6 little.

In addition to that, we’ve seen evidence of the same batteries being tested for both ‘Geralt’ and ‘Ciri’ that line up with batteries previously used in the Lenovo Duet 3 and Duet 5. We’ve also seen the exact same 13-inch 1080p OLED screen being tested for ‘Ciri’, too, so it’s clear at least that the initial devices coming from the ‘Geralt’ baseboard will likely be from Lenovo.

More evidence of Lenovo

Today, there are a couple new details we can add to the list. First, the appearance of a particular email address on many of the ‘Ciri’ commits clearly links this device to Lenovo. Mike Lee (mike5@huaqin.corp-partner.google.com) is on tons of ‘Ciri’ changes, and after looking him up in the repositories, it is clear that he’s been involved in several Lenovo projects before. He’s on a few other devices from other OEMs, too, but Lenovo is definitely the bulk of them.

So now I’m even more convinced that ‘Ciri’ will be a Lenovo device, and that brings me to the bigger find today: a clear reference to an 11-inch 1920×1200 screen that isn’t just being tested for ‘Ciri’, but will be used on the device.

As you can plainly see in the message for this particular commit, the “BOE_TV110WUM_LL0 will be used for Ciri…” and it couldn’t be put more plainly. While we see batteries and screens get tested before the developers settle in on the actual components that will ship with these devices, rarely do we see it spelled out so clearly that a particular screen is the one that is planned for use.

What will this screen be?

For now, I’m having to put pieces together, but based on the model name (BOE TV110WUM), we can make a few inferences. First and foremost, it is a BOE panel and very similar in model to the one that already is in use on the Duet 3. Early testing of the actual Duet 3 screen for ‘Ciri’ already had us thinking in this direction, but now that a similar (and likely newer) model has been tagged as the one for ‘Ciri’, we can feel certain that at least an 11-inch version of this device will surface at some point.

Looking at other BOE models, there are some clues in the model number. TV110 tells us that it is an 11-inch panel. For other panels, the next couple letters let us know the resolution. In this case, the WU tells us this will be WUXGA – or 1920×1200. This is the same size, resolution and aspect ratio (16:10) that we’ve had on a few smaller tablets at this point, and I think it works well.

Oddly enough, this model doesn’t show up anywhere else on the web, thus telling me it is a newer panel that’s not yet in other devices. But with what we can tell from the model number, the emails on these commits, the battery packs, and the overlap in testing components between ‘Ciri’ and the Duet 3 and Duet 5, it’s safe to at least say a new 11-inch Duet model is on the way.

With all the other overlaps with the Duet 5 along the way, I’m sure hopeful we can find direct evidence that points us to the inevitable Duet 5 successor as well. I think there’s ample room for both sizes in the ChromeOS world, and I think Lenovo would be wise to get both out in the market in 2024. While the original Duet 3 and 5 aren’t the same development board (they are ‘Wormdingler’ and ‘Homestar’ respectively), perhaps it was easier this time around to simply launch two variations of the same board. Or maybe we’ll see another copy/paste offshoot in the near future where ‘Ciri’ spawns a basically identical board that becomes the Duet 5 successor. There’s no way to know just yet, but we’ll keep looking for more clues until these devices surface.