The best small Chromebook tablet deal around is back, and there’s a twist [UPDATED]

Updated 2/2/2024 – It seems Lenovo either had a bug on their site or someone simply messed up. Today, when checking out whether or not the Duet 3 with 8GB of RAM that we discuss in the following post was still available, I noticed that Lenovo’s site took down the ‘Clearance’ label that was there prior. The deal is still certainly available, but maybe not as troubling as before.

A few times in the past, we’ve seen the 8GB variant of Lenovo’s excellent Chromebook Duet 3 go on sale for far cheaper than the 4GB version that is generally available at Best Buy. Today is once again one of those times, seeing the upgraded tablet market down 30% to a very reasonable $299.99. But there’s a bit of a twist with this deal, and we’ll get to that in just a moment.

First, however, let’s talk quickly about the Duet 3 and why it’s such a great device. In my review, I called it a “perfect sequel” and I stand by that proclamation. While not a perfect Chromebook tablet, this device fixed all the things we had to complain about in the first version of the Chromebook Duet. We generally see fixes and upgrades with each iteration of a device, but it is truly rare that a company fixes every issue we had in a Chromebook in one, single update.

But that’s what Lenovo did with the Duet 3. They mildly upgraded the already-great screen to 11-inches, improved the speakers, increased performance by a large margin, thinned out the back kickstand cover, vastly improved the keyboard/trackpad cover, and maintained killer battery life in the process. One of my few gripes was the lack of 8GB of RAM, but the version we’re talking about today has that base covered as well.

All-in-all, this tablet is fantastic and overshadowed a bit only by its larger sibling: the Duet 5. But if you are looking for a more portable, more handheld option between the Duet 3 and Duet 5, this device is both more affordable and far easier to handle as a tablet. But what about that twist?

This deal is showing up as a ‘clearance’ sale

The oddity here is the fact that Lenovo is leveraging this deal as a clearance sale. It’s not always the case, but generally speaking, clearance sales are held for those times when you are – you know – clearing space for something else. And that means this particular version of the Duet 3 may not be with us for too much longer.

To clarify, the version of this tablet and the Duet 5 that are sold at Best Buy don’t show up under this clearance at all. I don’t think they are going anywhere anytime soon. But this 8GB version of the Duet 3 may not be long for this world. And that means you need to sit up and pay attention to this deal. It legitimately might be one of the last times we see it available. If you are in the market for one of the best Chromebooks you can buy for $300, you’re looking at it. Don’t miss the opportunity.