Grab This Sturdy Chromebook/Tablet Before They Demand More Money

The Lenovo Duet Is a Combination 10.1″ Chromebook and Tablet 2-in-1

When I first laid hands on the Lenovo Duet, I knew I was holding something special.  Oh sure, the price was incredibly attractive, but this is premium from start to finish. If it’s a compact Chromebook you’re after, I challenge anything else to come even close to the value of this unit.

The unit I’m testing was furnished by Lenovo for this review (and inclusion in our Holiday Gift Guide) and is running Version 87.0.4280.109 32-bit presently. Opinions are strictly my own, however, and this is one sweet little machine my grandkids are wishing I would keep around.

First of all, for under $300, you are getting not only 128GB of storage, but the kickstand, cover, and keyboard are all included.  No separate accessory purchases needed. You are ready to go on day one.

Whether you want a tablet only, or a Chromebook for correspondence and school work, this thing is SOLID.  I’ve felt a lot of flimsy units before, ones that I wouldn’t expect to last, but this is like a steel beam.  However, the screen/tablet weighs in at just one pound.

The 10.1-inch screen is gorgeous – awesome color saturation and brightness – with sturdy black glass, corner to corner. Screen resolution is 1920 by 1200 with a 16:10 aspect ratio. That means more information viewable on the screen at all times. The back is made of grey aluminum with a cap of slate blue plastic at the top. Quite handsome.

Across the top of the tablet are drilled micro-holes for the speakers and microphones. The sound is impressively loud and crisp for a unit this size. Along the right side are the volume toggle and power buttons. At the base on the same side is a single USB-C port for charging.

Things I missed were a dedicated audio jack and an SD or MicroSD card reader. With 128 GB onboard, there’s a good amount of storage, but I love to plug in multiple media devices with different content. You’ll want to add a dongle for those extra capabilities.

The cover/kickstand magnetically attaches itself to the back and is covered with a grey textured cloth finish.  The flip out kickstand offers a number of different viewing angles.  The 400 nit brightness of the screen makes it easy to watch and it has a super-wide viewing angle.

The keyboard easily attaches with a tenacious magnet and converts back to a tablet as quick as can be. With keyboard and cover/kickstand both attached, you are now talking about 2 pounds, which is still easily pocketable in an overcoat or Scottevest. I’ve already taken it on many a ride.

Keys on a 10” keyboard are naturally smaller, although I was able to touch type after just a short period of adjustment.  Hitting the half-sized punctuation keys was more of a glance-and-go affair to make sure I was hitting the right one.

Across the top row are keys for screen brightness and volume, each of which I used many times.  Without the screen at full brightness (which you rarely need indoors) you can stretch the rated 11 hours of battery life to even more. The battery is rated for 7,000mAh, so it takes a while to charge with the supplied 10W charger.  Overnight was always plenty of time.

The trackpad, also smaller than a typical laptop, is quite responsive and very easy to pinpoint directly where needed.

I tend to use these small machines as laptops 90% of the time and tablets only maybe 10%, so it took some getting used to to run my Android apps in tablet mode. Some were a dream on this larger-than-a-phone 10.1” screen.  Also, with a short swipe up from the bottom, I could select and continue on with Gmail, right where I left off.

The camera shoots 8MP (approximately 1.2MB) images from the rear camera and the selfie camera shoots 2MP (average 650KB).  In video mode, the shutter button is conveniently located in the lower right corner, right where your thumb is naturally placed.  Video is full HD 1920-1080 and the autofocus quickly snaps pics into focus.

There’s even a control in the settings where a programmer can run Linux tools, editors and IDE’s on the Chromebook. 

So if you are thinking about a tablet or a Chromebook, there’s no longer a reason to settle for just one, when for the price, you can get both in one sturdy, good looking package.  Check out all the detail on Lenovo’s site.

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