This Chromebook is perfect, assuming you already own a laptop
Chromebooks & ChromeOS
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Key Takeaways
- The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11-inch Gen 9 is modestly priced, but offers solid productivity performance.
- This Chromebook has a slim build with a small, but usable keyboard and trackpad, and a sharp display.
- Perfect as a second device, but extended sessions or using it on your lap can be frustrating.
The 11-inch form factor is a tricky one, landing somewhere between the ideal size for a tablet and a laptop. Like its predecessors, the Gen 9 Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11-inch addresses this problem by checking boxes, and it’s yet again proved a winning combo.
Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11-Inch Gen 9
The Gen 9 Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11-inch may not be the most powerful laptop, but its MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor and Mali-G57 MC3 GPU can handle everyday tasks with ease, and with up to 8GB RAM available, you have plenty of space for open tabs.
Pros
- Impressive performance for the price
- Software and UI feel fluid
- Good battery life
- Physical shutter on front-facing camera for privacy
Cons
- Using in laptop mode on your lap isn’t easy
- Undersized trackpad is tough to get used to
$359 at Lenovo$359 at Best Buy
How We Test and Review Products
Price and Availability
Regardless of which version of the Lenovo Chromebook Duet Gen 9 you buy, you’re getting an 11-inch display size with a MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor and Mali-G57 MC3 GPU. The 2-in-1 starts at $359.99, and that gets you the version with 4GB RAM and 64GB eMMC storage. This is the version I reviewed.
The step-up version sells for $399.99 and features the same display, CPU, and GPU. The differences come in the RAM, which has been bumped up to 8GB, and the storage, which is 128GB on this model.
Both of the models on the website appear to include the Lenovo Digital Pen 2, which fits neatly into a built-in cradle on the back of the Chromebook. My review unit did not arrive with one in the box.
Slim Build and a Surprisingly Sleek Design
Pull the Chromebook Duet Gen 9 out of the box, and it looks like you’d expect a Chromebook to look: moderately chunky, but otherwise relatively sleek and professional. This chunky look is due entirely to the folio-style keyboard and rear case, both of which are removable. With both removed, the Duet is only slightly thicker than an iPad.
Take a peek at the back of the unit, and you’ll see why Lenovo wasn’t afraid to cover it with a piece of plastic: between the branding and the stickers, it looks more like the bottom of a laptop than the back of a tablet. The back cover also holds an angled kickstand and features a slot for the included pen.
Unlike many built-in kickstand designs, this one works well for placing the Duet at an angle in both landscape and portrait orientations. Portrait mode can be tricky with certain 2-in-1s, so if you plan to do a lot of reading on your Chromebook, this could be a key feature for you.
On the other hand, while the built-in stand excels at keeping the Chromebook upright in tablet mode, it doesn’t work as well when you actually want to use it as a laptop. On a table it’s fine, but due to the general design as well as the strength of the magnets, using the Duet on your lap is an exercise in frustration.
I was once a full-time Microsoft Surface user, so I’m used to this particular frustration, but it still got the best of me with the Lenovo.
Small But Usable Keyboard and Trackpad Included
The ability to easily remove the keyboard when you’re not using it is handy, as it adds a significant amount of weight to the Duet. There is a small battery built into the case, so you don’t need to worry about extra battery drain when the keyboard is attached.
If you’re sensitive to the feel of a keyboard, you likely won’t find much to love about the keyboard here. It’s perfectly serviceable, and I found no major faults with it, but it was far from my favorite typing experience. The keys are decently sized, but the travel I appreciate in Lenovo laptop keyboards is missing here.
The keyboard case also features a trackpad, and the small size of the pad will likely be a bigger problem for more people than the keyboard. The ability to simply tap the screen helps to make up for it, but the trackpad feels too small. Even after using the Duet for a few days, I hadn’t gotten used to it.
Sharp, Crisp-Looking Display
The pro-level looks you get from at least most of the chassis continues as you turn your attention to the display. The glass here is from Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass, though Lenovo never says that Gorilla Glass itself is used. That said, the look is as sleek as you’d expect.
Beneath the glass lies a 10.95-inch, WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS display. This features a claimed brightness of up to 400 nits, average for most laptops. Turning to colors, Lenovo claims a 72% NTSC color gamut, which is roughly equivalent to 99% sRGB. Not perfect for all-day color grading, but more than accurate enough for most workflows.
While Lenovo may not have equipped the Duet with the brightest or sharpest display, it’s certainly no slouch, especially in a device priced this affordably. You’ll notice a bit of reflectivity under direct sunlight, but I had no problems using the Duet in front of a large window on a sunny day.
The speakers that accompany the display, on the other hand, aren’t great. They’re fine in a pinch for videos or calls, but you’d be well-served to keep a set of wireless earbuds handy.
Software: Keeping the Web Front and Center
One of the best compliments I can give to Chrome OS is that I constantly forget about it, even while using it. This means it’s staying out of my way, running in the background and letting me use the apps and services I care about, instead of demanding that I engage with something else.
Chrome OS also feels quick, even on relatively modest hardware like that powering the Gen 9 Duet 11-inch. While opening up too many apps or browser tabs will slow things down eventually—more quickly on the 4GB model, mind you—I was surprised at just how smooth the overall experience of using the Lenovo was.
Rather than a general slowing down over time, I encountered the occasional web app that would slow things down. Once I closed the app, that missing performance seemed to return. This could speak more to a poorly optimized app than the Chromebook itself, but either way, it was a fairly rare occurrence.
Surprising Performance for the Price
The Lenovo Duet 11-inch is a standard Chromebook, not a Chromebook Plus model, which offers more power. Those plus models also feature support for Gemini and other AI features.
Thanks to the lower price point and the non-Plus nature, I wasn’t sure how well this model would perform. Then there’s the difficulty of measuring a Chromebook’s performance. In the case of the Duet, I turned to Geekbench’s Android app, considering some potential buyers may be weighing the Lenovo against a standard tablet.
For CPU performance, I came away with a single core score of 937 and a multicore score of 2,226. Using the Vulkan API, the GPU score landed at 1,833. Not the most impressive scores we’ve seen, but considering the price and the fact that this is the lower-end model, it’s still fairly impressive.
As mentioned above, productivity and web apps generally work great. Even when I encountered something that bogged the Lenovo down slightly, it was a heavier web-based integrated development environment or similarly heavy app. This Chromebook is far from a gaming powerhouse, but it’s certainly capable of running a casual game on your lunch break.
Decent Front and Rear Cameras
Given the way you’ll be using the Lenovo Duet 11-inch most of the time, the 5MP front-facing webcam-style camera is the real star of the show here. Like most webcams, the quality isn’t anything to write home about, and is really more of a product of your lighting conditions than the quality of the camera. That said, I’ve seen worse webcams on far more expensive laptops.
One nice touch about the front-facing camera is the built-in privacy shutter. On many webcams, this is a hardwired electrical switch. That means it should be impossible to hack, but it can still fail. The privacy shutter here is a physical shutter that slides over the camera lens, so if it breaks, you’ll be well aware.
The Duet also comes with an 8MP rear-facing camera, and again, the quality is fine. The difference here is that you likely already have a better camera built into your phone, and it’s probably easier to use.
Plenty of Battery Life
I didn’t run any standardized battery tests, using streaming video or otherwise, to get a feel for the Duet 11-inch’s battery. Instead, I simply tracked battery usage as I was going about my usual testing and use of the Lenovo. On multiple occasions, I found myself easily getting over nine hours of use in a day.
Bear in mind, I wasn’t specifically trying to save battery in these situations, and if I’d been more battery conscious, I likely could have stretched things further. Pack a decent USB-C power brick (or power bank) alongside it, and this Chromebook could easily be the ideal computing companion for a weekend getaway.
Both USB ports support charging, so you’re not limited to which port you can use. On the other hand, neither port supports faster charging, so you’re limited to the base speed.
Should You Buy the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11-inch?
The Gen 9 Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11-inch has plenty going for it, so instead, we’ll start with where it’s lacking. The folio keyboard didn’t provide the best typing experience, and the trackpad was just small enough that I never felt comfortable using it. This, combined with tricky lap usage means it isn’t the perfect laptop replacement.
On the other hand, the Duet 11-inch is perfect as a second device or as an alternative to an iPad or Android tablet. Chrome OS works well on this hardware, as long as you keep your expectations within check, and as long as most of what you’ll be using the Duet for involves web apps, you won’t find functionality lacking.
One note: if you plan to use the Chromebook Duet 11-inch for more than occasional web browsing, you’ll be much better off opting for the version with 8GB RAM. Not only will it add some longevity to the device, but your overall experience with the device will be that much smoother.
Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11-Inch Gen 9
The Gen 9 Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11-inch may not be the most powerful laptop, but its MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor and Mali-G57 MC3 GPU can handle everyday tasks with ease, and with up to 8GB RAM available, you have plenty of space for open tabs.
$359 at Lenovo$359 at Best Buy
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