Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 review: a step backward

I’ve reviewed only a few budget laptops in the last couple of years. The reason is simple — I can only review so many laptops, and there have been so many good ones to cover that I’ve just not had the time. But budget laptops are important, simply many people simply don’t have $1,000 or more to spend on a laptop that will only be used for basic computing tasks.

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet is one of the better sub-$500 laptops I’ve reviewed, coming in at under $350 at current prices. The updated model was worth another look, and this time around the price is back up, but the experience is actually a step back rather than forward. Even as an affordable option, it doesn’t land on our recommendations of the best Chromebooks you can buy.

Specs and configurations

There are two models of the Chromebook Duet 11. The based model costs $360 with a MediaTek Kompanio 838 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of eMMC storage, and a 10.95-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS display. For $400, you get 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. My review unit has 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but that configuration isn’t listed

Those are affordable prices, and I would recommend springing for the more expensive configuration just for the additional storage. Chrome OS doesn’t demand a lot, but I don’t like the idea of just 64GB. RAM isn’t a big deal, given that Chromebooks run quite well with 4GB. IU don’t have many comparisons, at least none of that we’ve reviewed. The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is a $549 laptop that has a great 16-inch QHD+ display and faster performance. You could also consider an Apple iPad for $349 with 64GB of storage that would give you a great experience, but you’ll pay more to add a keyboard and kickstand cover — both of which are included with the Chromebook Duet 11.

Design

The Chromebook Duet 11 is a sturdy little tablet. It’s built of aluminum, as far as I can tell, and it’s sturdy and light. That gives it a great feel in hand, basically equivalent to other tablets at any price. You won’t worry about its durability when you toss it into a backpack, and you’ll barely know it’s there. It’s a bit larger than the iPad in spite of having a similar display size, but it’s not so much that you’ll notice it.

There’s not a lot to say about the Chromebook Duet 11’s aesthetics. The front is the usual black slate and the back is a dark gray with a lighter gray section on top. The iPad comes in different colors if you’re into that, but personally, I thought Lenovo’s tablet looks just fine.

One advantage of the Chromebook Duet 11 is that a kickstand cover is included, which attaches magnetically to the back of the tablet and stays firmly in place. It adds thickness and weight, but it works well enough and is easy to pop on and off. The keyboard is also included, but as you’ll see below, that’s not really a good thing.

Keyboard and touchpad

I didn’t exactly love the included detachable keyboard on the older Chromebook Duet, given small keycaps and a cramped layout. But the switches on that one weren’t great and I didn’t like it much. This time around, though, I admit that I flat-out struggled to use the keyboard. I don’t know if it’s different or if my tolerance got worse, but I simply could not type on it at all. The switches were so loose that I had a hard time just entering my Google password when setting it up. It was so bad that I didn’t even try to my usual practice of writing this review on the laptop itself. I won’t even bother comparing it — I’ll just say instead that just about any keyboard you use is likely to be a lot better.

The touchpad was very small and just OK. And the display supported touch just fine during my testing. Lenovo didn’t include the optional active pen, so I couldn’t test the drawing and handwriting aspect that makes the Chromebook Duet 11 attractive at these prices.

Connectivity and webcam

You get two USB-C ports and an audio jack. That’s it. But lots of tablets don’t offer much more, even far more expensive models. Even the very expensive Microsoft Surface Pro doesn’t have much more connectivity. You’ll use one of the ports to charge the laptop, leaving one free for connecting peripherals. Wireless connectivity is a couple of generations behind at this point with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1.

There are two webcams: 5MP front-facing and 9MP rear-facing. That’s good enough for whatever you might want to do with this tablet, including whatever AI features that Google rolls out in Chrome OS that will utilize the cameras.

Performance

The previous model of the Chromebook Duet used a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 chipset, which wasn’t particularly fast but kept things moving along well enough. Chrome OS doesn’t require a bunch of resources, and the Qualcomm chipset mated with 4GB (the same in my review unit) was good enough. Its Geekbench 5 scores weren’t great, as you can see in the table below, but again — Chrome OS.

Lenovo switched to a MediaTek Kompanio 838 chipset this time around. That’s an 8-core part that should be at least as capable of the previous model’s Qualcomm, and it did around the same in Geekbench 5 as its predecessors. It did worse in Speedometer 2.0, which gives a rough idea of how quick a laptop is at running the web processes that are built into Chrome OS. I saw that as I used the tablet, where the new Chromebook Duet 11 didn’t feel as fast. Even with just Chrome open, there was a lot of stuttering and delays. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

It’s especially disappointing since this is a new chip and device, comparing with something from two years ago. That’s not what you want.

I don’t know if it was down to running a newer version of Chrome OS that might be more feature-laden or just the chip itself. The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE had a low-end Intel Core chipset, but it was plenty speedy with zero slowdowns. But that chipset is still faster than this MediaTek option.

The bottom line is that Lenovo has some work to do, if the performance issues I experienced can be addressed by an update. If not, then it’s hard to recommend. Get the base iPad instead, which will be a ton more fluid. I ran a few games on the Chromebook Duet 11, and it goes without saying, but I wouldn’t recommend buying the Chromebook Duet 11 if even light Android gaming is at all important to you.

Battery life

The Chromebook Duet 11 has the same 29 watt-hour battery as its predecessor and the same display resolution and technology. In spite of performance being a bit worse, battery life wasn’t better. In fact, it dropped off at least an hour.

It’s not that battery life was poor. It wasn’t, and in fact it was pretty good and means you’ll get above-average battery life. It’s just a bit disappointing that performance wasn’t better as a trade-off.

Display and audio

The Chromebook Duet 11 has a 10.95-inch 16:10 FHD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS display. That’s plenty sharp, and the 60Hz refresh rate is to be expected for under $400. Subjectively, the display looked good enough, with sufficient brightness in my home office and probably enough for all but working outside under the sun. The colors were fine and seemed accurate enough, and contrast was good enough that blacks didn’t fade into gray.

I can’t test the display using my colorimeter, so I can’t provide objective metrics. But I suspect that the display will be more than good enough for anyone who’s going to buy the Chromebook Duet 11. Certainly, you can spend a lot more and get a much higher resolution, better colors and contrast, higher brightness, and maybe even an OLED panel. And the iPad does have a higher-resolution display that’s considerably brighter, for not a lot more money.

But for the usual web browsing, email, and typical media consumption uses, the display is fine. Audio is provided by two side-firing speakers, and it’s fine, too. You have to step up to the Apple iPad Pro to get really good audio in a tablet.

It’s affordable, but that’s not really good enough

I wanted to like the Chromebook Duet 11. I liked the older version quite a bit, especially when it dropped under $350. It was (just) fast enough, got decent battery life, and could serve as a decent Chromebook for anyone with limited computing needs. But I don’t feel the same way about the newest version.

The line between fast enough and problematically slow is thin, and the new Chromebook Duet 11 falls on the problematic side. It’s been a while since I’ve tested a device with performance this poor. Lagging and hesitations even just in Google Chrome will make using the Chromebook Duet 11 a very unpleasant experience, regardless of how basic the use case is. Throw in an uncomfortable keyboard, and you have something that’s not worth buying — even at rock-bottom prices.

Lenovo has a larger 2-in-1 option, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 13, which has a faster processor and an OLED screen for just $150 more, whereas the previous-gen model is selling for just $240.