The largest Chrome OS tablet with a detachable keyboard is nearly here. Orders for the 13.3-inch Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook have started in the U.S. on Best Buy’s site, with availability for store pickup on October 28. Powered by a second-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, this well-equipped Chromebook is priced at $499.99.
I say well equipped to point out the differences between the Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook and the smaller HP Chromebook X2 11. Both tablets have 8 GB of memory while the Duet 5 has twice the onboard storage at 128 GB. Aside from that it also has a larger display that uses an OLED panel, although the 1920 x 1080 resolution is less than what you’ll find on the Chromebook X2 11. However, the Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook costs $100 less.
Regardless of that, on its own, this Chrome OS tablet is interesting because of that OLED display; a first for Chrome OS tablets.
It’s also the first to have the second-generation Snapdragon inside, although I’m not sure that’s a big deal. The main difference between the first and second-gen Snapdragons is a slightly higher maximum clock speed. Essentially, both are the same chipset.
Like most tablets these days can be used as a laptop with accessories.
The detachable kickstand is Surface-like too with a hinge that can hold the slate in nearly any position. Unfortunately, the magnetic keyboard doesn’t appear to attach to the bottom of the display for a more stable typing experience. Both of these accessories, along with a stylus that magnetically attaches to the kickstand portion are included.
Lenovo announced that the Duet 5 Chromebook would launch at $469.99, so I would guess that at that price, you lose half of your RAM, your storage, or both. Either way, for an extra $30 over whatever the base model provides, I’d say it’s worth the add if you’re interested in this device.
8 Comments
As noted by one reviewer the x2 11 ‘plays hard but can’t work hard’.
It will be interesting to see how the real world performance of this Duet 5 compares. Whether or not the slightly higher clock, and only 2/3rds the # of pixels to push. . with 8GB will be enough for it to ‘work hard’. Guess it all depends on your expectations of ‘work hard’.
I would want to run couple of virtual machine and multiple display support.
I have a top-tier Pixel Slate. (Don’t laugh.)
How significant of an upgrade am I getting with the top-tier Duet 5? I see the screen is slightly larger. The OLED is nice, albeit lower resolution. Looks like the memory and storage will be the same. So, if I am reading this correctly, the other major difference is the Slate’s Core i7 versus the Duet’s new Snapdragon?
The pixel slate is about $1k, where as the duet is half that. I would lower that expectations to meet the price tag. Personally i would buy the duet 5 for my day to day functions, and a more customized desktop for my video/photo editing.
Don’t set the same expectations for a CRV as a hummer when off roading.
sounds like a better one than its 10 inches brother. my concern is whether it’s USB c can output 4k or at least 1920×1200. if not, i will still consider it as toy.
Unfortunately, it looks like the stylus in not included, according to the very end of the specs list.
It doesn’t and that plastic holder thing for the pen doesn’t come with it either. I think it only comes with it overseas.
I have the Duet 5… got it from Best Buy on Sunday (10/24), pre-order… and I’ve already sent the thing to Lenovo for either repair or replacement. The screen was yellow and the resolution was too high. Text on screen was tiny and when you go into settings and increase the size, text then looks fuzzy. And no I made sure Night Light settings were off. When I played Microsoft Solitaire, the corners of my screen and random places were flickering and the colors looked overly vivid on top of the yellow tint. The screen then kept going black randomly for about a sec then come back. It didn’t do that too many times but it did happen. When I would close it when I was done using it, instead of going into sleep mode, it would turn itself off so when I did open the “laptop” again, the white Chromebook screen would be on and when I sign in, Chrome would tell me that the computer was shut down unexpectedly. My settings are set to sleep mode, not power off. Lastly, the keyboard would randomly not work when I would open the thing to wake it up from sleep when it actually did go into sleep mode, the keyboard wouldn’t work. I’d pull it off the tablet then put it back on and it still wouldn’t work. I’d have to reboot the thing to get the keyboard to start working again. The whole thing has been a disaster. Lenovo sent me FedEx info etc the very next day to send the Chromebook to them. Maybe I just got a bad apple because I haven’t seen anyone else complain and the reviews on Best Buy’s website weren’t that bad but WTF. Hopefully when yall get yours and when I get mine back or a new one back because of warranty, I hope for better luck but beware. This thing is not even showing on Lenovo’s website yet either which may not be weird but is weird to me. I’m typing this up on my Chromebook Duet 10 inch. The Duet 5 was to replace this one bc of size but they are like night and day. The difference in the screen resolution is stark. The screen on this 10 inch is bright and beautiful. The Duet 5 it was like one of those old flat screens back when TVs first started being made with a flat panel.