Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 Review: Incredible Improvements 

Can you watch kayo on it

Exactly! I've owned both, there are minor issues with this one, but it's so much better, especially for the price! I got it for the same price you did, and I was even able to add an educational discount, got it for like $254ish. A great deal

Got mine for 165!

@@RAYLYNREALITY no way u liar. They cost 400 u mean the OG one maybe

@@theresurrection33 yeah I got the duet 3 for 165 not the duet 5

That is a great use case for this! For sure

Thanks! Means a lot!

Yeah that's a pretty massive deal! I made a couple of updated videos over time on it I believe. It's a great tablet even today, especially for the price

Thanks! Appreciate the comment, yeah you are right! Chrome OS is great at the basics. And has a lot of functionality people don't realize too.

Totally agree!

Yeah this is basically the same thing, just a slightly smaller build and keyboard. But still big enough to use, and more portable. No OLED but it's a little sharper, so it evens out. Hope you enjoy your 5, and definitely keep an eye out! Best Buy puts these things on sale all the time!

Hey thanks for being a sub, it means a ton!

Thanks Sabrina!

@@AndroidDigest I keep learning so much from your channel the information is very informative to me.my pleasure.

Thanks so much and thanks for the sub!

That's odd. I have the HP and even though I'm not a big fan of the keyboard (I prefer the feel of the Duet 3) it did feel like the keys were still a little bigger then the keys from the original Duet. Plus the original Duet keys felt much cheaper. That was just my take, but I don't have the original Duet with me to compare. The HP seems to have a similar key size to this Duet, but this Duet feels like I can actually type on it and get a good experience compared to the original, which wasn't good enough in my opinion

@@AndroidDigest my observation was re: the _key spacing_ of the keyboard. Measured from the center of the "a" key to the center of the ";" key, the X2 11 is noticably narrower. This is obv due to the HP's 3:2 aspect ratio. As a touch typist the size of the individual keys is not as important as key spacing.

@@AndroidDigest for the record, the original Duet keyboard, while wider than the X2, was also distractingly too small (as well as a bit "cheap" feeling).

Good point! That's not something I measured out. I will admit that it does look like the newer Duet 3 also has limited spacing between the keys. I no longer have the HP in front of me to double check all this, so that's one thing to keep in mind (I already recorded my comparison). But I will say the keyboard deck on the duet 3 is MUCH more sturdy than the original, it feels more premium and the keys feel much better overall. So there are some improvements, and since it's 11" vs 10", the keys are definitely bigger, I just can't speak for the difference in spacing between the keys. All I can say is, it feels much better to type on and I feel like I can actually get some work done on it.

@@AndroidDigest gotcha, okay. BTW, the way to measure key spacing is _center-to-center_ not just the space btwn the keys, b/c if the keys are bigger or smaller that may misrepresent how far your fingers travel to strike the middle of each.

Thanks so much Rob, appreciate you! I see you following on Twitter. Thanks for all the support

How do you upload pictures

Both the older and newer versions have eMMC. but yeah that's a pretty good price for the older model! Hope you enjoy it

@@AndroidDigest I thought one had SSD? The one listed on Best Buy's website says it's a SSD. Walmart has the Duet 5 ( I'm guessing an older model ) 4 gb ram 256 SSD ( it's what listed ) for $375. I ordered one of those too.

@@MauGino none of them have an ssd. They are all emmc. Walmart specs or some other website might say SSD. But it's all emmc. Honestly though I don't think it will make a lick of difference on a device like that. Getting a little bit of extra transfer speeds won't mean very much because this computer won't have the power to do things like video edit or anything super intense anyway. But yeah there's no SSD model that I'm aware of, and I've done pretty intense research on it, most likely there's a website or two mislisting that spec, and that does happen with ssds and emmc fairly frequently honestly

@@AndroidDigest Now that I look at the Walmart listing, in the title is says SSD, but in the smaller specs listing it says eMMC. I've been out of the game for years when it comes to purchasing a new system, my iMac is 9 years old and still running. Just thought I'd try Chrome ecosystem since I mostly just stream and surf.

@@AndroidDigest Heads up Best Buy has the newest version of the DUET 5 on sale for for $379. 8 gb ram 128 SSD

You should get pretty similar performance in this Duet 3 or the Duet 5 compared to the S6 Lite. iPads are a step up in many ways with performance, but I feel like the Duet 3 and 5, they do the basics pretty well

If you wait a little longer we should see some faster tablets coming soon. Some with a new mediatek processors that are a lot faster

I also use Andronix, but you do want to consider ChromeOS, even with ARM chipset, because of hardware GPU acceleration. That is something Andronix can never do until Termux gives such a capability. P.S. If you do care about GNU Linux more than Android, I suggest to stay with x86 as it has wider desktop software support compared to ARM.

I'd say it depends. Do you want a device you can use as a tablet? Do you want a detachable device? If that's an extra bonus for you, I would say absolutely. The speakers aren't super loud, so that's one con, but this does have great battery life, the screen looks great for watching content, this is very lightweight and portable. So absolutely. If you want a larger device, the Chromebook Duet 5 is at Best buy for $380 (on sale right now) and that device has a larger keyboard. So if you want something more portable I'd go with the Duet 3, if you want something larger with a bigger keyboard, I'd pick the Duet 5. Both of those links are in the description. And the Duet 5 also has open box options (you can go for excellent condition, which is pretty much a like new device). It sounds like you do really basic stuff. And this device has tremendous battery, a great display, and it gets very bright, compared to other chromebooks at this price, this will have a better screen. And it still will be fast enough to get basic stuff done. So I'd say this fits you well. But if you don't care at all about the tablet form factor, you could maybe get something like the Galaxy Chromebook 2, which is like $370 at Best Buy. That may be slightly faster, with similar battery life and similar screen quality, and you would get a bigger keyboard and something a little bit more substantial, some people want that laptop form factor, some people prefer a detachable, I'd say it depends on what you want. Hopefully this comment helps!

@@AndroidDigest Thank you so much! i’ve decided to go with this

Didn't realize it went down to $99! I paid $140 for one grade a refurbished on eBay with a crazy good coupon. But that's as low as I personally saw it. I got it for $250 from Lenovo. They dropped it to like $270 at launch for a couple days and then I added a student discount on top of that.

It costs 400... Its sad bri

Yeah I definitely wish it had 8 gigabytes of RAM. But in my personal usage I wasn't too hindered by the 4 so I just have to be honest about it. I'm hoping they release device like this with a better processor and more RAM next year. Or even this year

@@AndroidDigestI realize they say 4gb runs it smoothly but man, I think they test it with kids only lol

The 8gb is available on Lenovo’s site

I would recommend the Duet honestly. High schoolers are used to Chromebooks. And they can still run Android apps, but it will run a full version of Chrome and sometimes students need that, sometimes mobile versions don't pull up certain things. Plus when I tested the P11 Plus keyboard it was missing some inputs. That was months ago but it was my experience

I know it's some form of eMMc. definitely not an ssd

I don't yet, they really hide some of those things, hopefully I'll find out soon

Bro stop it 😂😂 you're going to scare people off my links haha.

@@AndroidDigest it's ait only the strong will survive . And dine in glory at the hall of chucky cheese 🧀

@@cobaltblue5523 I can't afford chuck e cheese without a few people clicking some affiliate links though

@@AndroidDigest I already clicked on all the links like you said man . I didn't buy anything but I clicked on it cause I was like let me help this n**ga out 😆

No idea, unfortunately

To be honest I'm not sure this device will be for you. I don't think the speakers are that loud. I can't compare with the HP stream. So maybe it's an improvement over that. But they definitely aren't super loud or anything

@@AndroidDigest Yes, I think you did say something to the effect of it not being super-strong in the video, but I thought I'd check anyway. I very much appreciate your taking the time to reply, anyway; it all helps. Thanks for that and have a lovely afternoon/morning/night or whatever it is where you are! :-)

I guess I would have to ask why you've had it with Android tablets. And what Android tablets you've used and why you don't like them. If you're in existing Chromebook user and you enjoy Chromebooks this is basically going to be a smaller version of the Chromebooks you use. You could download some Android apps, you can alphabetize your apps, and you could download web versions of apps that don't have good Android apps. But it depends on what's really holding you back from enjoying tablets. iPads are extremely good and they have a lot of power. I always prefer the Android ecosystem though. But iPads can be great so it's just depends on what you're looking for really.

@@AndroidDigest The last device I had was the Lenovo M10 FHD and my issue really was I felt that the app experience and the browsing experience aren't really optimal. I use Android on the phone so on paper the Chrome is better (already invested). By think the ipad offers a great tablet experience. I had the first Duet and didn't actuallly like it that much (sold after a few months), but very interested to see the improvements thyey have made on the 3.

@@whereweregoingwedontneedey4374 they improvements are really minor. The biggest one just being that it's faster.. you are right that not every app is optimized for tablets. You also used a slower Android tablet which makes sense too. I would say you are probably better getting a new duet 3 or an iPad. You could also get something on eBay like a Samsung Galaxy tab S7FE which would cost like $300 refurbished. It's a better tablet experience on Samsung then Lenovo, that's for sure. But it's really hard to say. If I were you I would just try them out myself. I think it's tough going between operating systems and I think once you start on an iPad you may want to switch everything over to an iPhone, etc. But I will say Samsung has the best tablet experience for sure on Android. But I think unless you get something like the tab S7FE at a minimum.... You will probably be disappointed. Your best bet is just to try one and return it afterwards if you don't like it.

@@AndroidDigest great reply there. And yes you're right, Cheaper android tabs really are pretty poor (though the m10 is a 4gb I was hoping it would be OK). In addition the short support period is one of the reasons I've not really gone for top top end. Regards to the first Duet the speed was one of the issues with it and the tablet experience. I have an ASUS C434 and it was like chalk and cheese between the 2 devices. I'm hoping this is less the case and perhaps the chrome OS is a better tab experience 2yrs on. Quite hard to get in the UK at the moment though - a few appear at a time on very limited outlets.

No they are not, good catch 😂😂

It's on sale at Best Buy right now. For $299. $199 open box

@@AndroidDigest it is the 4GB version though. I would like the 8GB version

The number five doesn't stand up and it doesn't upload pictures there's no slatta upload pictures no slot to upload pictures

$500 or something you can't even use the upload pictures

I'd say it depends on what you have. Realistically, the HP x2 and this are going to have NEARLY identical performance. Also the HP will have more RAM, in some ways it balances out, I'd say the Duet 3 may only have 5 or 10% better performance, but it also doesn't come with a stylus, the keyboard isn't magnetic (attaching at an angle), the lenovo doesn't have an sd card slot, or a fingerprint sensor, the hp has all those. I like the keyboard slightly more on the lenovo, I like the feel of the keys more, and I like how the keyboard feels a little more sturdy. And I like how the Lenovo has usb c ports on both sides. But is that enough to overcome everything the HP has? In the end, if you already have the HP, I'd probably stick with it, reselling it and going through all of that means losing some good money, and in the end the Lenovo isn't better in every way, in many ways you are losing features going to the Lenovo. But if it was a toss up, if you didn't own either one, I'm 50/50. 16:10 is close enough to 3:2 that I don't think it's super noticeable. I'm just glad it's not 16:9! I prefer the slight bump in performance on the lenovo, I actually like the screen slightly more (maybe 5-10% more color accurate from looking at both) and again some small things with the keyboard I like on Lenovo. But HP keyboard magnetises to the tablet, giving a better angle, again the stylus, the sd card slot, the pen, the fingerprint sensor. So it's 50/50 for me. Maybe this comment will confuse you more. I hope to do a video comparison soon, but I will end up saying many things I said in this comment, I do wish you the best of luck in deciding!

There are still some benefits to an Android tablet. For one, there aren't any 120hz Chrome OS tablets yet. No Chrome OS tablet with a resolution as good as the Tab S8+. And there are some. Benefits to Android. Android apps are slightly more reliable on an Android tablet compared to a Chromebook, and if you primarily use Android apps, that may be a big deal. There are less bugs involved on the Android side on those devices. Some perks still. But eventually if they make high end Chrome OS tablets and fix some of the small bugs, I could see Android tablets losing steam

Yeah, they definitely don't sell it everywhere

That's a different device. That's a Windows device, an Ideapad Duet 3i. It's crazy how they only put an i there and expect you to notice the difference

@@AndroidDigest well if that's the case I'm gonna be pissed cause I just ordered it for my kids Xmas.