Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Duet 3 (2022) Review

About the Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Duet 3

Here are the specs of the tablet we reviewed:

• Processor: Snapdragon 7C Gen 2
• Graphics: Integrated
• RAM: 4GB
• Storage: 128GB eMMC
• Display: 10.9-inch 2000 x 1200 touchscreen display with stylus support
• Ports: 2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 1
• Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1
• Camera: 5MP front-facing and 8MP rear-facing
• Battery: Li-Polymer 28 Whr battery
• Weight: 2.09 pounds with accessories
• Size: 10.15 x 6.47 x 0.31 inches
• Warranty: 1-year limited warranty

The Chromebook Duet 3 tablet runs ChromeOS and comes with an included keyboard and trackpad folio cover. There is only one configuration available.

What we like

Great design and included accessories

Even though this is a budget tablet, there is phenomenal attention to detail and build quality. Running your hand across the fabric folio cover, the gray cloth feels like a rich and textured book cover. The kickback stand on the tablet’s rear holds its shape well, but its stiffness makes it difficult to open with one hand.

Open up the cover, and you will find a keyboard and trackpad that allow you to use the tablet like a laptop. Lenovo’s laptops are generally well-regarded for their ergonomics, and this folio is no exception. The keyboard keys are large, responsive, and easy to read. Although the trackpad is small, the smooth surface is painless to glide across.

Long battery life

It’s no secret that ChromeOS devices excel with battery life management compared to Windows counterparts. We cycled through 20 web pages at about 200 nits of brightness on the Duet 3, starting from a full charge until it drained completely to test its battery life against the competition. It puttered out at about 10.5 hours, a slight improvement over the original Duet’s 10 hours.

By comparison, the Lenvo Chromebook Flex 5 only lasts about six hours, and the 9th-gen iPad lasts for about ten hours. The Duet 3 has enough battery life to easily make it through the day for light web browsing and productivity.

Bright, vibrant display

The Duet 3 manages to pump out 400 nits of peak brightness, making it an excellent e-reader for a sunny afternoon. Colors pop on-screen, and the 2000 x 1200p resolution renders images clearly and crisply. Videos look great on the display with excellent contrast and smoothness. It doesn’t beat the latest Apple iPad's screens, but it’s easily on par (if not better) with many $500 laptops.

What we don’t like

The front camera is grainy

The front-facing camera works, but it’s worse than what you could get from your smartphone. With only 5 Megapixels (MP) to work with, the image comes across as grainy and flat. The 8MP rear camera’s a little clearer, but it would actually be better utilized on the front screen since tablets are better for video chatting than photography. In comparison, the similarly priced iPad has an 8MP rear camera and 12MP front camera.

Lackluster performance

While Chrome OS doesn’t require as many resources as Windows to run smoothly, powerful hardware benefits any operating system; the Duet 3’s Snapdragon processor isn’t fast. It’s fine for browsing the internet or watching Netflix, but any real productivity will grind it to a halt. Opening Chrome, Spotify, Word, and YouTube at the same time made the Duet 3 sluggish, each app taking about five seconds to load at startup. However, switching tasks within an app, like opening a new website in Chrome, only took a couple of seconds to load.

Similarly priced Chromebooks, like the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5, often come with more powerful processors like the Intel Core i3, which means they’re good for work and play, and even the base iPad can outperform this slow tablet. It was our biggest gripe with the original Chromebook Duet, and it’s frustrating to see the performance so low after a substantial price increase over the original.

In Geekbench 5’s benchmarks, the Duet 3 scored 622 points for single-core performance and 1747 points for multicore performance. That’s over twice the score of the original Duet, but it’s still well below the similarly priced iPad’s scores of 1331 points for single core and 3346 points for multicore performance. However, ChromeOS’s light load evens the playing field slightly when it comes to web browsing: in Basemark 3, a benchmark for web performance based on JavaScript, the Duet 3, the Acer Aspire 5 Windows laptop, and the original Duet all scored between 220 and 280 points.

Tinny audio

Even for a tablet, the Duet 3 seriously lacks bass. Meanwhile, the treble is thin and wispy. Upper mids and vocals drown everything else out, the audio is tinny and a pain for anything more substantial than YouTube commentary videos. While it would be unreasonable to expect exemplary performance from such a small device, many smartphones easily surpass what the Duet 3 can achieve. On the bright side, the audio is clean for the most part, with little distortion to be found.

Should you buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Duet 3?

Yes, but only if it’s on sale

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 is a beautiful laptop with superb build quality and ergonomics, but its lackluster performance and relatively high price tag hold it back from being a great Chrome OS device. However, if you find it on sale for $250 or less, the long battery life, bright and vivid display, and top-notch keyboard and trackpad become much more enticing.

Even though the $379 retail price includes a keyboard and trackpad folio, the Chromebook Duet 3 underperforms compared to tablets and other Chromebooks of similar value. The 2021 iPad 9th gen is a year old, but its phenomenal display, long battery life, strong performance, and accessory ecosystem make it worth more than its $329 price tag (although you will have to buy your own keyboard and cover, which can raise the price considerably depending on what you buy).

If you’re looking for a ChromeOS device, the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 is one of our favorite Chromebook thanks to the display, performance, and ergonomics, although it does have a shorter battery life than the Duet 3. If you can splurge, the latest iPad Air performs on par with thousand-dollar laptops for only $599, and the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 offers a QLED screen for $529.

Overall, the Chromebook Duet 3 isn't a bad Chromebook, but it just doesn’t offer the same performance as its closest rivals. Were it $100 cheaper, it would be a fantastic value for those who want a basic tablet for browsing the internet or streaming. As it stands, there are better options with ChromeOS, iPadOS, and Windows 11.

The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Flipboard for the latest deals, product reviews, and more.

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.