Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook 10 tablet review

The two-tone plastic and aluminum case is relatively clunky, but it pleases with a decent feel and stability. On our test device, the plastic part on the back is blue - a nice contrast.

The included stand is magnetically attached to the back and pleases with a nice fabric upper side. The metal hinge is relatively firm and stays in place in any adjusted position. Consequently, the Duet can be adapted to different requirements. How long the relatively delicate stand will last in daily use, however, is somewhat questionable. Furthermore, the keyboard cover is made of plastic; the backside feels like neoprene and is a bit susceptible to stains. But it can be easily cleaned with a damp cloth.

When using the stand and the keyboard, the Chromebook Duet becomes a clunky laptop. An iPad Pro with the keyboard cover is much thinner.

As is typical for tablets, the IdeaPad Duet isn't very generous when it comes to its port configuration, offering only a USB-C port and pogo pins to connect the keyboard. The USB-C port is used to charge the device and also to transfer data. Moreover, a headset can be connected with the included USB-C to 3.5 mm audio jack adapter. An external monitor can also be connected via USB-C (DisplayPort), but the resolution is limited to a very weak 1280x720.

The IdeaPad Duet runs on Chrome OS and gets updates directly from Google. These updates are supposed to be guaranteed for 8 years, i.e. until June 2028, and thus for a significantly longer period than on Android and possibly iOS-based tablets.

GPS and LTE are not available despite the ARM-based MediaTek SoC, and WLAN and Bluetooth, unfortunately, don't offer the latest standards; users have to make do with Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 here. As expected, the WLAN performance is not groundbreaking. Compared to the convertible competition (including high-end Windows devices), the 300 Mb/s observed in the test is only below average. But also more expensive Chromebooks like the Dell Inspiron 7486 or the Yoga Chromebook C630 are significantly faster.

In our practical test, however, the connection is stable and without limitations.

In terms of cameras, Lenovo benefits from the MediaTek SoC with smartphone genes. As a result, you receive a rear-facing camera that is good for laptops and also at a low cost. If you compare the quality to other smartphones, however, you'll find the cameras to be in the entry-level range.

The front-facing camera only offers a 2 MP sensor and thus also a limited quality. It's definitely enough for a webcam, though.

We couldn't detect the classic PWM in the Duet; the brightness is controlled from 0 to 100 without PWM. When plugged in, however, we see a slight flickering on the measuring device at a high frequency between 59 and 65 kHz. This becomes much less on battery power, so this is probably due to nonideal shielding.

Response times are only mediocre for black-to-white and gray-to-gray transitions, but they're in the usual range for an IPS display.

The browser benchmarks run "natively" on Chrome OS and show very good performance for the built-in SoC. However, it's not enough to catch up to the budget iPad (6th Generation). Subjectively, though, the browser works well, and you also have a full "desktop browser".

The built-in 64 GB NAND memory shows the expected weak benchmark results in the test. High-end devices like the Galaxy S20 smartphone or, of course, PCIe SSDs in laptops achieve performance values that are 10 times higher in some areas. Compared to other flash-based entry-level devices, however, performance is decent. The Pixelbook, for example, reaches very similar benchmark results.

The weak GPU and the virtualized Android environment aren't very beneficial for games. For example, PUBG Mobile wasn't smoothly playable in the test. Also the less demanding Call of Duty Mobile was only playable with stuttering. However, less demanding games like World of Tanks Blitz (60 FPS at low settings, 24 - 60 FPS at medium settings) run smoothly with low to medium details. But dedicated Android tablets have a clear advantage here.

Despite the passive cooling, the tablet stays pleasantly cool even during long load periods like when playing Android games. We measured a maximum of 38 °C (~100 °F) on the back as the warmest spot - absolutely uncritical.

Thanks to the energy-efficient MediaTek SoC, power consumption remains pleasantly low. At a consumption of over 3 watts, the display's brightness has the biggest impact without load. But at a maximum of 9 watts, you don't have to fear a high electricity bill even under full load and at maximum brightness.

The low power consumption helps the IdeaPad Duet Chromebook achieve very good battery life. At a reduced brightness of 150 nits, we measured a very good runtime of 12.5 hours. Consequently, a complete workday is no problem for the small tablet.