Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 launches with a refreshed design, a MediaTek chipset, and a long-requested feature

Since its first announcement in 2020, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet has been the poster child for Chromebook tablets. Four years later, the third-generation model, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11, has arrived with a familiar design but notable upgrades.

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 still has a flat display with bezels surrounding it, but there are enough design changes to make it different from its predecessors. First, Lenovo has ditched the protruding round rear camera for a rectangular camera island. It has also modified the dual-color design of the first two generations.

Instead of two distinct colors, it has settled for a floating horizontal bar in a shade lighter than the tablet's color. The floating bar runs from one end to another but doesn't touch the edges. It also has the word 'Chromebook' etched on it, as well as an icon for a stylus. The Lenovo logo, which used to be at the top left corner, is now in the middle in a larger font.

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 still has grilles on the sides for the speakers as well as USB-C ports, but a surprise addition is the 3.5 mm jack on the left, a feature that was missing in the first two generations. Lenovo will bundle the Chromebook Duet 11 with a keyboard cover and a kickstand case that can be used in landscape and portrait orientations.

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With respect to its specs, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 has a 10.95-inch WUXGA touch display with 400 nits of brightness and Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It is definitely not OLED like that of the Chromebook Duet 5(curr. $379 on Amazon) as Lenovo would have clearly stated it. Powering it is the MediaTek Kompanio 838 chipset which replaces the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 of its predecessor, the Chromebook Duet 3.

Unveiled at Computex 2024, the Kompanio 838 (MT8188) is a 6nm octa-core chipset with two Cortex-A78 CPU cores. It also has a dedicated NPU (NPU 650) for AI tasks, supports dual 4K displays, and has Wi-Fi 6E. The chipset will be paired with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Once again, it appears the Chromebook Duet 11 won't have a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

The cameras have not changed as the Chromebook Duet 11 still has a 5MP front-facing camera and an 8MP rear camera. However, picture quality may be better as a result of the new ISP of the Kompanio 838. The battery capacity isn't stated but Lenovo says users can expect up to 12 hours of battery life.

The Chrombook Duet 11 has support for touch input as well as stylus input (USI 2.0) support. However, buyers will have to purchase a USI 2.0 stylus separately if they don't already have one. Lenovo has also disclosed that the popular note-taking app, Goodnotes, has been optimized for the device as well as other Chromebooks with stylus support.

When the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 becomes available for purchase, it will cost €399 in Europe and $339.99 in the US. There's also an educational version called the Lenovo Chromebook Duet EDU G2 which has a TPU case with a spill-proof keyboard and a slot for the Lenovo USI Pen 2. It costs $319. Unfortunately, Lenovo hasn't revealed plans for a successor to the larger Chromebook Duet 5.

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