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Image: Michael Crider/Foundry
Google invited me to New York to request on the newest Gemini AI tools going into Chromebooks. But I don’t need to focus on about that, because it’s monotonous. As a change I need to focus on about the new Chromebook units they showed me after: an up to date model of Lenovo’s mega-long-established Chromebook Duet, and a loopy-swish create from Samsung on the Chromebook Plus platform.
The (New) Lenovo Chromebook Duet
The unusual Chromebook Duet used to be launched motivate in 2020, and it turned some heads. With a 10-inch tablet accomplish factor plus a detachable keyboard and kickstand in the field, it used to be on the entire a ideal mix between Microsoft’s Floor accomplish factor and an iPad’s ease of rep entry to. The incontrovertible truth that it started at beneath $300 didn’t damage — Google told us this would possibly well maybe well be basically among the finest-selling Chromebook model ever. My colleague on the time known as the Duet “The In general Perfect Chrome OS Instrument.”
You can level-headed salvage that tablet in every single build, especially after a lightweight refresh in 2022 (the Duet 3, offered alongside the larger Duet 5) with a new processor and a second USB-C port. But this 2024 model, merely known as the Duet yet again, is a rebuild from the bottom up. It’s the same long-established accomplish factor, but your entire factor is critically more solid, reaching a lot closer to a Floor Jog in phrases of match and lift out than the older model.
This variant model for the education market comes with an impact-resistant case fully surrounding the tablet.
This variant model for the education market comes with an impact-resistant case fully surrounding the tablet.
Michael Crider/Foundry
This variant model for the education market comes with an impact-resistant case fully surrounding the tablet.
Michael Crider/Foundry
Michael Crider/Foundry
I’d notify it feels better than the Duet 5, although it’s lacking that 13-inch tablet’s OLED veil. The 1920×1200 veil right here feels loads brighter than the unusual Duet, and the rounded corners invent it feel loads newer, especially when preserving it love a standard tablet. That 16:10 element ratio makes it loads more pure to be used with Android apps, too.
The standard “desktop-vogue” trip is improved thanks to a greater keyboard. It’s thicker and heavier, making it feel plan more solid and pure for a mechanical keyboard nut love me, more akin to Lenovo’s ThinkPads than the unusual. The plastic touchpad is about the same, which is to notify gorgeous imperfect, but you invent sacrifices for a funds machine.
All in favour of that this is a funds machine (it starts at $340 with the pen included), I’m tickled to glimpse a pair of very deliberate upgrades over the unusual create. The secondary USB-C port is a itsy-bitsy awkward, sticking out of the top of the machine in build of the aspect — I’m guessing this used to be done to invent more contiguous condominium inner for the battery. But you can dawdle in a USB-C flash force without unplugging from a monitor or charging cable, so it’s a bolt usability fortify. On the same uncover, there’s a headphone jack, something that used to be inexplicably lacking from the unusual Duet, and shouldn’t be from the relaxation that’s aiming for a funds market.
Michael Crider/Foundry
Michael Crider/Foundry
Michael Crider/Foundry
Love practically all the pieces Lenovo makes as of behind, there’s a bodily shutter to camouflage the entrance-facing webcam. I bet that’ll invent any other folks tickled, as Google tells us that these units are offered in bulk to loads of education customers. Lenovo is making an education model, as a topic of truth, with a plan tougher and impact-resistant case that fully surrounds the tablet (above, and no longer accessible at standard retailers, from what I used to be told). The tablet is love minded with any USI 2.0 stylus, and it comes with new “99.7 p.c effective” palm rejection tech in the veil.
The new Duet has a slanted kickstand that works in portrait mode, but offers fewer positions in landscape.
The new Duet has a slanted kickstand that works in portrait mode, but offers fewer positions in landscape.
Michael Crider/Foundry
The new Duet has a slanted kickstand that works in portrait mode, but offers fewer positions in landscape.
Michael Crider/Foundry
Michael Crider/Foundry
After the utilization of the Duet for a pair of hours, I’m no longer thrilled with the up to date rear kickstand camouflage. The jaunty angle of the hinge lets it work in both landscape or portrait mode, which is candy…but it undoubtedly also formulation that it simplest works with one,