Lenovo - IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook - 13.3" OLED 1920x1080 Touch 2in1 Tablet - Snapdragon 7cG2 - 8GB - 128GB eMMC - with Keyboard - Abyss Blue $329

I can't imagine this is good for anything except watching videos.

Moral of the story - test it before you leave the store

This is an objectively good chromebook. However, this isn't necessarily a steal of a price. I would recommend that this should only be of interest to buyers seeking either or both of the following:

• An OLED-equipped chromebook
• An Android tablet alternative

This model has basically been the OLED chromebook tablet option, particularly at this price point.

Additionally, I would suggest that this device is, for many use cases, a superior option to an Android tablet as it has updates supported through June 2031 (as of today [google.com]). The Auto Update Expiration was recently extended [blog.google] for this device (among others). Thanks to a slow but dedicated development to separate the browser from the OS in ChromeOS (given the project name Lacros [arstechnica.com]) the worry associated with losing access to updates will only diminish over time. About the only category for which this would not be true across the board are those which require a GPS subsystem.

Consider that the gold standard for Android tablets on the market today only guarantees software support through the next 5 years (and has some arbitrary restrictions around version vs. security support).

Perhaps the primary use case might at least be media consumption and Android app support. This has always been a strength of the ARM-based chromebooks. ARM-based chromebooks remain functional for most mainstream chromebook use cases and also have great native support for Android apps (every Android marketplace app typically supports ARM, whereas a few outliers exclude x86 support). However, ARM-based chromebooks do generally lack the CPU horsepower for edge-case options possible within ChromeOS (e.g. - intense local Linux application usage in Crostini).

Was this something you experienced with units that were new in box?

Good luck!
Jon

The 7cG2 processor is as powerful as 8 year old laptops.
The iPhone with an A13 has single core performance equivalent to the Multi-core performance of this.

I want to like this, but you are paying over $300 for something with the performance of a $100 android tablet.

What Android tablets have 8GB of RAM for $100? We'll be waiting.

Not the RAM, but the Processor Performance