I feel as though the laptop is quite sturdy to transport around and the folio keyboard acts as a good case to protect the tablet. There’s considerable heft behind the combined 2.6 lbs of electronics here. The plastic body on both the Duet 5i and the folio keyboard feels well built and exudes as much of a premium feel as plastic can possibly provide. The mixture of plastic and cloth actually works pretty well together. It comes in only a Stone Blue color that matches the cool shimmering body of the tablet. I’m impressed with the level of quality Lenovo gives as an included keyboard. While we’re on the subject of the keyboard, it isn’t always a given that an included keyboard is good. That’s a classic 2-in-1 structure as the Duet 5i instantly becomes a tablet the second it detaches from the keyboard. Included with the purchase comes an attachable backlit folio keyboard that magnetically attaches to the tablet.

Anybody looking at the Duet 5i as a contender for their personal device is doing so because of the versatile form factor. Of course, this isn’t just any ordinary clamshell laptop though. Based on specs alone, one could assign this Windows device into the lower mid-range of the market segment. I actually have had pretty good experiences with this chipset in the past. The lowest configuration we have comes with 8 GB of ram, and 128 GB of SSD. The “i” in the Duet 5i stands for Intel as the PC giant uses a 12th gen Intel Core i3-1215U processor to handle the workload. While many of my original feelings towards this form factor still haven't changed, the Duet 5i did help move the needle forward for me. There’s definitely more ways to use it than two. After plenty of time with it, I found the tablet to be extremely versatile. With Windows 11 as the operating system instead of ChromeOS, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this type of computing device. Lenovo sent us the Ideapad Duet 5i to review which retails for $789.99. Since then, Lenovo and other laptop makers have greatly expanded their product lines.

That was worth the compromise for being on Google’s computing ecosystem. While I’ve never been a fan of the Microsoft Surface-like form factor for a 2-in-1 laptop, the Duet was a huge step forward for the next generation of ChromeOS. A couple of years back, I was extremely excited to purchase the Lenovo Chromebook Duet.

Ideapad duet 3 review