Nowadays, the not-so-expensive 2-in-1 machines are not a rare find. The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 (11", Gen 8) is a compact transformer that is offered with a detachable Folio keyboard with a touchpad (option). This means you can use the laptop as a full-blown Windows tablet or as a regular notebook. Given the low price of this little fella, its hardware isn't high-end. You can rely on Alder Lake-N processors that lack P cores and Hyper-Threading technology. The display is the main event here. It has an unorthodox aspect ratio of 5:3 which is pretty comfortable for browsing the Web or editing MS documents. The 11.5" IPS panel has a 2K resolution and it supports touch function. This reminds us that you can get the optional Lenovo Digital Pen 3 and there is a dedicated socket for it in the Folio case that also acts as a kickstand. This may be a hybrid machine but it brings to the table a good amount of goodies such as a fTPM 2.0 module, two 2W Dolby Atmos speakers, decent I/O, Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.2, and two cameras. You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-duet-3-11-gen-8/ Specs, Drivers, What's in the box Drivers All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/ideapad-duet-series-laptops/ideapad-duet-3-11ian8/document-userguide What's in the box? Inside the package, you'll find a bit of paperwork, a 45W Type-C adapter, and an optional Folio keyboard + stylus. Design and construction When the keyboard is detached, the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 (11", Gen 8) looks like a typical modern tablet. The bezels around the screen are made of a mix of glass fiber and polycarbonate and the latter is the material for the back (PC-ABS if we have to be more specific). The device is only available in Abyss blue color. The rigidity is very good. We tried to twist the machine and we didn't observe any bends or cracks (thank god!). The profile is 8.95 mm and this gadget stops the scales at 697 grams (in tablet mode). The keyboard adds another 450 grams and this results in a 1.147 kg weight in laptop mode. The bezels around the 2K display aren't among the narrowest we have seen. There is a 5MP camera with a fixed focus above the display. The optional keyboard lacks a backlight. The keycaps are big and they offer decent travel at best but the feedback is clicky. Not bad, given how thin the board is. It's also sturdy, you have to apply a lot of force to bend it. The optional Lenovo Digital Pen 3 can be found in two iterations - with or without a replaceable AAAA alkaline battery. The unit pairs well with the glossy display. The stylus can be used for taking notes or sketching something onscreen. The touchpad with a Mylar surface is rather small (46 x 87 mm) but that's fine because the unit is part of a compact Folio case. Still, the pad is okay for normal usage but don't expect miracles. An external mouse is a better choice if you are going to use the machine for long hours in laptop form. The back reveals the two-tone design of the device and the 8MP camera with autofocus. Ports On the left side, you get two USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports. The former supports PowerDelivery 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.2 (for up to 3840x2160@60Hz external displays). The bottom side houses the Pogo pins with guide pins. On the right, you can see the Power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader and an Audio combo jack. Display quality, Health impact (PWM), Sound Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 (11″, Gen 8) is equipped with a 2K IPS Touch panel, model number LEN819D. It supports the optional Lenovo Digital Pen 3 with 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity. The display comes with a 60Hz refresh rate. Its diagonal is 11.5" (29.2 cm), and the resolution - 2000 x 1200p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 5:3, the pixel density – 203 ppi, and their pitch – 0.13 x 0.13 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 43 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels). Viewing angles are good. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality. Also, a video with locked focus and exposure. The maximum measured brightness is 359 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 334 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 9%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 7820K. In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 79% Brightness (White level = 142 cd/m2, Black level = 0.11 cd/m2). Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1340:1. To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy. Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook. Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day. The yellow dotted line shows Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 (11″, Gen 8)'s color gamut coverage. Its display covers 98% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976 and 92% of DCI-P3, ensuring a vibrant picture. Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance. We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile. Below you can compare the scores of the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 (11″, Gen 8) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right). The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light. The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions. Response time (Gaming capabilities) We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa. We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 13 ms. After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude. Health Impact: PWM (Screen flickering) Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM. Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 (11″, Gen 8)'s display uses PWM to adjust its brightness up to 100 nits. Not only that but below 100 nits, the pulsations have a very high frequency, undetectable for most users. This makes the display comfortable for continuous work. Health Impact: Blue light emissions Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light. Health Impact: Gloss-level measurement Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 97.7 GU). Sound Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 (11″, Gen 8)'s speakers produce a sound of very good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones have no deviations from clarity. Buy our profiles Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 (11″, Gen 8) configurations with 11.5" LEN819D (2000x1200) IPS. *Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at bg.laptopmedia@gmail.com. Read more about the profiles HERE. Performance: CPU, GPU, Gaming Tests All benchmarks and tests were conducted with the “Best performance” preset applied in the Windows “Power & Battery” menu. CPU options Two CPU options are available - Intel Processor N100 and Intel Processor N200. GPU options Depending on the processor model, you get Intel UHD Graphics Xe (24EU) or Intel UHD Graphics Xe 750 (32EU). Gaming tests CS:GO HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings) HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings) Average FPS 34 fps 25 fps 18 fps DOTA 2 HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings) HD 1080p, High (Check settings) Average FPS 38 fps 21 fps 13 fps The iGPU can allocate up to ~2GB of system memory (or at least in our case because the machine that we bought has just 4GB RAM). [eBook Guide + Tools] How to MAX OUT your Laptop Temperatures and comfort, Battery Life Max CPU load In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering. Average core frequency; CPU temp; Package Power Intel Processor N100 (6W TDP) 0:02 - 0:10 sec 0:15 - 0:30 sec 10:00 - 15:00 min Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 (11″, Gen 8) 2.78 GHz @ 69°C @ 13W 1.73 GHz @ 54°C @ 6W 1.59 GHz @ 56°C @ 6W The Intel Processor N100 inside this Lenovo device can sustain almost 2.80GHz alongside a 13W power limit in short loads which is a good result. After that, the clocks are lower since the CPU settles at 6W which is its base official limit. Comfort during full load The machine is dead silent because of the passive cooling. The back doesn't feel hot to the touch even when the CPU is pushed to its limits for a long time. You have to use the default OS power modes to control the device's performance. Battery Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This machine is offered with a 35.6Wh battery pack. It lasts for 10 hours of Web browsing, or 8 hours and 20 minutes of video playback. To achieve that, you have to apply the “Balanced” mode in the Windows “Power & Battery” menu. Storage performance Our laptop has 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage (KIOXIA THGJFHT0T44BAILB). Below you can see some benchmarks of the flash memory. Verdict Well, folks, the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 (11", Gen 8) could be used even as a daily driver if you pick the right configuration. Ours has just 4GB of soldered memory and as you may already guess, that's not enough even for usual tasks such as Web browsing. Still, if your device has 8GB of LPDDR5-4800MHz RAM (which is the maximum possible amount) you can expect decent performance for light usage. You can boost the overall snappiness of the gadget by choosing the Intel Processor N200 which has a bit higher clock than the Intel Processor N100 (the default CPU model). Speaking of which, the N100 chip can maintain almost 2.80GHz and 13W in short loads which is a respectable result because this kind of usage should be the main playground of the laptop. The CPU frequency doesn't drop down below the official base frequency even in prolonged periods of full processor load. Not bad considering the passive cooling solution. Choose your device wisely, because the default storage is a UFS 3.1 model. On the bright side, it's not slow - the read speeds are higher than a normal SATA SSD. If money isn't a problem, you can get a machine with a 2242 Gen 3 slot (these devices lack UFS storage) that can house a decently fast NVMe. This Lenovo creation left us with positive impressions. The rigidity of the body and the optional keyboard is good. The board is comfortable enough for work but the touchpad could be too small for some users. The 2K IPS display (LEN819D) sports wide viewing angles, a 5:3 aspect ratio, ~360 nits max brightness, and 98% sRGB coverage. It's hard to ask for more in this price range. We detect PWM usage up to 100 nits but that's fine because the pulsation frequency is really high which is safe even for long hours of work (or at least for most users). Last but not least, the battery life of the 35.6Wh unit is long - 10 hours of Web browsing on a single charge. Expectedly, the I/O isn't full of connectors, but the two Type-C ports seem enough for normal usage. You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/lenovo-ideapad-duet-3-11-gen-8/
Hey guys thanks for the review. Has this laptop been released to the public? I’m having trouble finding it to purchase online.