Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook review: A sequel with much more to offer

The original Lenovo Chromebook Duet was an interesting device. I bought one, and I loved it. The portable tablet-based form factor paired with an OS designed for laptop use was a big draw. As was being able to use the few Android apps I actually wanted to use on a tablet. The hardware was excellent, the display was really nice and the keyboard, while small, was good to type on. It had only one problem: It was really slow. ChromeOS performs well enough on basic hardware, but the MediaTek CPU inside the Duet just wasn’t really up to snuff.

But Lenovo didn’t give up, in fact, it doubled down. For the follow-up, there are actually two Duet Chromebook tablets to choose from. We’re already huge fans of the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook, but now it’s time to look at the smaller of the two and the direct successor to the original. The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook is, besides being a mouthful, an 11-inch tablet running ChromeOS that stays true to the idea of the original.

To look at, the changes might be hard to spot. And that’s a fair statement to make. The most important upgrade Lenovo has made comes inside, with a move to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7c. The Duet is slow no more. This one is much easier to recommend without also adding a caveat and is one of the best Chromebooks you can buy right now.

Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook

Lenovo's latest small ChromeOS tablet keeps much the same but makes some significant improvements.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

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Navigate this review:

• Pricing and availability
• Specs
• Design and features
• Performance and battery life
• Who should buy one

Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook: What’s in the box?

Included in the box when you buy a Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook is:

• The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook.
• Snap-on rear cover with a kickstand.
• Detachable keyboard.
• 30W USB-C power adapter.

This review was conducted using a Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook sample provided by Lenovo. At no time has Lenovo had any input on the content of this article. 

Pricing and availability

In the U.S. the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook is available to order now from Best Buy for $379. This is for the 128GB/4GB version (the same as our review sample). International availability, for example, the UK, still seems to be yet to begin.

Lenovo’s own store also isn’t shipping the device at the time of writing as it went out of stock, but it will be available again there in the future.

The Lenovo USI Pen 2 that works with the IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook costs $34 from Lenovo direct, though is still listed as coming soon at the time of this review.

Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 specs

Specification	Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3
Display	10.95-inch 2K LCD touchscreen 5:3 aspect ratio
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 Compute Platform
RAM	Up to 8GB LPDDR4 (4GB model tested)
Storage	Up to 128GB eMMC
Battery	Up to 12 hours Supports 45W charging (30W charger included) Rapid charge
Camera	5MP front-facing webcam 8MP rear camera
Ports	2 x USB-C 3.0 Gen 1 with power delivery Pogo pins
Connectivity	802.11ac wireless Bluetooth 5.1
Audio	2 x 1W stereo speakers
Dimensions and weight	258.04mm x 164.55mm x 7.90mm / 10.16 x 6.48 x 0.31 inches From 516g
Other features	USI 2.0 pen support (not included) Included kickstand and detachable keyboard

Design and features: If it ain’t broke don’t fix it

• 11-inch tablet with a detachable kickstand.
• A detachable keyboard is included.
• Supports USI 2.0 digital pen input.

The basic concept behind the IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook is the same as its predecessor. It’s about the same size, it still has a kickstand (if you want it) and a detachable keyboard. But the original design has certainly been refined. The bezels are narrower and as such the Duet 3 boasts 15.8% more screen than its predecessor. The kickstand is also improved, with a stronger connection to the back of the tablet. It also now boasts a cutout, which is where you’ll magnetically clamp your pen if you should choose to buy one.

The bezels are narrower now so there's more screen without making the tablet larger.

While the kickstand feels a little better this time around, the keyboard hasn’t really changed. The connection is incredibly strong using the pogo pins, but the fact it has a thin fabric hinge is still less than ideal. For one, you can’t raise the angle of the keyboard as you can with something like Microsoft’s Surface Type cover. It’s flat or flat, those are your choices. It doesn’t completely ruin the experience, but given the opportunity, I’d take an angle any time.

The other, perhaps bigger issue, with the fabric hinge is that on this review sample at least, the tablet portion never felt like it was properly aligned with the keyboard. It’s been driving me insane. The display always seems like it’s at a slight angle along the horizontal. It’s so frustrating. It frustrated me on the original and it frustrates me still, now.

It’s fine to type on though, which is still more important. The ChromeOS search button is quite small, which I like, because it’s harder to accidentally hit, and the trackpad is surprisingly good for something of this type. Despite the confines of the small form factor, it carries a full ChromeOS keyboard layout with cursor keys.

You can only use Lenovo's USI 2.0 pen right now with the Duet 3.

The display is a hair under 11-inches, but not far enough that we can’t refer to it as that. The bezels trimming it are nice and slim for folks who are into that, and while 5:3 isn’t the most common aspect ratio, it doesn’t feel strange. It’s a shade under 16:9, but media fills it nicely and the 2K resolution means text is sharp and everything generally looks lovely. As with most touch displays though it’s really glossy and while it is bright enough to use outdoors on a sunny day, you’re still going to see more of your own face. The kickstand can be adjusted with precision though so you can at least get it at the best angle to mitigate ambient light interference.

The display also supports a digital pen but with a caveat. It only seems to support Lenovo’s own USI 2.0 digital pen, there hasn’t been any kind of backward compatibility with the panel. The team at Chrome Unboxed did a deep dive into this (our sample didn’t come with a pen) so if you’re interested in the Duet 3 for doodling on it’s worth checking out. You would probably want Lenovo’s pen anyway since it’ll attach neatly to the little cutout on the back of the kickstand.

Other things of note include connectivity. There’s an upgrade here from the original Duet with now a pair of USB-C ports, both with power delivery. There’s one on each side which makes charging nice and convenient. Fans of headphone jacks will be disappointed though as there isn’t one. There’s no dongle in the box either so if you want to use wired headphones you’ll have to supply your own.

The speakers are pretty good, though. Nothing groundbreaking and they are pretty small, but you get a pair and proper stereo sound. It makes impromptu Stranger Things viewings perfectly enjoyable.

Using the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook as a tablet

The obvious reason you would buy one of these is as a capable, portable Chromebook. But ChromeOS also supports Android apps from the Play Store, which means you can very easily use this as a part-time Android tablet.

The Duet 3 is a compelling alternative to an Android tablet.

But it’s the fact this is a compact tablet that makes it worth using like one. And because the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 (more on that below) is so much better than the MediaTek CPU Lenovo has used previously, you actually can. Performance is pretty good across the board. Some of the credit belongs to Google as well, because ChromeOS keeps getting more comfortable to use on a touchscreen like this.

On the previous generation Duet just swiping to home was a jittery mess, but on this one, it’s smooth, fluid, exactly the sort of experience you would want. The size of the device is perfect for mobile games and especially reading. And because it’s so compact you can take it and use it anywhere. Gaming is a bit of a mixed bag, but for reading, watching videos, browsing and the like it’s pretty fantastic.

Performance and battery life

• The Latest Qualcomm CPU is a huge improvement on the original Duet.
• Decent but not outstanding battery life.
• 4GB of RAM still trips up ChromeOS at times.

To say Lenovo upgraded the CPU in the Duet 3 versus the original is an understatement. The Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 is a huge improvement. It’s actually even a fairly big step up from the first-gen 7c, so to have it in a compact device like the Duet 3 is impressive. There are no fans, so it’s always quiet, and since the keyboard isn’t part of this Chromebook you never feel any warmth even under load. The metal back of the tablet can warm up, but nothing more than you’d experience from a Snapdragon-powered smartphone.

To the benchmarks, then. We’ve subjected the IdeaPad Duet 3 to a range of ChromeOS-friendly benchmarks. For some comparison, we’ve included a couple of comparable figures from the Acer Chromebook Spin 513 running the first-gen 7c, and the current best-performer, the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook.

Benchmark	Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3	Acer Chromebook Spin 513	HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook
Kraken Javascript (lower is better)	1,865	2,342	524
Jetstream 2 (higher is better)	Didn’t complete	Didn’t complete	201
Octane 2.0 (higher is better)	20,970	18,101	79,782
WebGL Aquarium (10,000 fish)	29 FPS	N/A	60 FPS
WebGL Aquarium (15,000 fish)	20 FPS	N/A	60 FPS
WebGL Aquarium (20,000 fish)	16 FPS	N/A	34 FPS

In terms of outright sheer speed, the IdeaPad Duet 3 cannot compete with the big hitters, but it’s also not supposed to. What it does do is make a significant improvement on its predecessor and the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 actually feels like an ARM CPU that belongs in a Chromebook.

Performance is surprisingly good even when using Linux, but 4GB of RAM is still not enough.

Away from synthetic tests, the Duet 3 has been a joy to use, even handling that most daunting of tests, opening a heap of Chrome tabs. Where it falls down a little is having 4GB of RAM as this review sample does. On one hand, it helps keep the price down, and in plenty of scenarios, it’s ample. But more is always better and ChromeOS is getting to that point that 8GB should be the minimum. This isn’t necessarily Lenovo’s fault, but as the company putting the hardware together, it’s Lenovo who will bear the disgruntlement. If you can get the version with 8GB of RAM, definitely do. That applies to all Chromebooks. Especially if you plan to use Android apps and Linux.

Linux performance on the Duet 3 is also decent for a device of this nature. You do have to ensure you’re using ARM versions of software, for example, Microsoft VS Code, but this little Chromebook tablet does alright. It doesn’t feel like it struggles compared to my own Chromebook, and I’ve been editing photos in GIMP the whole time I’ve been compiling this review.

Gaming is a bit less impressive, though. When using Android games from the Play Store there still seem to be compatibility issues. And performance isn’t quite what I was hoping for. Even simple games like Alto’s Adventure just aren’t particularly smooth. You can visibly see the game jerking about in front of you. For an ARM Chromebook, this is disappointing, though it might point toward some issues with the 7c platform that remains unresolved. I had a similarly mixed time in the past with a first-gen 7c-powered Chromebook. Cloud gaming, however, is perfect, and the Duet 3 has been a particularly good Google Stadia companion throughout my time with it.

Battery life is where you’d perhaps be expecting more than you actually get. The original Duet had a fairly frugal CPU inside. This one doesn’t. However, it’s easily capable of making it through a full day away from the charger. Standby time is excellent, and I’ve never once left the house with the Duet 3 and needed the charger. In real-world terms, you can probably get up to 10 hours of mixed-use, though for me it’s been more like 8 or 9. But you can also top it up with the same charger as your phone if you need to.

Who should buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3?

• The IdeaPad Duet 3 is a great alternative to an Android tablet.
• The compact size and affordable price make it perfect for students.
• Not currently the best choice for fans of digital pens until Lenovo’s is easier to get hold of.

There have been a number of attempts at ChromeOS tablets but it finally feels like we’re actually there. It’s actually a product you can recommend at last, and Lenovo has both the Duet 3 and the Duet 5 if you’re looking for a larger display. There are still areas that can be improved upon, and some of those need to come from Google. But on the whole the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 is a Chromebook worth recommending.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 is the best Chromebook tablet you can buy.

For one it’s an ideal alternative to an Android tablet. Small enough to be portable and to use comfortably with your favorite Android apps, but ChromeOS is more tailored to actual computer use. The versatility of having both a laptop and a tablet in one device is never to be ignored. That’s what also makes it a great choice for students. If a pen is one of your key requirements, then it’s perhaps not the best choice right now, but when Lenovo’s is easier to get hold of it’s tailored for this device and quite affordable.

As a follow-up to a much-loved Chromebook though this is certainly a worthy sequel. All the charm of the original Duet remains with the biggest drawbacks significantly improved upon. If you’re in the market for a Chromebook that is also a small tablet, the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 is the one to get. It’s arguably also the better choice between itself and the Duet 5, with very similar hardware on offer. Unless OLED or the larger display really appeals, this is now the best Chromebook tablet you can get.

Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3

Lenovo's second attempt at a compact ChromeOS tablet is a hit and the best option right now if you want a Chromebook that's also a tablet.

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HP Spectre x360 13.5 review: A less exciting design, but still one of the best convertibles

Reviewing an HP Spectre x360 is easy, because no matter what, it’s always one of the best around. The new Spectre x360 13.5 is no different. It comes with a redesigned chassis that I’m not in love with, but it still stands for quality. This thing has a beautiful 3:2 OLED display, one of the best keyboards, and frankly, the best webcam in a laptop.

There are things that I don’t love, such as the more subtle design. Also, while HP finally has a way of attaching the pen via a magnet, the magnet simply isn’t strong enough. The pen will fall off in your bag.

But still, we can talk about things being best-in-class. HP is going above and beyond what competitors are doing with webcams, so if you care about webcam quality in a laptop, look no further. This thing also has some of the best battery life I’ve seen. When we combine webcam quality, keyboard quality, screen quality, and battery life, there’s little else that we can ask for.

HP Spectre x360 13.5

The HP Spectre x360 13.5 has been redesigned, comes with Intel's 12th-gen processors, and more.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

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Navigate this review:

• HP Spectre x360 13.5 pricing and availability
• HP Spectre x360 specs
• Design: It’s not as sexy as it used to be
• Display: It has a beautiful OLED screen
• Keyboard: Still one of the best around
• Performance: Intel’s 12th-gen U-series processors are a nice step up
• Should you buy the HP Spectre x360 13.5?

HP Spectre x360 13.5 pricing and availability

• The HP Spectre x360 13.5 starts at $1,249.99

The HP Spectre x360 13.5 is available to buy now, and while it starts at $1,249.99, it’s currently on sale for $1,099.99. This base model includes a Core i5-1235U, 8GB RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1,920×1,280 display. The unit that HP sent for review is normally $1,749.99, and it includes a Core i7-1255U, 16GB RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 3,000×2,000 OLED display.

It comes in three colors: Natural Silver, Nightfall Black, and Nocturne Blue. They all have silver accents around the touchpad and hinges.

HP Spectre x360 specs

Processor	Intel Core i7-1255U (up to 4.7 GHz, 12 MB L3 cache, 10 cores, 12 threads) + Intel Iris Xe Graphics + 16 GB(OB)
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe
Display	13.5″ diagonal, 3K2K (3000 x 2000), OLED, multitouch-enabled, UWVA, Low Blue Light, SDR 400 nits
Body	11.73×8.68×0.67in, 3.01lbs
Storage	1 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD (4×4 SSD)
RAM	16GB LPDDR4X
Webcam	HP True Vision 5MP IR camera with camera shutter, temporal noise reduction and integrated dual array digital microphones
Keyboard	Full-size island-style backlit nightfall black keyboard Precision Touchpad Support
Battery	4-cell, 66 Wh Li-ion polymer
Ports	(2) Thunderbolt 4 ports (1) USB Type-A (1) 3.5mm audio
Connectivity	Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.2 combo
Material	Aluminum
Color	Nightfall Black
OS	Windows 11 Pro
Price	$1,749.99

Design: It’s not as sexy as it used to be

• The HP Spectre x360 13.5 ditches the gem-cut edges and replaces them with softer curves
• It has one USB Type-A port, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports

For years, I’ve been saying that the HP Spectre x360 is the sexiest laptop on the market. There’s always been something about that two-tone design with gem-cut edges that made it stand out from the crowd. We’ve seen so many wedge-shaped silver MacBook Air clones, and then came the Spectre x360, with colors like Nightfall Black and Copper Luxe accents. While there are a lot of premium laptops, this one made you feel like you were using something from a tier above the rest.

That has changed. It still looks and feels premium, but it’s just not as sexy anymore. In fact, it feels pedestrian in comparison to its predecessors. That would be fine, given that it’s still a beautiful laptop, but given the increased subtlety, I’d expect this under the Envy brand. Spectre is the flagship, the one where HP pulls out all of the stops.

The sharp, gem-cut edges have been replaced by soft, rounded sides. The strong accents that surrounded the border are replaced by a thin metallic line, and instead of copper, it’s silver. It still has accents around the touchpad and the hinges, which are a nice touch.

We first saw this new design on the HP Spectre x360 16, so it’s no surprise that it made its way to the 13.5-inch model. The laptop definitely looks pretty, coming in Nightfall Black, Nocturne Blue, and Natural Silver, but I wouldn’t call it the sexiest laptop on the market anymore. It’s just more subtle, so if you want a design that doesn’t stand out as much as previous Spectres, this year’s is for you.

The Spectre x360 13.5 has a total of three USB ports, the same as it’s been for years now. Two of them are Thunderbolt 4, and one is USB Type-A, using a drop-jaw hinge. Both Thunderbolt ports are on the right side, but one is diagonally facing the back. The angled back corners are the only things left from the old design, and it allows you to plug in your laptop without the power cable getting in your way.

On the back-left corner, there’s a 3.5mm audio jack, which seems like an impractical place for it. Back when HP first started doing this, it actually had the power button on that side. And of course, the USB Type-A port is on the left side.

I really want to say that I do like the design. It’s just that I loved the old HP Spectre x360 design. I thought that in a market of laptops that mostly looked the same, it stood out from the pack. The new design is still nice; it’s just not quite on that level.

Display: It has a beautiful OLED screen

• The 13.5-inch screen has a 3:2 aspect ratio, with an OLED webcams
• The webcam is best-in-class

With the previous generation of HP Spectre x360 laptops, the company actually had two 13-inch models. There was the Spectre x360 13, which had the same 13.3-inch 16:9 option as previous generations, and then there was the Spectre x360 14, which had an all-new 13.5-inch 3:2 screen. It was branded the ’14’ because frankly, ’13’ was already taken.

The new aspect ratio means that the display is taller and larger. It was made popular by Microsoft’s Surface devices, and has been showing up more across the PC industry, along with 16:10 screens. The display isn’t as wide as a 13.3-inch 16:9 display, but like I said, it’s made up for in height.

The OLED display is beautiful.

There are three options for the display. You can get 1,920×1,280, 1,920×1,280 with Sure View, and 3,000×2,000 OLED. HP sent me the OLED one, and while battery life has definitely been solid, you’d do even better with the 1,920×1,280 ones. Of course, you get the prettier display with high-resolution OLED.

And then there’s the Sure View privacy display. The idea here is that you can toggle it on in a public setting, and people won’t be able to look over your shoulder and see what you’re working on. It’s pretty neat.

From my testing, it supports 100% sRGB, 96% NTSC, 98% Adobe RGB, and 100% P3. As you can probably tell, it doesn’t get much better than that. Of course, that’s for the OLED model, and you shouldn’t expect the same results from one of the other configurations.

Brightness maxed out at 405.7 nits, slightly exceeding the promised 400 nits, and contrast ratio maxed out at 13,570:1. Note that despite brightness increasing, the black level doesn’t change, because OLED displays offer true black. Overall, the OLED display is as good as it gets.

No, I’m not including selfies of myself just for fun. HP includes a 5MP webcam in the Spectre x360 13.5, and it’s including this same webcam (or a similar one) in a lot of its newest products. It’s a big deal, and here’s why. As we all know, there’s been a boom in working from home over the last couple of years. Before that, no one cared about webcams, but now they suddenly matter. Across the board, we’re finally starting to see laptops come with FHD webcams, rather than 720p cameras, which weren’t even good for their resolution.

HP's new webcams are the best you can get in a laptop.

But here’s what makes HP’s laptops special. While Lenovo and Dell have moved to FHD webcams (Dell hasn’t even done that in XPS laptops), and Intel even baked it into the newest Evo spec, HP went above and beyond. An FHD webcam is under 2.1 million pixels. HP is using a sensor with five million pixels. While you’ll still be on videos in FHD quality, this gives the camera room for a bit of digital cropping, and that’s where features like Auto Frame come in. The camera can zoom in on you and follow you around, and you don’t lose quality because of it.

It’s also just a good camera. If you look at the image above, you can see that it handles the lights in the background well, it’s not noisy, and it’s clear. HP’s laptops have the best webcams right now.

Keyboard: Still one of the best around

• HP offers one of the best keyboards on a consumer laptop
• The keyboard includes keys for a camera shutter, power, and a fingerprint sensor

Over the last few years, HP has put a lot of work into its keyboards, and they’ve gotten quite good. It started with its EliteBooks, but it made its way across the board. Now, Spectre x360 devices have some of the best keyboards on consumer laptops. They’re comfortable to type on, and they’re accurate.

As you can see from the image, it’s also got a big Precision touchpad. HP Spectre was one of the last to move to Precision a couple of years ago, but now, you can rest assured that the touchpad will be fast and responsive, and it will support all of the gestures that you’re used to.

In HP’s newest PCs, it tries to include as much as it can in the keyboard. That includes a fingerprint sensor, the power button, and a privacy guard button for the camera. Whereas some previous-generation Spectre x360 models only disconnected the camera internally, this one has a visual indicator that the camera is actually being covered.

Overall, I just want to reiterate that this is one of the best keyboards that you’ll find on a consumer laptop. If you type a lot, or if you’re a writer like me, the HP Spectre x360 13.5 is a great option.

Performance: Intel’s 12th-gen U-series processors are a nice step up

• HP chose 12th-gen U-series processors for the Spectre x360
• Battery life is better for it

With Intel’s 12th-gen processors, it has a range of CPUs that can go in ultrabooks like this one. While Lenovo chose the 28W P-series for its Yoga 9i and Dell chose a 9W U-series chip for its XPS 13, HP settled between the two with a 15W U-series processor. In this model, that’s the Core i7-1255U. Note that some companies are even using 45W H-series processors in ultrabooks, so there’s a lot to choose from.

I’ve reviewed a bunch of each of them, and by now, I’m pretty comfortable saying that HP made the right choice with 15W processors. Sure, 28W and 45W chips, by nature, are more powerful, but there are drawbacks. For one thing, they get hotter, and performance throttles as a result. Indeed, in benchmarks, I’ve seen many U-series laptops outperform P-series laptops. The other drawback is that higher wattage processors use more battery power.

The other thing to note is that this is a productivity-focused notebook; all ultrabooks are. If you’re video editing or doing something else along those lines, you probably want dedicated graphics. With that in mind, a 15W CPU should be enough for anyone, especially since it has been for years now. With U- and P-series, Iris Xe graphics have barely changed gen-over-gen, and to be fair, Iris Xe is pretty good. But if you’re looking for great integrated graphics, you might want to wait for 13th-gen.

For benchmarks, I used PCMark 10, 3DMark, Geekbench, Cinebench, and CrossMark.

	HP Spectre x360 13.5 Core i7-1255U	Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320 Core i7-1280P	HP Pavilion Plus Core i7-12700H
PCMark 10	5,533	5,481	5,682
3DMark: Time Spy	1,553	1,992	1,676
Geekbench 5 (single / multi)	1,682 / 7,534	1,700 / 10,293	1,747 / 8,658
Cinebench R23 (single / multi)	1,684 / 6,287	1,629 / 10,121	1,660 / 9,725
CrossMark (overall, productivity, creativity, responsiveness)	1,593 / 1,509 / 1,781 / 1,340	1,729 / 1,575 / 2,022 / 1,433	1,695 / 1,664 / 1,793 / 1,512

You can see that where the P-series laptop beats out this one, it’s not by much. And the Spectre still got a better PCMark 10 score than the P-series Dell XPS 13 Plus.

As far as battery life goes, I can make this simple. If you care about battery life, you buy an HP. I test battery just by using it and seeing when the battery goes dead. I kept the power slider on balanced and screen brightness at a comfortable 60%. The worst battery life I got was five hours and 38 minutes, and if that was the best, that would still be pretty good when compared with the rest of the PC market. The best was six hours and 20 minutes.

If you want the best battery life, you buy an HP.

I also want to be clear that the median score was closer to the best amount of battery life, rather than the worst. While that one was 380 minutes, the second- and third-best intervals were 379 and 377 minutes, respectively.

I should also add that considering that this is the 3,000×2,000 OLED model, the battery life would be even better on the 1,920×1,280 model.

Should you buy the HP Spectre x360 13.5?

The HP Spectre x360 13.5 is one of the best laptops on the market. It’s not for everyone though, or else HP wouldn’t make anything else.

You should buy the HP Spectre x360 13.5 if:

• You’re on a lot of video calls and want the best webcam
• You want a beautiful 3:2 OLED display
• You type a lot and want the best keyboard

You should not buy the HP Spectre x360 13.5 if:

• You need a laptop for video editing that would require dedicated graphics
• You want to use the pen a lot

One thing to note is that while the pen does magnetically attach to the laptop, it falls off pretty easily. If you’re going to be doing a lot of drawing or taking handwritten notes, I’d look toward something with a pen garage. Other than that, it’s one of the best laptops you can get.

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The Google Pixel 6a highlights everything wrong with the U.S. phone market

It’s no secret that the United States has a terrible smartphone market, and you’d be hard pressed to find evidence to the contrary. Between the stranglehold that carriers have on the market, coupled with the lack of options available, consumers in the U.S. get screwed over on both options and pricing in contrast to Europe and Asia. The recently-released Google Pixel 6a‘s value proposition in North America proves exactly that problem.

For context, the Google Pixel 6a is the latest mid-range flagship from Google. It packs the last generation of Pixel cameras and Google Tensor into a more affordable package, promising five years of updates on top of that. You get all of Google’s software smarts too, though some have felt let down by the sub-par specifications and higher price tag when compared to the competition. Some of those downsides include a 60Hz screen, slower charging, and the fact that it’s the last generation’s cameras instead of the current generation, which other “a” series phones had.

To be clear, the Google Pixel 6a is a good phone. I like it a lot, and I think that Google has consistently nailed the basics of a good phone for years at this point. However, time and time again, particularly with its flagships, there has been some kind of compromise. For example, the Google Pixel 5 had the Snapdragon 765G and the Pixel 6 series has Tensor with all of its inefficiencies. Typically, the “a” series has generally made sense in its pricing and its features relative to the rest of the competition, but that changes with the Google Pixel 6a.

The problem with the U.S. phone market

The U.S. phone market’s biggest issue comes down to carriers and their stranglehold. It’s very hard to get a phone that works on a U.S. carrier, and the easiest way to get a phone is through a carrier deal. You can spend more for unlocked variants, but carriers will try to rope you in by offering a deal that you can only get by buying one of their phones. Phones can be made cheaper thanks to trade-in deals and other offers, which makes this the most appealing option for many.

Not only that, but if you buy into a carrier’s ecosystem, you immediately open yourself to the world of carrier deals and trade-in offers. They offer financing, carrier-specific features like Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE, and even phone-specific features at times if you buy the phone through their stores. Phones that are unlocked for the U.S. region should be compatible with carriers too, but their support can be inconsistent.

The U.S. phone market's biggest issue comes down to carriers and their stranglehold

In contrast to phones that you buy locked, there are a few other problems. For starters, you may lose out on all of those carrier trade-in deals that you could get by buying from a carrier. There are also two “tiers” of unlocked phones: international phones, and those unlocked for the U.S. market. Samsung is the most well-known example of this, where you can buy U.S. versions of the company’s flagship phones that are unlocked for all U.S. carriers. These then switch the CSC (Country Specific Code) which changes what carrier features are enabled depending on the SIM card installed. Internationally unlocked Samsung devices will have the same CSC-switching feature but don’t include the necessary configurations for US carriers

Generally, all phones also have to be approved to work on a specific carrier, and there’s a good reason for this: band support.

In Europe, if you buy an international phone, chances are that phone will just work across the litany of carriers across the continent. That’s not quite the case in the U.S., as fewer international devices support the necessary bands. What’s more, even if your phone is compatible on a technical level, if it isn’t approved for use on the carrier, it may simply not connect. It’s a bit complicated though because roaming might work, but a native SIM might not activate — it depends on how strict the carrier’s activation requirements are. U.S. phones generally work in Europe, but the contrary isn’t always true. This might be part of what adds to the cost of a U.S. phone, as they support a lot of European bands (which may come with a licensing cost) whereas the inverse is not usually true.

Band support is why if you take a recently launched Xiaomi or OPPO phone to America, you might not get a signal at all and almost certainly will only have partial 5G support at best. Your odds of getting one working perfectly as if it was officially launched in the country, is almost zero.

The Google Pixel 6a compared to the competition

The thing about the Google Pixel 6a is that in the U.S. market, it’s a great value phone. There are basically no other offerings in the U.S. that can provide as complete an experience at that price range. Flagship chipset? Check. Great cameras? Check. Long-term software support with timely updates? Check. It’s got all the basic boxes of an excellent phone… but it costs $449. That’s a good price in the U.S, but it being a good price in the U.S. is more indicative of the high costs over there than anything else.

Taking a look at the European and Asian markets, competition is a lot tougher for the Google Pixel 6a. Unless you value excellent photos over everything else, there’s tough competition in this price bracket, and even cheaper. I can buy a OnePlus Nord 2T for less than a Google Pixel 6a. It has what I would call a more practical chipset, a better display, better speakers, longer battery life, and much faster charging. While Tensor is good, any long-term usage will see heavy thermal throttling and reduced performance as a result, which the Dimensity 1300 doesn’t suffer from anywhere near as much. You get better software on the Pixel 6a and a better camera, but it’s tough competition.

If OnePlus isn’t your cup of tea, let’s look at the new kid on the block. The Nothing Phone 1 arrived with much bravado, and again, we’re in a situation where it packs a whole lot of punch that the Google Pixel 6a does not. We’re talking about a better display (with some controversy, mind you…), great battery life, a better chipset (for the same reason that the Dimensity 1300 does a better job than Tensor in my opinion), and just as unique a design. On the software front, Nothing is a bit of a question mark, so it’s completely understandable that you may be wary of stepping into an all-new ecosystem like that.

Well, what about Xiaomi? Xiaomi has a ton of mid-range phones, either through Poco or Redmi. The Poco F4, for example, comes in cheaper and it’s the same story as the above. Better screen, better chipset, worse camera, faster charging… in every case with each of these phones, you’re trading a lot to simply own a Pixel.

Finally, let’s look at an old reliable — Samsung. The Samsung Galaxy A53 is a mid-range offering from Samsung that a lot of people have touted as a better alternative to the Pixel 6a even in the U.S. In some ways, I can see why. It has wireless charging, it has a better display (Samsung is one of the best in the business for that), and for some people, One UI is much better than Google’s Pixel software. However, I would argue that the Pixel 6a is a compelling buy against the Galaxy A53 for its better camera, much better chipset, and better battery life. There’s just one problem though: the phone that is inferior to the Pixel 6a is the only mid-range phone in this list that’s available in the U.S.

If you are in an Asian market, like India, then there are a whole host of other options from Realme, Vivo, Oppo, and more. Each has its own pros and cons, but all of them assemble their phones in India which Google does not. As a consequence, they enjoy cheaper pricing while the Google Pixel 6a deals with import duties, dealing it a rather heavy blow for pricing in a market that is supremely competitive. The Pixel 6a starts encroaching into premium-mid-range or even flagship territory pricing, at which point, one really needs to assess all of their options.

You must really want a Pixel

Look, I get it. The Google Pixel 6a is a good phone, and the software and that camera are both compelling. If those are your prerogative and you value those highly above all else, then sure, go for it.

But I feel like some of the other features are what the non-tech enthusiasts really care about. Most people care if their phone can last a long time, if it can charge fast and if they can use it to do their daily bits and pieces without worrying about it dying on them. A friend of mine recently handed me her Pixel 6 that she got at launch, worried that it was too hot, and was afraid of the damage it was doing as the phone slowed down every time it got hot. She’s essentially considering getting a new phone just because of Tensor. These are the “normal” consumers. The heat of the Google Pixel 6 is the only constant complaint I have heard from multiple “average” consumers that have asked me if it’s normal. Two of them are going to buy a new phone, and one of them is even switching to the Nothing Phone 1 and refuses to go near a Pixel with Tensor after his experience.

I’m sure all of us know people who got annoyed by software updates, especially given how slow they can be on Google Pixel phones too. I have waited for a long time to finish a simple security update on a Pixel, whereas other devices are much quicker. The Google Pixel 6a is good, it takes great photos, and it has great software. Nevertheless, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s missing quite a bit of what other people are looking for. Most people don’t care if their phone has the best camera in whatever class their phone is in, they just want a phone that takes good photos for social media. The OnePlus Nord 2T will manage that, and the Nothing Phone 1 can as well.

No matter what, I think the Google Pixel 6a being such a good option in the U.S. is not indicative of Google making an excellent phone. Instead, I think it points to how little competition there actually is in the region, and how the one phone people are pointing towards being an alternative isn’t really better at all. It solves the wireless charging and the screen “issue” (if you can call it that), but the rest, well, the Pixel 6a simply smokes the Galaxy A53.

Despite all of that, I can’t wait to see Tensor 2. Google is on to such a good concept with the Google Pixel 6 series currently, and if it can solve throttling and heating issues with the Pixel 7 series, then it’s on the road to creating a winner.

Thanks Zachary Wander for his assistance in the writing of this article!

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These are the best pens for the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (2022)

Dell recently launched a completely redesigned XPS 13 2-in-1 for 2022. This new model now comes in a tablet form factor with an optional keyboard accessory, instead of the convertible design of past iterations. Of course, just like those previous models, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 still supports active pens and Dell is even launching the XPS Stylus alongside the tablet if you want something that fits perfectly.

It’s fair to say that if you’re buying a Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, the best option you have is to buy the XPS Stylus too, since it’s designed to magnetically attach to the tablet and charge wirelessly. Still, the $100 is a bit steep, so if you want something a bit cheaper, or just different, we’re here to help. We’ve rounded up some of the best pens you can buy to use with the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 . For the sake of clarity, the XPS 13 2-in-1 supports pens that use the Wacom AES 2.0 protocol, and that’s what we’ve looked for here.

Wacom Bamboo Ink Plus

Work with most laptops

It costs the same as the Dell XPS Stylus, but the Wacom Bamboo Ink Plus has a very compelling selling point - it supports both Acom AES and the MPP protocol, so it will work on almost any laptop that supports Windows Ink. Plus, it supports 4,096 levels of pressure, tilt, and Bluetooth, so it's a fully featured pen.

See at Best Buy

Dell Premium Active Pen

Alternative Dell pen

Dell actually has a few pens in its catalog, and if you want something official but slightly cheaper than the XPS stylus, the Dell Premium Active Pen may be for you. It has 4,096 levels of pressure, tilt support, and even Bluetooth for quick app shortcuts. And, just like the Wacom model, it supports both AES and MPP.

See at Amazon

Lenovo Pen Pro

From Dell's rival

Using a Lenovo pen with a Dell tablet may be preposterous to some, but if you're a fan of this classy design with a gold tip, the Lenovo Pen Pro is a great option. It has 4,096 levels of pressure, tilt support, and Bluetooth. However, it's still pretty expensive and it only supports AES, so that's something to keep in mind.

See at Lenovo

Lazarite M Pen

Cheap, but fully-featured

Getting into the cheaper pens, the Lazarite M Pen is a fantastic choice. It has all the features you'd expect, including AES and MPP support, 4,096 levels of pressure, and tilt. It doesn't have Bluetooth and takes an AAAA battery, but for $55, this is a fantastic pen for any Windows Ink laptop.

See at Amazon

Wacom Bamboo Ink

Affordable, but still great

If you don't want to spend $100 but you still want a Wacom pen, the regular Bamboo Ink is a great option. It's much cheaper and strips out Bluetooth, but it still has 4,096 levels of pressure, tilt, and support for both AES and MPP. It's much cheaper, but still one of the best pens for the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1.

See at Best Buy

Dell Active Pen

Cheaper Dell pen

If you want to stick with Dell branded accessories but you want something easier on the wallet, the Dell Active Pen is a solid alternative. It leaves out some features like Bluetooth or MPP support, but it still has 4,096 levels of pressure and offers a solid experience for basic note-taking.

See at Dell

Tesha Active Pen

Extra cheap

If you're looking for the cheapest possible option that's still an active pen, this one from Tesha might just be it. It has 2,048 levels of pressure and no fancy features like Bluetooth, but for less than $30, it's asolid option for taking notes in a pinch.

See at Amazon

Lenovo Active Pen 2

Cheap with Bluetooth

If you enjoy the convenience of pen shortcuts, the Lenovo Active Pen 2 is a cheaper pen that has 4,096 levels of pressure, and it comes with Bluetooth support to enable those shortcuts, all for a pretty low price compared to other Bluetooth pens.

See at Lenovo

Digiroot stylus

The bare minimum

If you just want a pen that acts as your finger would on a touch screen, this is a valid option. This isn't an active pen, so it has no features other than being a bit more precise than using your finger. It doesn't take batteries or need recharging, either.

See at Amazon

And those are some of the best pens you can buy if you want something you can use with the new Dell XPS 13 2-in-1. Most of these are capable pens, and many are from well-known brands and they’re bound to serve you well for a long time. If you want something that will still work when you buy a different laptop later, the Wacom Bamboo Ink Plus and other pens that support multiple protocols are the way to go. Of course, you can save money by going with something simple like the Tesha pen.

If you haven’t yet, you can buy the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 using the link below, along with being able to buy the XPS Folio keyboard or the XPS Stylus. Otherwise, you may want to take a look at the best convertibles available right now if you want something a little different that still can be used as a tablet. Or just look at the best laptops in general if you don’t necessarily need that.

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1

The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 is a sleek Windows tablet with a sharp 3:2 display, two great cameras, and 12th-gen Intel processors

See at Dell

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Surface Laptop Studio 2: Everything we’re expecting

The Surface Laptop Studio is one of Microsoft’s most interesting devices in a long time, and one of the coolest laptops around. This new form factor for Surface combines the Surface Book and Surface Studio lines to create something different and better. We loved the Surface Laptop Studio in our review, and it was certainly one of the best laptops out there when it launched. But you know how things roll in technology – we’re always looking forward to the next thing. So what can expect from a potential Surface Laptop Studio 2? Is it coming any time soon? Here’s what we know, what we expect, and what we’d like to see.

First off, let’s lay out the basics of the current Surface Laptop Studio. This is a laptop powered by Intel’s H35 series processors, a new type of processor that has a higher power consumption than a typical laptop, but not as high as 45W processors you might find in a gaming rig. It also comes with dedicated NVIDIA graphics in the form of a GeForce RTX 3050 Ti. Overall, the Surface Laptop Studio is powerful, and it’s using modern specs across the board. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any improvements that can be made in a successor.

Navigate this article:

• Release date
• What new features will it have?
• What do we want to see in a Surface Laptop Studio 2?
• Price

What is the release date of the Surface Laptop Studio 2?

The first thing you’re probably wondering is when can we expect the Surface Laptop Studio 2. With this being a new lineup in Microsoft’s Surface family, this is a particularly hard question to answer. The rate at which Surface devices come out is largely dependent on their success. The Surface Book and Surface Studio lines both had at least two years between new launches. Whether the Surface Laptop Studio sells well enough to warrant a successor more quickly remains to be seen. However, anywhere between one to two years seems like a reasonable amount of time for a successor to launch.

As it stands, it doesn’t look like a Surface Laptop Studio 2 is coming this year, however. We’re expecting a Surface event to take place sometime in October, and it will include devices like the Surface Pro 9, a third-generation Surface Pro X, Surface Laptop 5, and potentially even a Surface Studio 3 (the desktop all-in-one PC). We haven’t heard anything about a Surface Laptop Studio 2.

What new features will the Surface Laptop Studio 2 have?

So, when a Surface Latop Studio 2 does launch, what can we expect it to include? It’s probably safe to assume we won’t see huge design changes in the second iteration of this lineup. Microsoft typically waits a couple (or more) of generations to make significant changes to the design of its Surface devices. There’s also nothing that’s necessarily wrong with the Surface Laptop Studio as it is right now, and no rumors to indicate any big changes to the design.

A spec bump

The one thing you can surely expect with a new Surface Laptop Studio is upgraded specs. That’s the one thing you can almost always count on with a new device launch. Microsoft could go a couple of ways here. It’s currently using Intel’s H35 series of processors, which strike a balance between power and battery life. However, Intel Alder Lake processors could change things.

With Intel’s 12th-generation processors, 35W CPUs are no longer a thing. Right now, we have the P series, which has a TDP of 28W, or the regular H series, with a TDP of 45W. It seems likely that Microsoft will have to choose one of these. However, that’s not to say the Surface Laptop Studio 2 will feature 12th-generation processors necessarily. If a refresh doesn’t happen this year, we’re most likely going to get 13th-generation processors when those are launched.

Aside from that, we could also be looking at an upgraded graphics card, though we still have to see when Nvidia ends up launching its next generation of GPUs.

What do we want to see in a Surface Laptop Studio 2?

Of course, outside of what we can expect, there are things we’d simply like to see in a future version. The current Surface Laptop Studio is great, but there are a couple of ways we’d like to see Microsoft improve it even further. The expectation is that Nvidia will introduce the GeForce RTX 4000 series later this year, but usually, it’s the desktop GPUs that launch first. Laptop variants will probably show up sometime in 2023.

A more flexible design

The form factor of the Surface Laptop Studio takes clear inspiration from the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel, allowing you to pull the display towards you or fold it over the keyboard base for drawing. However, that’s all the Surface Laptop Studio does. Acer’s laptop is designed to more easily allow you to have the display in many more different positions. You can make it so that the display “floats” above the keyboard, for example, or spin it completely backwards if you want to show something off across a table.

An Acer ConeptD 3 Ezel Pro with the display flipped backwards

The Surface Laptop Studio design locks you into three different positions, and while you can move it freely, it doesn’t really hold any other position very well. One could argue that’s an intentional part of Microsoft’s design, but it could definitely change in the future. When the first Surface RT and Surface Pro iterations were released, the kickstand only supported a few positions, but it eventually became a free-moving kickstand.

A refined design

The Surface Laptop Studio is cleverly designed to house the Surface Slim Pen 2 underneath the keyboard base. To accommodate it, Microsoft designed the laptop to have this cutout all around the base, which can look a bit odd. The Surface Slim Pen can only be stored in one position alongside this cutout, so the rest of it is only there for aesthetic consistency, but it would probably be better without it.

The cutout should be designed to fit the Surface Slim Pen more snuggly. And while we’re at it, the pen should probably be included with such an expensive laptop. That way, the pen garage isn’t empty out of the box and it helps the design feel more balanced.

More ports

Seeing Microsoft adopt Thunderbolt for the first time with the Surface Laptop Studio (and Pro 8) was huge news, and we hope to keep seeing them in future iterations. But as capable as these ports are, it’s a shame to see this powerful laptop including almost nothing else aside from Thunderbolt. A more traditional display output like HDMI would be great to see, as would USB Type-A and an SD card reader. Surface devices typically haven’t had a ton of ports, but if Apple can learn its lesson for the 2021 MacBook Pro, we hope Microsoft can learn the same for a Surface Laptop Studio 2.

What will be the price of the Surface Laptop Studio 2?

While it’s definitely early to take a guess at exact pricing for a device that’s still a way out, there’s something we do know. Microsoft hasn’t typically raised (or lowered) the base price of its devices by a whole lot each generation. The exception to that was the Surface Pro 8, but keep in mind that was a major upgrade in terms of design and screen. Plus, Microsoft also left behind some configurations like 4GB of RAM and the Intel Core i3, so the starting point for the Pro 8 is very different from the Pro 7.

As such, it’s fair to expect that the base price of a Surface Laptop Studio 2 stays around $1,599 when it does launch. Of course, it could increase, but it’s hard to imagine it going much higher than that. As for the maximum price, it will depend on whether Microsoft decides to introduce new configuration options, whether that’s a more powerful GPU or some other kind of upgrade.

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For now, that’s all we know about a potential Surface Laptop Studio 2, and frankly, it’s not a lot. That’s not too surprising, though, considering it doesn’t look like a Surface Laptop Studio 2 will launch in 2022. There’s no reason to wait if you want this kind of form factor right now. We’ll be updating this article if any new information or rumors pop up about the Surface Laptop Studio 2, so be sure to check back later. If you’re interested in other form factors, check out the best Surface PCs you can buy today. Microsoft makes some great devices for different use cases.

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