Earlier in the year a covered my return to ChromeOS hardware with the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 2 in one and the Acer Chromebook 311 (C721). As it has some time since ChromeOS 96 came out and now is the time to re-evaluate how they have managed ChromeOS updates and how performance has improved or gotten worse. Also covered will be the USI pen for the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet as well as a evaluating a new contender the Lenovo Ideapad 3 Chromebook.
Starting off with the performance changes since ChromeOS 96 the data shows that there are minor improvements in Browserbench on both Speedometer and JetStream, but the biggest improvement is in MotionMark. The linux container has also gotten a decent performance improvement in all the Browserbench tests. The EDuke32 test over all stayed in the same performance area on version 105 as it was on version 96. Overall, the Acer Chromebook 311 still has it the delayed login as well as it still takes a while after bootup/restart for CPU load to settle down which seems to have gotten worse. The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet while not as noticeable as the Acer Chromebook 311 does still have some slight delays but they do not affect things bad enough to be an issue, so the device is still quite useable due to its size and portability.
One more thing to cover in the re-visiting section is the Lenovo USI Pen for the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet which adds ability to do handwritten notes or to do drawing in one of many apps with its 4096 levels of pressure supported. One downside is that it is not EMV but sadly uses a AAAA battery which is an expensive battery format but there is rechargeable nimh batteries in the format that help make it easier to manage. App wise I have tested Google Cursive and Chrome Canvas which both cover different areas with Google Cursive being note taking and Chrome Canvas being for drawing which both come pre-installed as well as Bamboo Paper from Wacom which ultimately met my needs due to option to disable touch input for writing/drawing which both Google Cursive and Chrome Canvas lack. Overall, the pen if bought is a good value if you got the need but at full price its not that great of value.
Processor: Intel Celeron N4020 (1.1GHz / 2.8GHz, 2 Cores, 2 Threads)
Display: 11.6” HD (1366x768) TN Anti-glare
Memory: 4 GB LPDDR4 Soldered
Storage: 64gb eMMC 5.1 Soldered (MicroSD Expandable)
Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 600
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.2
Camera: HD 720p
Wireless: Intel 9560 11ac, 2x2 + BT4.2
The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 has a sleek modern look while still being as durable as the more common designs many of them opt to use with bumpers and such. As common with other slim and lightweight laptops you need two hands to open the lid. The keyboard has the tactile yet quiet keyboard that is common on Lenovo laptops with minimal to none deck flex and is good to type on. The touchpad is responsive with a good tactile click on the buttons mostly on the bottom half of the touchpad while still feeling premium. The anti-glare TN lcd has good color reproduction and brightness but sufferers from the usual off angle viewing TN is known for.
The ports are well laid out with USB type-C port on both sides that supports charging and display port output, USB type-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports on both, Headset jack on the left side that supports headphones and cellphone style headsets.
Lenovo has chosen to support repair out of box by not using any proprietary screws to get the bottom cover off. Lenovo has hardware maintenance manual available for download that covers all the repair procedures. All the common parts are replaceable with details on how to manage each repair and link to page to look up the part number to purchase but not sure on if Lenovo will sell them direct. While the storage is a soldered 64gb eMMC 5.1 module there is a MicroSD slot that can be used to expand it further.
The software side of ChromeOS has evolved even more since I checked out the other models and it has gotten better since version 96. One major change is since then the Linux Development Environment is now out of beta with improving performance. After updating to version 105 from the out of box version 84 the new menu which is more in the style of the old 2015 era menu but better was enabled. After upgrade there was some oddness where Phone Hub was missing but a Power Wash fixed the issue. Not sure how Google is going to manage wider scale Android version upgrades for the Android support on other models, but this model has with Android 11 vs the 9 of the previously covered models.
The performance of this Chromebook is impressive considering it is not that much newer than the other covered models. Overall performance is more responsive compared to the MediaTek MT8183 of the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet and the AMD A4-9120C of the Acer Chromebook 311 with a snappier faster login process and heavier sites loading faster in my testing. Linux Development Environment does overall run better than on the other models due to the better performance with the usual slight overhead as before, but graphics has been improved. One new test has shown that the Intel Celeron N4020 as more capable is playing a 4k h264 video file which plays without any issue on Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Chromebook but the AMD A4-9120C based Acer Chromebook 311 struggles with the video playback and is unplayable on the MediaTek MT8183 based Lenovo IdeaPad Duet.
To test performance, I used BrowserBench to test browser, a custom compile of Eduke32 for both the amd64 Acer and the aarch64 Lenovo to test the Linux container, and Geekbench 5 to test Android. To test the overhead that the Linux container added I used the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Chromebook and installed the latest x86_64 Chrome browser in the container and ran the same BrowserBench tests on the containerized Chrome. As well as 4K H264 MP4 video file played from a USB 3.2 gen 1 USB stick. All of this was tested on Chrome OS 105.0.5195.134.
ChromeOS 96 vs ChromeOS 105 Comparision
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| BrowserBench | |||
| Higher is better | JetStream 2 | MotionMark | Speedometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo IdeaPad Duet (Chrome OS 96) | 36.534 | 87.09 ± 3.86% | 26.03 ± 0.15 |
| Acer Chromebook 311 (Chrome OS 96) | 41.975 | 129.04 ± 5.50% | 33.7 ± 0.57 |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Duet (Chrome OS 105) | 41.553 | 160.35 ±8.87% | 26.2 ± 0.38 |
| Acer Chromebook 311 (Chrome OS 105) | 47.235 | 340.67 ±4.31% | 35.54 ± 0.351 |
| Eduke32 (Linux) | |||
| Higher is better | Average | Average Low | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo IdeaPad Duet (Chrome OS 96) | 59 fps | 58 fps | 59 fps |
| Acer Chromebook 311 (Chrome OS 96) | 54 fps | 49 fps | 58 fps |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Duet (Chrome OS 105) | 57 fps | 58 fps | 60 fps |
| Acer Chromebook 311 (Chrome OS 105) | 50 fps | 55 fps | 59 fps |
| Geekbench 5 (Android) | |||
| Higher is better | Single-Core | Multi-Core | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo IdeaPad Duet (Chrome OS 96) | 285 | 1373 | |
| Acer Chromebook 311 (Chrome OS 96) | 338 | 511 | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Duet (Chrome OS 105) | 285 | 1374 | |
| Acer Chromebook 311 (Chrome OS 105) | 350 | 506 | |
| Container Overhead | |||
| Higher is better | JetStream 2 | MotionMark | Speedometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native Browser (Chrome OS 96) | 41.975 | 129.04 ± 5.50% | 33.7 ± 0.57 |
| Container (Chrome OS 96) | 33.470 | 8.15 ±36.19 | 24.9 ±1.1 |
| Native Browser (Chrome OS 105) | 62.069 | 234.26 ±6.52% | 50.5 ± 1.4 |
| Container (Chrome OS 105) | 52.532 | 118.36 ±16.02% | 48.5 ± 1.7 |
ChromeOS 105 Comparision
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| BrowserBench | |||
| Higher is better | JetStream 2 | MotionMark | Speedometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo IdeaPad 3 | 62.069 | 234.26 ±6.52% | 50.5 ± 1.4 |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Duet | 41.553 | 160.35 ±8.87% | 26.2 ± 0.38 |
| Acer Chromebook 311 | 47.235 | 340.67 ±4.31% | 35.54 ± 0.351 |
| Eduke32 (Linux) | |||
| Higher is better | Average | Average Low | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo IdeaPad 3 | 58 fps | 59 fps | 60 fps |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Duet | 57 fps | 58 fps | 60 fps |
| Acer Chromebook 311 | 50 fps | 55 fps | 59 fps |
| Geekbench 5 (Android) | |||
| Higher is better | Single-Core | Multi-Core | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo IdeaPad 3 | 419 | 752 | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Duet | 285 | 1374 | |
| Acer Chromebook 311 | 350 | 506 | |
| Container Overhead | |||
| Higher is better | JetStream 2 | MotionMark | Speedometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native Browser | 62.069 | 234.26 ±6.52% | 50.5 ± 1.4 |
| Container | 52.532 | 118.36 ±16.02% | 48.5 ± 1.7 |
Video Playback Testing
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| Lenovo IdeaPad 3 | Lenovo IdeaPad Duet | Acer Chromebook 311 |
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