Acer Chromebook 14 CB3-431-C5FM vs Lenovo Chromebook Duet

Keep in mind my search is for ultrabook, hopefully the fans either don't exist or are positioned in a way where you can set your laptop on your lap.

I'm ambivalent about the 13" display -- the Duet is now in laptop territory. Would've preferred 11" or 12".

The metal body and size no doubt add some weight compared to smaller, plastic Chromebooks, but at just under 3.5 pounds it's still light enough for a daily commute or hauling around campus. Plus, the rounded edges make it easier to slide in and out of a bag. Perhaps because it is so thin, though, the keyboard's keys don't have much travel

-My Android apps do not auto-update despite the setting enabled to auto-update them -I miss my android app switcher in touch-only mode On top of all that, when it's a bare tablet, the form factor is great. But as soon as you add the kickstand, it about doubles the weight, and the cloth backing piece sticks out beyond the tablet bezels. The keyboard adds another pound of weight. All together it weights more than my 13" laptop from Samsung

I charge it often at levels of 50%, 70%, or 90%. Both laptops get about 9 hrs of battery life if use both at 45% screen brightness. Hopefully this battery can last me for 10 years. I usually keep the display for the Toshiba at 50% screen brightness for videos and 40% for browsing

The battery on the Duet so far has been great even when doing things like watching movies, gaming or running graphic design apps. I often have 2 radios running (Bluetooth and wifi) and tend to turn the brightness up a bit and still get an easy 6+ hours and be over 25% battery left.

The Acer Chromebook 14 has a 14-inch 1080p HD IPS screen, premium-feeling aluminum construction, a quad-core processor, better-than-average system memory and storage, good connectivity, and a sweet $300 price tag to top it off. Its only drawbacks are a lack of SD card expansion and a slightly stiff keyboard. We think this chromebook is close to the ideal for the category, and a viable alternative to a "traditional" Windows or Mac laptop with a $500 or higher price tag. That makes it our new Editors' Choice

The Lenovo Duet Chromebook is at the top end of your price range and will do everything you need to do.

First: the screen. Many of Acer's Chromebooks have, historically, been hampered by their poor displays. Thankfully, this time, Acer has gotten that part right. The Chromebook 14 has a 1080p IPS display with fantastic viewing angles and excellent brightness

So when I tried to dock my Lenovo Chromebook Duet to my ultra wide monitor it gave some poor resolutions. No option for my 1080 X 2560 ultra wide monitor like my Samsung DeX setup. I learned that my Duet does fine with TV (1080X1920) probably because of the 30HZ connections. My ultra wide monitor likes a 60HZ so my Duet gave some poor resolution in the choices

Video streaming - runs 1080p Youtube videos just fine. I have Chromecast and I've streamed pages with videos from this computer and found that watching videos and surfing the web really hampers the performance, that's another disappointment. Fanless processor - no noise, love it. At first I was disappointed with the performance (coming from a Acer C740), but after a week of only using this chromebook it has grown on me

If this thing could stay up and running it would easily get 4 stars from me. Lenovo should be embarrassed by this thing, it's definitely a dark stain on my perception of the company. Sadly, I have to say that if you think you're saving money by the low price, you're wrong - I will now need to buy another device, at higher cost, having basically wasted my money on this. Add the cost of this and the cost of a reliable replacement and I'd have been able to buy a high end tablet in the first place