As I’m frequently moving computers and monitors around when reviewing the best standing desks, I plan on sketching out new setups on my Chromebook Duet 3 first before I actually start unplugging devices and working on my cable management.

It’s not my main device as you’d have to pry my desktop from my cold, dead hands but it’s great for taking a break from using a mouse and keyboard.

I’ve now spent the better part of a week using my Chromebook Duet 3 like a large Chrome OS tablet. Maybe it’s because I grew up at a time when personal computers - or PCs as we now know them today - were actually family computers used by an entire household, not just one person. Sure, I bring them with me when I travel but when I’m at home, I really tend to prefer the desktop experience. While I’ve owned several of the best laptops over the years, they always seem to end up connected to a monitor with an external keyboard and a mouse. Without a working USI stylus in hand, it was really easy to fall back into my old ways. The Lenovo USI Pen 2 (opens in new tab) did eventually go on sale but it didn’t start shipping until September - five months after the Chromebook Due 3 was released. However, this new USI 2.0 pen didn’t even have a listing page on its site when I placed my order. That’s right, Lenovo had updated its USI pen to support the new standard. While I had thoroughly researched every other aspect of my new 2-in-1, I hadn’t considered that the only USI pen with a “works with chromebook” endorsement on Lenovo’s site wouldn’t work with my Chromebook.

In the two years between the release of the original Chromebook Duet and the Duet 3, the Universal Stylus Initiative released version 2.0 of their specification. Since USI is a universal standard after all, I figured it would work out of the box with my new Chromebook but boy was I wrong. Back in June of last year when I had the Chromebook Duet 3 sitting in my shopping cart, at the last minute I decided to also add the Lenovo USI Pen to my order.

Lenovo flex 3 chromebook 11