Chromebooks

Chromebooks have, over the past couple of years, graduated from the cheap alternative to Windows/Mac and have become real options in the laptop market. As a result, a lot of the hardware out there is solid but nothing remarkable. That’s the impression I walked away with after spending a few days with the new Acer Chromebook 514, a delightful laptop that does everything well.

During the Next @ Acer event, the company unveiled four new Chrome OS devices, including world’s firsts with the first Chromebook with a 17-inch screen, and the first to be Intel Evo certified.

More devices with 11th Gen Intel processors continue to be announced, and the latest is HP’s Pro c640 G2 Chromebook. Visually, this latest generation is not too different from the original, but there are some nice upgrades. 

Since their debut years ago, Chromebooks have long been criticized for lacking native apps. That’s something Google has addressed by delivering support for Android apps and, more importantly, Linux apps on Chromebooks, and now the latter is finally dropping its beta label.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in huge growth for PCs and tablets as a whole, but it was Google’s Chromebook initiative that really proved to be a hit during the pandemic. According to a new report from Canalys, though, things were even better than we thought, with Chromebooks seeing 275% growth entering 2021.

A useful feature of Chrome OS is Guest Mode, which essentially acts as an incognito mode for a friend or family member to use your machine without access to any of your data. Unfortunately, though, there’s a bug that can actually reveal your location data to another user who is on Chromebook’s guest mode.

Google has rolled out a new wallpaper collection to Chromebooks called “Imaginary” that adds 12 colorful new images to Chrome OS. Each background contains a fun, digitally-sculpted scene.

After 10 years, Chrome OS has become the second-most popular operating system for computers in the world, and as a result, we’re seeing more players in the place. In the past year or so, AMD has taken a bigger interest in Chromebooks, bringing its Ryzen chips to the platform. Over the past several weeks, we’ve had the chance to use one of the first AMD Ryzen Chromebooks and put it through its paces, and the results are a bit of a mixed bag.

While question marks and doom do unfortunately surround the cloud gaming platform at the moment, Google will be hoping for big growth after confirming that all new Chromebooks will come with Stadia pre-installed.

COVID-19 has had a lot of negative effects on the market, but it’s been great for the PC market as millions of people transitioned to working and learning from home. As a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chromebook market in particular exploded with growth over 4x.

Ahead of the annual BETT education show, HP is announcing new Chromebook revisions geared for students and teachers. The focus is primarily on affordability and ruggedness, but one in particular — the HP Chromebook x360 11 G4 — does stand out.

CES 2021 saw a handful of Chromebooks, and the announcements are continuing at the BETT education show. Acer has four new devices with the Snapdragon 7c-powered Chromebook 511 leading the pack. 

Dell has refreshed the popular Chromebook 3100 lineup to add LTE connectivity, making the entry-level devices a solid option for at-home learning or learning on the go.

For years Chromebooks have arrived with mostly Intel and some MediaTek chipsets, but in late 2020 AMD announced a new series of Chromebook chips. Now, Acer is adopting AMD Ryzen in its new Chromebook Spin 514.

A year ago, Samsung managed to surprise everyone with the debut of its super-premium Galaxy Chromebook, and to kick off 2021, the company has a sequel. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 keeps some of the high-end design traits, but cuts costs in some major ways.

Following a render leak on Monday, key specs for the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 have now emerged with a possible starting price. This comes from a slide tweeted by Microsoft leaker WalkingCat (@h0x0d) today.

At the start of this month, a rumor suggested that Samsung was working on a follow-up to the premium Chrome OS device that it announced in January. A render of the Galaxy Chromebook 2 has now leaked and leaves little to the imagination.