Newsletter
For many years, Chromebooks have kind of represented the “cheap” or “budget” range of laptops. Basically replacing the Netbooks that were popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s. And that’s what has helped Chrome to garner a decent chunk of the laptop market. But now, Google is looking to take that up a notch, and is announcing Chromebook Plus.
Google is announcing a new category of devices, called Chromebook Plus, today. This new category is pretty simple and has a minimum spec for each Chromebook. These specs include at least an Intel Core i3 or higher or at least an AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPU. It also has at least a 1080p IPS screen, 1080p webcams, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. So as you can see, Google wants to provide some pretty decent specs for Chrome, instead of these 1366×768 resolution displays we’ve seen on a lot of Chromebooks.
Specs aren’t the whole story though. Google is also giving Chromebook Plus devices additional OS and Google software features. This includes Google Photos Magic Eraser, along with a few other editing tools. It also gets Offline File Sync, AI-power video conferencing improvements which includes lighting and noise cancellation, among a few other things. Chromebook Plus models will also get free AI powered OS features in the coming months.
Chromebook Plus laptops are also going to come with a free 3 month subscription for Photoshop on Web, as well as 3 months of GeForce NOW’s priority tier and a few other perks.
What Chromebook Plus models are on the way?
Google has worked with some of its most successful Chromebook partners to create these new Chromebook Plus models. That includes Acer, ASUS, HP, and Lenovo. These Chromebook Plus models will be available starting on October 8, and start at just $399.
Each brand has two models. The majority of these are $399 or $499, with the only real outlier being HP’s Chromebook Plus x360 14c, which is going to be $699. All of these use the Intel Core i3 except fro Acer’s Chromebook Plus 514, which uses the AMD Ryzen 3.
