Friday, March 29, 2024

Google to revamp Chromebook Pixel lineup with new convertible this year

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Google will likely announce the next Chromebook Pixel at the same time as this year’s Pixel phones.

While there are plenty of great Chromebooks out there from third-party partners, Google looks to be gearing up to release another Chromebook Pixel. The first Chromebook Pixel was released in 2013, refreshed in 2015, then put on hold earlier this year. It seems the line is no longer on hold, because a new Chromebook Pixel may be just around the corner.

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Android Police reports that Google will be announcing another first party Pixel laptop at the same time as the next Pixel phones. The device might be related to Google’s earlier Project Bison, which allegedly featured a 32GB or 128GB of internal storage, 8GB or 16GB of RAM, a 12.3-inch screen, and a Wacom stylus.

The laptop may also feature the wacky keyboard that showed up in recent patents. Those patents showed a second hinge for the keyboard area, so there would be a smooth surface when you first open the laptop. The patents didn’t suggest what the smooth area would be used for, but it could be used as somewhere for the user to grip when the device is in tablet mode.

The device may also be related (or, the same device as) the “Eve” device that ChromeUnboxed has been tracking for the better part of this year. That model is said to feature a new keyboard layout and the first fingerprint sensor on a Chromebook. Given these are pretty big changes for the Chrome market, it makes sense Google would want to showcase them on a first party device.

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Android Police specifically notes the upcoming laptop will run Chrome, not Andromeda, the rumored OS that was going to be a hybrid of Android and Chrome. Given that newer Chrome devices already run Android applications, there’s not much benefit to a full combining of both operating systems. While there may be a point in the future where it does make sense for Chrome and Android to combine, for now they be the separate and wonderful operating systems we’ve come to know and love.

Android Police also noted Google would release a smaller Google Home, similar in concept to Amazon’s Echo Dot. At $130 each, outfitting your entire house in Google Home’s can get expensive quickly, so it will be great for buyers to have a less expensive option. The smaller Google Home’s would be similar to the NVIDIA Spot, a small microphone that would connect to a NVIDIA SHIELD TV and let users tap into Google Assistant. The Spot was supposed to cost $49 each, the same price as the Echo Dot. Since being announced at CES this year, we still haven’t heard anything about the Spot’s availability.

Would you be interested in another Chromebook Pixel? Let us know down below!

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