Speaking of, regardless of the video call app you use, Chromebook Plus laptops now have a studio-style mic option to better isolate your voice and cut the background chatter, and there are appearance enhancements to brighten up the face or adjust the lighting.
Those features outside of Quick Insert are exclusive to Chromebook Plus machines. This is a standard Google created last year that establishes a strict hardware specification manufacturers must adhere to if they want to sit under that label. The point is to ensure a certain level of polish on these Chromebooks, which start at around $350. But Google isn’t forgetting about all the non-Chromebook Plus laptops.
A few things are coming to all Chromebooks (well, ones still supported). Welcome Recap, for example, gives you an overview of where you left off, with an image of the last webpage you were on and all the other apps you still had open, in case you wanted to jump right back in the next day. Focus mode—which first debuted on Android phones—is now baked into ChromeOS, allowing you to turn on Do Not Disturb and silence notifications if you want to get in the zone. There’s even a YouTube Music integration to play soundscapes to get you in the right mood. And in the launcher tray, there’s a section to pin certain files for quick access, and ChromeOS will suggest recently opened Google Docs or Slides.
Surprisingly, Google’s Gemini chatbot is now available on all Chromebooks—this used to be exclusive to Chromebook Plus models—though Google will only offer three months of free access to the Google One AI Premium Plan if you buy a new Chromebook (which nets you access to Gemini Advanced). If you buy a Chromebook Plus, Google’s still running the promotion that gets you the same free perk for 12 months.
New Chromebooks
There’s some shiny new hardware to go along with these new software features. First up is a long-awaited update to the Lenovo Duet, a portable laptop we’ve loved in prior iterations. This 2-in-1 detachable laptop comes with a kickstand to prop the 11-inch 2K screen upright and includes a keyboard for when you don’t want to use it in tablet mode. Google says it has updated the palm rejection models in ChromeOS so drawing on this slate with a stylus will be far less frustrating.
It’s powered by a MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor with 8 GB of RAM, and remember, since this is not a Chromebook Plus model, performance on this machine likely won’t impress. But if you’re using it for word processing and a few Chrome tabs, it’ll do the job. It comes with 128 GB of storage, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 5-MP selfie camera. It costs $349.
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The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is Samsung’s first Chromebook Plus laptop and it’s also the thinnest and lightest to date. It weighs 2.58 pounds despite the 15.6-inch screen—for context, a 15-inch MacBook Air weighs 3.3 pounds. This one is a clamshell, but you get an OLED display, a superior Intel Core 3 100U processor along with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Both of these laptops are launching in October.
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