Chromebooks Get a New Button and Google AI Features

Speaking of which, regardless of the video call app you use, Chromebook Plus laptops now have a studio-style microphone option to better isolate your voice and cut out background chatter, and there are visual enhancements to brighten faces or adjust brightness.

Those features other than Quick Install are only available on Chromebook Plus devices. This is a standard created by Google last year that establishes strict rules that hardware manufacturers must adhere to if they want to stay under that label. The point is to ensure a certain level of polish in these Chromebooks, which start at around $350. But Google isn’t forgetting about all non-Chromebook Plus laptops.

A few things are coming up everything Chromebooks (well, those are still supported). Recaption Recap, for example, gives you an overview of where you left off, with a picture of the last web page you were on and all the other apps you had open, in case you wanted to jump back in the next day. Focus mode—which first appeared on Android phones—is now baked into ChromeOS, allowing you to turn on Do Not Disturb and silence notifications when you want to get in the zone. There’s even 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 that Google Docs or Slides have just been opened.

Surprisingly, Google’s Gemini chatbot is now available on all Chromebooks—this used to be available on the Chromebook Plus models—although Google will only give you three months of free access to the Google One AI Premium Plan when you buy a new Chromebook (which which you access to Gemini Advanced). If you buy a Chromebook Plus, Google is still running a promotion that gets you the same benefit for free for 12 months.

New Chromebooks

There is some shiny new hardware to go along with these software features. First up is the long-awaited update to the Lenovo Duet, a laptop we’ve loved before. This 2-in-1 laptop comes with a kickstand to support the 11-inch 2K screen vertically and includes a keyboard if 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 slide with a stylus won’t be too frustrating.

It is powered by a MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor with 8 GB of RAM, and remember, as this not Chromebook Plus model, the performance on this device will probably not impress. But if you use it for word processing and a few Chrome tabs, it will do the job. It comes with 128 GB of storage, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 5-MP selfie camera. It costs $349.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet.

Courtesy of Google

The stylus and rear camera are featured on the Lenovo Chromebook Duet tablet.

Photo: Julian Chokkattu

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is Samsung’s first Chromebook Plus laptop and it’s also the thinnest and lightest yet. It weighs 2.58 pounds despite the 15.6-inch screen—for context, the 15-inch MacBook Air weighs 3.3 pounds. This is a clamshell, but you get an OLED display, a higher-end Intel Core 3 100U processor and 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus.

Courtesy of Google

Photo: Julian Chokkattu

Both these laptops will be launched in October.

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