Google has announced two new Chromebooks from Lenovo and Samsung, alongside a batch of fresh AI features.
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is perhaps the most eye-catching of the two new devices, as it’s being positioned as the thinnest and lightest Chromebook Plus laptop yet. While it’s a full-sized 15.6-inch laptop, it weighs just 1.17kg and measures a mere 11.8 millimetres thick.
It packs in a 15.6-inch OLED display with a 400 nits peak brightness, an Intel Core 3 100U Raptor Lake-R processor backed by 8GB RAM, and 256GB of storage. Samsung is claiming up to 13 hours of battery life, and the laptop will be available in October.
This is the first Chromebook Plus laptop to include Google’s new Quick Insert key. This dedicated keyboard button provides a menu of context-sensitive AI tools, whether that’s adding a URL link, inserting a GIF, gaining Gemini’s assistance with writing, providing links to recently visited websites, and more.
While this Quick Insert key is exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus right now, existing Chromebook users can replicate the core function using the Launcher Key + F keyboard shortcut. Expect to see the button coming to future Chromebook Plus laptops.
Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11″
The other new Chromebook is the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11″, which is pictured in the title image above. It’s a compact and durable 2-in-1 with a keyboard cover and a built-in kickstand. There’s also compatibility with the USI Pen 2, sold separately, which is handy given that the Goodnotes app is now optimised for such stylus-compatible Chromebooks.
It’s powered by the MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor with up to 8GB of RAM, while there’s also 128GB of storage. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11″ is fronted by a 10.95-inch WUXGA display with a peak brightness of 400 nits, and Lenovo is promising up to 12 hours of battery life.
Video calling, meanwhile, is handled by 8MP back-facing and 5MP front-facing cameras.
New AI features
Alongside the existing Help me write and Gemini features that ship with every Chromebook Plus device, Google is adding several new AI features to existing Chromebooks via automatic updates throughout October.
Help me read will summarise PDFs, articles and websites with a simple right click, and it’ll be possible to ask follow-up questions if you want to dive even deeper.
Live Translate will provide AI-translated captions in more than 100 languages to anything on screen, from work meetings to live YouTube streams.
The Recorder app, meanwhile, will use AI to create transcriptions that can detect and label speakers, as well as summarising longer recorded content.
Finally, video calling is getting the AI treatment with a new studio-style mic bolstering vocal quality and reducing ambient noise, while built-in appearance enhancements will automatically adjust lighting, brightness and the like. All of which will work regardless of your chosen video calling app.
Besides these Chromebook Plus features, Google is bringing a selection of features to all Chromebooks. These include Chat with Gemini, a three month free Google One AI Premium plan trial, Welcome Recap, Focus, and the ability to pin important files to your home screen.
