Google’s Chromebooks are in a bit of an odd place in the market. Since coming out in 2011, tablets have only gotten stronger, with Apple’s most recent iPads using the same chips that power its MacBooks. To try to maintain the relevance of the Chromebook, Google’s now launching Chromebook Plus, a new certification that guarantees machines with faster processors and twice the memory and storage compared to the most popular models from last year. More importantly, Chromebook Plus introduces a new series of AI improvements to the operating system that’s supposed to allow Chromebooks to more realistically compete with MacBooks and Windows machines.
However, not all of these AI improvements will be ready at launch, and based on Google’s history of killing projects, it’s unclear when they’ll come or in what state they’ll be when they arrive. Are the Chromebook Plus’ hardware improvements and small selection of already released operating system changes enough to hold it through until then, or will this be yet another product set to join the Google Graveyard?
Pros:
- 1080p Display
- 1080p Webcam
- Small and portable
- Boots up fast and has a strong battery life
Cons:
- Poor compatibility with games and productivity apps
- New AI features are largely novelties
- Still relies mostly on the cloud
It’s still a Chromebook
Chromebook Plus devices might sell themselves as being twice as powerful as regular Chromebooks, but they’re still budget machines next to MacBooks or more fully equipped Windows laptops.
I tested the Chromebook Plus CX34 from Asus for my review, and what I got when I opened it up was the same convenient but lightweight experience Chromebooks have offered since they launched in 2011. The 3.17 pound laptop is pleasingly small and portable, with a 14-inch, 1080p non-touch screen and moderate bezels. The keyboard is comfortable, and the 1080p webcam has its own shutter built-in. There’s plenty of ports, including USB-C, USB-A, HDMI and an audio jack. Most notably, the operating system boots fast and generally stays out of the way: there’s very little notification bloat or load times. The battery life is also generous–12.5 hours while streaming a 24 hour YouTube video overnight. As far as surface level experience goes, the only hassles I had were tinny speakers and a somewhat sticky trackpad.
That’s not to be underestimated. Prior Chromebooks often shipped with low resolutions and poor webcams, but the Chromebook Plus guarantees a display and camera on par with most entry level Windows laptops.
However, as with prior Chromebooks, I had difficulty running most apps not based on the cloud or offered in the Android store. The Chromebook Plus certification isn’t looking to offer a hardware revolution. This is still a $399 laptop, and to meet the “Plus” requirements, all it has to offer on the inside is a low-end chip from Intel’s last processor generation and enough RAM and storage space to hit the minimum offered by most Android smartphones.
That phone-like power is by design. Google doesn’t need Chromebook Plus devices to be able to take on other computers all by themselves. They just need to be powerful enough to run new AI features originally built for its Pixel phones. The certification is as much a software bump as a hardware bump, and the idea is for Chromebook Plus devices to leverage AI and the internet to make up for their lack of raw power. Unfortunately, that idea might be more of a twinkle in Google’s eye than reality at the moment.
Magic Eraser and better video calling
Headlining Chromebook Plus’ AI launch software lineup is a Pixel favorite, some video calling niceties and some slightly better integration with Google’s workspace cloud apps.
Perhaps the most impressive showcase of the current Chromebook Plus software lineup is Magic Eraser. Debuting on Pixel 6 before making its way to non-Pixel phones via the cloud, Magic Eraser uses AI to automatically cut out unwanted subjects from photos and fill in any space left behind. All Chromebook Plus devices can use the cloud-based Magic Eraser via the Google Photos app without a subscription to the Google One service that allows non Pixel phones to use it.
I opted to use it on a photo of my partner walking through the Fushimi Inari shrine in Japan, known for its long sequence of torii gates. It did well cutting other people out of the photo while maintaining the structure of the gates behind them, but the tool still left behind a noticeable blur in spots.
Magic Eraser’s results will vary depending on the photo you use it for. It is impressive, but in many cases, little more than a novelty. More generally useful is the Chromebook Plus’ video calling features. While programs such as Zoom and Google’s own Meet have built-in background blur features, the Chromebook Plus can blur video backgrounds, turn on noise cancellation and improve your lighting at the operating system level. That means you’ll have access to the same call improvement options regardless of which video call app you use–they’ll be applied to your footage as it leaves your webcam and your audio as it leaves your microphone.
I opted to try the feature in Google Meet, and as soon as I hopped into a Google Meet room on my Chromebook, an option showed up in my Chromebook’s taskbar that made it easy to turn off my camera or microphone and to apply a background blur or improve lighting, all outside of the Google Meet interface. I found the Chromebook’s background blur was almost identical to the blur offered by Meet itself, but the improve lighting feature made for a surprisingly natural glow–rather than simply changing the video’s color temperature, it made it appear as if there were a light source shining on my face. As I took the call in a dark room on a cloudy day, I appreciated it, especially since Meet has no option to improve lighting baked in.
Rounding out Chromebook Plus’ launch features is File Sync for Google Drive apps. This expands on Google Drive for desktop by using AI to automatically download important files to your Chromebook for offline use, even when you haven’t initiated a sync. The same will happen when uploading files, with the Chromebook using AI to upload the most important files first.
Google hasn’t been clear about how your Chromebook decides which files are important, and this feature’s usefulness depends on how much storage you have left on your device. All Chromebook Plus devices come with a minimum of 128GB of storage, although that’s still small compared to competing Mac or Windows devices–the equivalent of a $12 Micro SD card.
Across three personal Gmail accounts and one work account, I had used about 30GB of Drive space. When combined with the 60GB already taken up on my Chromebook by apps and other files, this would leave me about 30GB of extra storage if I were to download everything, meaning I was able to use the feature well. However, those with more videos and large files stored on their drives will have a harder time with it. An entire Google Photos library would be difficult to download. Given that Magic Erase can only be used in the Google Photos app, it’s an important consideration.
In the short week I had with the laptop, I didn’t notice much of a difference between the new File Sync and how the Google Drive app works on my Windows laptop, and that generally sums up Chromebook Plus’ current lineup of AI features. They’re novelties and conveniences, but nothing game changing.
That’s coming later. Google has promised a full generative AI assistant for Chromebook Plus, which will be able to generate images, write different posts for you based on which app or website you’re using (it might make a short post if you’re on X, or a long post if you’re on Facebook), summarize webpages for you and help you sort through your settings.
It’s a promising concept, similar to Windows Copilot but with the added convenience of being able to be summoned on a right click. But it’s also still vapor for now. Given Google’s aforementioned history, it’s best to make your purchasing decisions based on what you’ll get now, rather than paying for something that may never come, or that may be significantly different once it does.
Can you do serious work on a Chromebook Plus?
Chromebook Plus promises to use AI to make general usability more fun and convenient, but that doesn’t necessarily transfer over to powerful productivity capabilities. For serious work, you’ll either need to rely on cloud apps–something regular Chromebooks already have access to–or local processing oomph.
The strength here is that Chromebook Plus devices set minimum standard requirements that regular Chromebooks don’t have. While they’re still budget, they’re all operating on at least the same baseline: either an Intel 12th Gen Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Chromebook Plus devices can exceed these minimums if they so choose, although mine did not. However, even this low bar does give users more ideas of what to expect than regular Chromebooks, which don’t have to meet a certification.
I tested my Chromebook Plus’s performance with Geekbench 6, a synthetic benchmark that gives a rough idea of general performance. It gave me a single-core score of 1,809 and a multi-core score of 5,006: roughly on par with the performance from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. That’s a powerful phone chip–Samsung uses it in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which sells for $1,199.
But it is a phone chip, and even if the Chromebook uses a laptop processor, that comparison reveals a major Chromebook limitation that the Plus machines still haven’t fixed–most apps won’t work on this device.
Even if it’s powerful enough to run them, because the Chromebook Plus runs on ChromeOS, which is primarily meant as a portal to the internet, it can’t use apps built for Windows or Mac. Even for Geekbench, I had to run the mobile version. It is convenient that Chromebooks can run Android apps with little fuss, but so can tablets.
Google is aware of this. All Chromebook Plus devices come with a 25% discount for Lumafusion, a popular video editor for tablets. They also come with three months of access to Adobe Photoshop on the Web and Adobe Express, which both run through the browser. These latter two tools work well on my Chromebook Plus, resizing without issue and not experiencing any slowdown. But they won’t run without an internet connection, and will charge you once your trials are up.
When it comes to on-device photo editing, the best I could do was GIMP. Costing $2 on the Android app store, GIMP is an open-source photo editor that offers similar features to the Windows and Mac versions of Photoshop. It runs a little slow on the Chromebook Plus, but all the features otherwise work. However, because it was designed for phones and tablets, the icons for the buttons and tools do not resize well to fit the Chomebook Plus’ screen.
Lumafusion fares better here, running at full speed and with a generous user interface. But due to the limited storage space on most Chromebook Plus models, video editors would likely still be better off either with another machine, or with a cloud-based editor like Capcut.
All in all, a chip on par with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is no slouch, but due to poor app compatibility and small storage space, the Chromebook Plus does not move the needle on doing serious productivity work on a Chromebook. Chromebooks can technically edit photos and videos, yes, but do so best through the cloud–something that doesn’t necessitate a “Plus” model.
Can you game on a Chromebook?
In Oct. of 2022, Google announced a series of gaming Chromebooks that, as with productivity apps, focus on using the cloud to run heavy workloads. It was a bit of a confusing pitch–there was little delineating these Chromebooks from their predecessors aside from light-up keyboards and better displays. But because all Chromebook Plus models also boast 1080p displays, the resolution that most games tend to target, it’s worth looking at gaming here as well.
Let’s start by trying to get as much out of that Snapdragon-level chip as possible. As with productivity apps, your best bet here is to download a high-production value game from the app store, like Genshin Impact. Theoretically, if a Galaxy S23 Ultra can run it (it can), then this Chromebook should be able to as well. Unfortunately, Genshin Impact refused to load for me after several attempts, always crashing before getting into the game. The same happened for Call of Duty: Mobile, another game with a similar level of production value. Again, compatibility issues are a problem here, apparently even for some Android apps.
Luckily, games aren’t entirely like productivity software, in that some titles made for Windows will run on Chromebook as well. That’s thanks to the beta version of Steam available for these devices. You’re still held back by file size–of the games on our test account, we were only able to install Civilization VI.
Civilization VI is a good candidate for Chromebook. It’s turn-based, so there isn’t fast action to slow down the machine, and thanks to its broad historical setting, it has wide appeal beyond a dedicated gaming fanbase. While the game stuttered when first loading it up, it is playable. The catch is that settings need to be lowered to an absolute minimum, and even then, units will still occasionally freeze for a few seconds before carrying out orders. However, I was able to carry my troops to an unceremonious defeat at the first opposing civilization we came across with little issue. A game that runs longer could pose more difficulty, as more units begin to show up on screen and make more demands of the processor. But there’s enough power here to get your feet wet or sustain you through a plane trip.
For more demanding games, it’s best to turn to a solution like GeForce Now. Run by graphics card and AI giant Nvidia, GeForce Now is a subscription service that allows you to play games you already own through stores like Steam through Nvidia’s datacenters. This makes it possible to play demanding titles on weak machines, and to test it, I booted up Cyberpunk 2077 and set it to some of its most demanding settings.
It mostly worked, but not without drawbacks. The image was fuzzy–a known issue with cloud gaming–and I encountered semi-frequent freezes. Additionally, a 14-inch Chromebook screen is far from the ideal way to experience the game–text and user interface settings often had me squinting. Throw in the $10 to 20 a month entry fee, and this option comes across more as a last resort.
For $400, gamers are better off sticking to a Steam Deck.
Should you get a Chromebook Plus?
The Chromebook Plus is as good at cloud computing as ever, but while the guarantee of a certain storage and resolution baseline will help shoppers make decisions, the program doesn’t yet mark a big change. Google’s proposed AI assistant is promising, but the AI features there now are more novelties than a significant shakeup to routine.
If you’re already considering a Chromebook, which our testing showed you should only be doing if you have a solid internet connection and don’t mind using Android apps for your workflow, look into the Chromebook Plus. Models meeting the certification will be among the best Chromebooks you can buy, especially because Google is retroactively adding any already existing Chromebooks that meet its minimum requirements to the Chromebook Plus program. Light users who don’t need to game will still be well met here.
But for now, the Chromebook Plus does little to convince nonbelievers to buy. While ChromeOS does present a familiar laptop form factor, Apple’s new tablets are still a significant threat to Google, especially as Apple continues to improve its desktop-like Stage Manager interface.
The Messenger Score for Chromebook Plus: 3/5
