With the recent arrival of the first of many Tiger Lake Chromebooks in the form of the ASUS Chromebook CX5 this week, it only seems fitting that we’ve uncovered evidence of yet another in development. If you recall from CES 2021, ASUS unveiled 3 new Chromebooks on the way in the CM5, CX5, and CX9. The first in that list is rocking the AMD Ryzen processors while the last will be aimed at enterprise users with just about every bell and whistle you can imagine.
While my opinions of the ASUS CX5 are quite high already, I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t continue their line of convertible 13-14-inch convertible Flip Chromebooks. With the Flip C302 and C434 being such big hits, it only made sense to stay in that lane with the Flip C433 and C436 that followed. Not every one of those devices was a smash hit, but it felt like we could rely on ASUS to produce a solid 14-inch convertible each year and right now, that device is missing from the lineup.
Meet ‘Collis’
‘Collis’ is a new board in development since early March that is built off the ‘Volteer’ base board. This tells us at least a few things: it will come with an 11th-gen Intel Tiger Lake processor, it will have all the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth options, and it will be powerful and fast. Apart from those things, there’s little we can glean from the commits surrounding ‘Collis’, but one very clear part of the equation is front and center that makes us feel certain this will be an ASUS-made Chromebook: the inclusion of Michael Chen’s email address.
We’ve noted patterns around Michael that show his involvement in a device usually pointing to ASUS as the maker. He had heavy involvement on the Flip C434, Flip C433, and 425, so it stands to reason that his inclusion in many of the commits for ‘Collis’ point us to ASUS.
Right now, details are a bit sparse on exactly what kind of device we’re looking at, but my gut tells me we’re likely seeing the early work on a follow up to the Flip C434/C436 and that ‘Collis’ will likely become the next 14-inch convertible Chromebook in that lineage. From this commit, it is clear that this device will at least be a convertible Chromebook, so we’re definitely headed in the right direction. With Michael’s involvement, ASUS looks quite likely at this point, and all we need to confirm at this point is a display type and size. With Intel-based devices, it isn’t always the easiest to find, but we’re on the hunt. And, as always, we’ll let you know when we find more.
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