We told you so: the affordable Intel Jasper Lake Chromebook flood continues

It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that we took a look at the coming Intel Jasper Lake Chromebook flood that is on the way. Back in March we talked through the possible impact of Intel’s latest small-core processors in Chromebooks, and back then we only knew of 20 devices in development and hadn’t yet had our hands on an actual Chromebook with this new chip set inside. With the new devices we’re adding to the list today, we’ll now be up over 30 Jasper Lake Chromebooks in development with only a small handful already out the door at this point. Put plainly: the floodgates are about to bust.

New Jasper Lake Chromebooks in development

• ‘Bugzzy’
• ‘Corori’
• ‘Driblee’
• ‘Gooey’
• Maglith’

With these additions, we’re counting 36 unique boards in the Chromium Repositories and only 3 of them have been identified out on the market. That means we have over 30 devices on the very near horizon and I’d wager we’ll see a solid offering of them arriving just in time for the holidays.

Now that we’ve had time with a few of these Jasper Lake Chromebooks, it is safe to say that affordable Chromebooks are getting a very nice performance boost with this latest chip. Gone are the days of painfully slow Chromebooks in the $300 range and we can now expect decent performance from even the lowest-end, entry-level small-core Intel chips in new Chromebooks. For students and consumers alike, this is very good news.

When will they show up?

Most of these Jasper Lake Chromebooks have been in development for long enough to launch at any given moment. We only get flashy launch announcements for bigger, flagship Chromebooks in general, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see these devices start leaking out with regularity over the next few months. For schools, the buying cycles tend to make May/June availability make the most sense. For consumers, October/November is clearly the buying window. My guess is we’ll see the bulk of these new Chromebooks arrive over the next 3-4 months: some for consumers as purchasing ramps up in the retail space and others for schools so that options are ready for educators to make their decisions in the spring.

Either way, these devices need to begin showing up soon. Intel surely has a follow-up to Jasper Lake already in the works and it is highly likely that new Chromebooks with those chips will begin development as 2021 comes to an end. To make room for that next generation, we have to first get the current generation out in the market for users to start enjoying. If our early indications are correct, this will be a big boost for the affordable Chromebook segment moving forward.