If you are still missing ChromeOS 118, you aren’t alone

Last week, we marked a big change in the ChromeOS landscape with the arrival of ChromeOS 118. As our favorite operating system sees updates with bug fixes and new features every 4 weeks at this point, the announcement of another update isn’t huge news most times. But ChromeOS 118 was a special and monumental update as it brought Chromebook Plus features to all the qualifying devices that meet the new Chromebook Plus spec requirements.

That means a total of 28 Chromebooks are now certified as Chromebook Plus and with the ChromeOS 118 update, we were all set to get everyone on the same page and begin the move forward with the newly-minted Chromebook Plus models ready for action.

ChromeOS 118 missing for key devices

But that didn’t exactly happen the way we expected. Instead, a handful of devices are still waiting on ChromeOS 118, and quite a few of those are Chromebook Plus devices. In total, 15 models are still without ChromeOS 118 and 6 of those are Chromebook Plus-ready devices.

What makes this a bit worse is the fact that a few of those Chromebooks are pretty high-profile machines. Devices like the Acer Chromebook Spin 714, HP Dragonfly Pro, HP Elite Dragonfly, Lenovo Slim 3i, HP Chromebook Plus 15.6″, and the ASUS CM34 Flip are all missing the ChromeOS 118 update, and we’re unsure why.

Finding a common thread

Of the other devices missing ChromeOS 118, there are devices on a few different baseboards. From the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 in the Duet 3 to the 12th-gen Alder lake chips in devices like the HP Dragonfly Pro, there’s not just one thing that binds these left-behind Chromebooks together. Though I will say that quite a few of them are running Alder Lake-N SoCs.

Still, there are other Alder Lake-N and standard Alder Lake devices with ChromeOS 118 already on board, so that’s not a clear-cut connection, either. Also, some of these devices are Chromebook Plus and some aren’t, so we really don’t know the connective tissue that is holding these 15 models back from the 118 update. Even stranger, the Duet 5 is now on 118 while the Duet 3 (with the same SoC) is not. Really odd.

Things always work out

One thing we can know for certain: if ChromeOS 118 is being held back for certain devices, there’s a reason. While we may never know that reason, we can rest assured that there is likely a common thread and the ChromeOS team will get it solved sooner than later. Just know that if you are in the group of devices that have yet to get ChromeOS 118, you can hop over the Beta Channel while you wait or simply hold off a bit longer until the issue is sorted. These things tend to resolve in short order, so hopefully this is only a minor setback.