Leaked ‘Pixel Laptop’ lends credence to Chromebooks moving to Android

It’s been a wild 24 hours, ladies and gentlemen; and I don’t think this particular train is going to slow down anytime soon. Yesterday, we talked about the very real probability of Google transitioning Chromebooks to Android (not merging ChromeOS and Android into a new OS, but Android simply taking over the reins), and along with that rumor, news broke around the same time of a new, Google-made Pixel Laptop that may debut to showcase this entire thing (Android on Chromebooks) up and running. It’s a bit wild.

Everyone around here knows it’s been a bit since Google last made their own laptop. 2019 was the debut of the beloved Pixelbook Go, and since that point it’s been radio silence on Google’s end when it comes to a first-party laptop. It’s made sense over the past 5 years, and we’ve known quite well that until they needed to, Google had no intention of competing with its partners on a new Chromebook.

However, with the change of course that looks likely to be happening, rumors are swirling that Google might finally be ready to jump back into the laptop game with a new Pixel Laptop. Note that I didn’t say Pixelbook. 48 hours ago, that would have been the proper guess, but with things completely up in the air with Chromebooks, ChromeOS, and Android, it seems we’re looking at a Pixel Laptop for now. Let’s hope that bland-as-toast name doesn’t hold, though.

Say hello to ‘Snowy’

According to Android Headlines (via Android Authority), Google has greenlit a high-end, premium Pixel Laptop code named ‘Snowy’ that reportedly sits in the MacBook Pro/Surface Laptop territory when it comes to overall quality. While details are still incredibly scarce, it sounds like Google is aiming for a top-tier device with some high-end build quality and horsepower.

While Chrome OS seems like the obvious choice for a device like this, it is being suggested that this new Pixel Laptop will instead be running Android. Given the news from yesterday regarding the possibility of Chromebooks making the move to Android (not just the Android Linux Kernel), it would make a lot of sense for this new Pixel Laptop to be running the new, improved Android/ChromeOS hybrid that will be needed to make all of this work.

With the ongoing battles between Google and the Department of Justice, there could be a lot of benefit for Google to ship their laptops – Chromebooks – with Android onboard instead of ChromeOS. After all, the entire antitrust suit is aimed at forcing Google to sell off Chrome, so getting it out of the core of Chromebooks would allow them to maintain control of a major ecosystem (think about the millions of Chromebooks in education and enterprise right now) should things go south in that case.

Right now, it’s important to remember this is all speculative and based on rumors. The facts surrounding both this new Pixel Laptop and Google’s move to leverage Android on Chromebooks are mounting, and there’s no doubt that something is in the works that goes beyond the announced Android Kernel change for ChromeOS. How long its all been in the works and how long it could all take to happen are things we simply don’t know right now, but you can bet we’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for every single bit of info we can find.