LTE Chromebooks Could Soon Be Far More Common

Chromebooks with integrated mobile data aren’t new by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, Google’s original CR-48 Chromebook was equipped with support for Verizon 3G and a complimentary helping of 100MB/month for Beta testers.

A couple of years later, HP had mild success with the HP Chromebook 14 that included 200MB of free T-Mobile 4G for life. (It wasn’t REALLY 4G but HSPA+ a.k.a., Faux-G. It was essentially 3G+.) This happened to by my first Chromebook and I loved it. To this day, part of me wishes I had kept if for nostalgia’s sake. It wasn’t often that I used the mobile data but when I needed it, it was a life-saver.

Alas, the demand for an “always connected” Chromebook never really gained traction in the early stages of Chrome OS devices. However, times they are a-changing and in today’s connected world, users want devices that are always ready to access the digital world that is the internet. In just the past year, we have witnessed the launch of LTE-enabled devices from Samsung as well as a little-known collaboration between CTL and Sprint. I also have it on good authority that we will see some other OEMs join the fray in the very near future.

With the emerging trend of “always connected” devices, it appears that Chromium developers are working to spruce up the UI for connecting to a Chromebook’s onboard mobile data. A recent commit shows that the current “success page” that’s can be seen on devices such as the Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 LTE will be rebranded as the “final page.”

[CrOS Cellular] Implement final page in CellularSetup UI.

This CL:

(1) Renames the element from <success-page> to <final-page>, since the final page can show an error state.

(2) Adds assets to be shown in case of success/failure.

(3) Adds strings to be shown on the page.

Chromium Commit

So, moving forward users will be greeted with one of two pages when setting up mobile data on a supported Chromebook. Success and Failure. Here’s a look at the two images from the commit.

With Qualcomm Chromebooks looming on the horizon and “always connected” becoming the theme of computing, I would suspect 2020 will see a massive expansion in the realm of LTE-enabled Chromebooks. This commit is a good indicator that Chrome OS is preparing for that future and it’s right around the corner.