Some upcoming MediaTek Kompanio 1200 Chromebooks will get a Pixelbook-like screen

There’s an upcoming category of Chromebooks in the works that fall under the ‘Cherry’ development board, and they will pack in a few interesting hardware inclusions that could make them more interesting than most. We have a few of them at this identified at this point, and these devices will be powered by the upcoming MediaTek Kompanio 1200 – A.K.A MT8195 – making them the fastest ARM-based Chromebooks we’ve seen yet by a long shot. With the MediaTek MT8183 and Snapdragon 7c Chromebooks already out on the market and performing relatively slowly, that’s not necessarily a high bar to cross.

However, being an ARM-based device, we can see a bit more about the hardware being tested for these Chromebooks as development continues, and we now have the model of a screen being added for Chromebooks under the ‘Cherry’ baseboard: the LG LP120UP1. Now, that model number probably doesn’t tell you much, but luckily for us, there is quite a bit of info on the web about this particular panel already, and it’s good news.

First up, we have the commit that shows this panel being added to the ‘Cherry’ project and being tested to work. Second, we have a reference to this same display being added to the Linux Kernel and this addition gives us a few more details about the size and resolution. At 12-inches and 1920×1280, we’re looking at a display that is quite similar to the panel used on the original Pixelbook, HP Chromebooks x2, and the Samsung Chromebook Plus/Pro. Those panels were QHD (2560×1600), but the size and aspect ratio of this display is nearly the same.

A quick Google search of this display also shows that this particular panel was used in the HP Elite x2 Windows detachable and it comes in at 320 nits of brightness. Reviews of this device from 2016 (yeah, it’s not a new display by any means) highlight the screen as being the standout feature, so I’d say it’s a good panel even if it isn’t brand new.

With a more reasonable resolution (at 12-inches, you don’t need more than FHD), a great overall size and the sweet 3:2 aspect ratio, I really love this screen for an upcoming, more-powerful ARM-based Chromebook. Even if the performance gains are massive, these MediaTek-powered Chromebooks don’t need any additional burden to performance. This resolution is great and this aspect ratio means that whether some of these Kompanio 1200 devices end up as detachables or as convertibles, we may get a great screen either way. We’re obviously keeping tabs on this as it develops and hope to see the first Kompanio 1200 Chromebook before the end of the year, so stay tuned.