More proof that multiple next-gen Chromebook tablets are coming

If it feels like we’ve been talking about the next wave of powerful Chromebook tablets for quite some time now, there’s a good reason. We have. Traces of work for these new devices crept up as early as September 2022, so there’s been conversations around them for over a year and a half now. That’s a long, long time for any Chromebook to be in development, but for a device category like this that many people are anxiously awaiting, 18 months feels like an eternity.

No signs of multiple devices

Early on in the story, we only had one board – ‘Geralt’ – to keep track of with this emerging MediaTek MT8188 processor. Soon after, we learned that this board was attached to a tablet form factor, and I began looking for other models that would likely emerge. It took some time.

In August of 2023 we finally caught wind of a board built off of the ‘Geralt’ baseboard with ‘Ciri’ and I fully expected a few more devices to emerge over the past 6-7 months. Unfortunately, up to this point, I’ve been left hanging. Not one additional development device has shown up to join ‘Ciri’ since then, and there’s been little indication along the way that any others will.

More confirmation that there is more to ‘Geralt’

Early in 2024 – January 2nd, to be specific – I came across a commit that made it pretty clear that multiple variants of ‘Geralt’ were being planned. Again, I freely assumed we’d see more boards in development by this point, but there’s still been nothing emerge since then. And it is that fact that has made me start to wonder if ‘Ciri’ would be the only tablet we’ll see from ‘Geralt’. Then I found this:

With this commit, once again I feel excited by the fact that it seems like the team is still expecting multiple ‘Geralt’ variants down the road. While there’s no indication of what those devices are at the moment, it provides a bit of hope that they are still coming. And while that’s still unclear, it’s better than the feeling that ‘Geralt’ may only lead to a single, next-gen ChromeOS tablet.

With ‘Ciri’ being in development for so long at this point, it seems clear that it will be the first we see of this new wave. All signs point to that specific device being a new 11-inch Lenovo Duet, but I know many who are hoping for a follow-up to both the Lenovo Duet 5 and the HP x2 11 as well. Both of those tablets have some great qualities and are fantastic starting points for a second generation with the powerful MT8188 inside. Will we get them? It’s unsure at the moment, but at least there’s still hope, right?