As we near the end of 2020 and more 10th-gen Chromebooks continue to not only hit the market but also go on sale with good regularity, we’re beginning to gear up for the next generation of Chromebooks. Tiger Lake processors are just now starting to arrive in Windows laptops in the last few weeks and we fully expect to see these 11th-gen processors in a ton of Chromebooks beginning very early in 2021. If we don’t see a few from CES 2021 (virutally, of course) I’ll be shocked.
We’ve been keeping tabs on quite a few of these devices up to this point already and today, we’re looking to add a handful more development Chromebooks to the list. As a reminder, Tiger Lake 11th-gen Intel Chromebooks will bring some game-changing features to the table for Chrome OS and the most important of those is a massive boost in GPU performance. With Windows applications arriving via Parallels recently and the impending launch of Steam games on Chrome OS via the Borealis project, this extra horsepower will be needed to take full advantage of all that Chromebooks will soon be capable of.
As with most new Intel-based devices we uncover, we don’t have a ton of specifics on these new devices in development at this point other than the fact that they will have Intel’s latest, greatest chips on board. With that in mind, our new devices being added – 5 in total – bring our total ‘Volteer’ count (‘Volteer’ is the baseboard that all Tiger Lake Chromebooks are being built from) up to a whopping 19! At the pace we’re seeing, I’d imagine we’ll be tracking over 20 by year’s end. Today’s additions include ‘Drobit’, ‘Elemi’, ‘Boldar’, ‘Copano’ and ‘Voema’. Again, we’re digging around to see if we can piece together what manufacturers go with which Chromebooks, but with this many in the pipeline, it is likely safe to assume we’ll see at least one Tiger Lake 11th-gen Chromebook from every single manufacturer out there.
With these new Tiger Lake Chromebooks, new MediaTek 6nm MT8195 devices, those with flagship AMD Ryzen processors, and Snapdragon 7c Chromebooks all on the horizon, 2021 is going to be absolutely insane with new hardware in the Chrome OS space. Manufacturers are finally on board with Chromebooks and the pandemic-fueled surge is only making every one of them more focused on how to get in on the uptick in Chromebook adoption. That means more choice for consumers and more competition all around. If you are in the market for a Chromebook in the next 6 months, you are in a very good position right now. It’s going to be a very, very fun ride!
