Samsung threw us a bit of a curve ball with the release of the “refreshed” Chromebook Plus last week. The Celeron-powered upgrade, if that’s what you’d call it, is built upon the Nautilus board that we were convinced was going to be a detachable device.
Lo’ and behold, the Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 is a convertible just like its predecessor that sports the OP1 RockChip RK3399 ARM processor. However, I am not convinced that Samsung isn’t still working on a detachable or maybe even tablet variant of ‘Nautilus’.
Either way, news this week lends proof that Samsung may be building a whole new portfolio of Chromebooks to add to their ranks.
XDA Developers have uncovered a commit that shows the addition of mobile data in a new variant branded simply ‘Nautilus_LTE’. This would be a fitting move for the Chrome community as Windows has begun the march of their “always connected” devices beginning with the ASUS NovaGo.
At first glance, the commit looks to just add LTE capabilities to the existing ‘Nautilus’ board that is the Chromebook Plus V2 but as XDA points out, there is mention of a dual-core, four-thread processor in the code.
That is not the most recent Samsung. The Celeron that powers the Plus V2 is a dual-core, two-thread processor meaning this new device could be anything from a Pentium all the way up to a mobile or low-powered Core chipset from Intel.
My gut is telling me that instead of another variation of the Chromebook Plus we may actually be looking at the next iteration of the Samsung Chromebook Pro or even perhaps a new device altogether.
Only time will tell but we will keep our ear to the ground to find out more about this mysterious LTE Chromebook from Samsung. In my humble opinion, Chrome OS should have been leading this charge well ahead of Microsoft so it’s good to see some major OEMs finally heeding the call.
Source: XDA Developers