Samsung’s upcoming Chromebook Plus to get another unique keyboard key

The upcoming ‘Xol’ Chromebook (it’s code name in the Chromium Repositories) is continuing development for what we hope is a release later in the year. For those not in the know, we’ve already uncovered quite a bit around this new device, including the fact that it is being built by Samsung, will be a Chromebook Plus model (we like to refer to it as the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus around here), and will likely be a larger, clamshell device with a numeric keypad.

Maybe most notably, however, it has a key that no other Chromebook outside of Google’s own hardware has received – an Assistant Key. Add to this a unique ‘dicatation’ key on the top row and you have some superlatives that we’ve not yet seen on a Chromebook; and all of them coming to a device both made by Samsung and clearly in close connection with Google.

A new ‘Accessibility Key’

And today, we’re revealing yet another interesting piece to the ‘Xol’ puzzle in the addition of a new ‘Accessibility Key’ for Samsung’s latest Chromebook. That top function row on the ‘Xol’ keyboard is clearly getting a tad crowded, and with this latest addition, the top row for this device will have a whopping 15 keys versus the standard 10 or so we see for most Chromebooks.

With this being a larger device, some extra keys up top isn’t that wild of a notion, but the two completely new keyas we now see on the top row for ‘Xol’ are definitely interesting. While we’ve talked about the ‘Dictate’ key before, this new focus on accessibility is an interesting move from Samsung, and one I have to wonder if Google is involved with as well.

If this device launches later this year – we’re making some assumptions, here – it makes a lot of sense that it would align with a fall Chromebook Plus event, and the addition of these unique buttons (Assistant, Dictation, Accessibility) could be a new move from Google to surface some of these features a bit more prominently on ChromeOS.

After all, accessibility on Chromebooks is pretty powerful. There are so many features available for not only those that rely upon them, but for users that simply want to take advantage of these features as well. Dictation is a perfect example of a feature that is part of the Accessibility Suite that my wife uses constantly though she has the ability to type just fine. It’s really become a treasure trove of amazing features, and to see it brought to the surface on a consumer Chromebook will be very interesting.

Hopefully, as fall approaches more rapidly than most of us wish for, we’ll know far more about this new effort from Samsung and Google; and when the new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus becomes reality, all of these questions will find some answers. It’s all shaping up to be a possible return to form for Samsung in the Chromebook arena, and I know many of you – myself included – are very eager to see it.