Upcoming Snapdragon 7c Chromebook tablet ‘Homestar’ gets unique screen and speaker setup

Thanks to a bit of digging around by Kevin Tofel over at About Chromebooks, some new additions have surfaced in the details of an upcoming detachable Chromebook code named ‘Homestar’. We’ve talked a bit about this device in the past, noting at its arrival in the Chromium Repositories that it was in the same line of devices as ‘Coachz’ – the other Snapdragon Chromebook tablet on the way at some point here in 2021. At the time, we didn’t have much to go on apart from the knowledge that ‘Homestar’ and ‘Coachz’ are built off the same ‘Strongbad’ baseboard, telling us there would likely be some similarities between the two.

For quick reference, ‘Coachz’ will come equipped with a magnetically attached rechargeable USI pen, a 3:2 11-inch QHD display, built-in kickstand and LTE options. There’s a lot to look forward to in that device, but it looks like ‘Homestar’ will come with its share of interesting additions, too. According to Kevin’s findings in the Chromium Gerrit, this detachable Chromebook will be getting both an OLED panel (ATNA33XC20) and support for a quad speaker setup. If you’ve ever heard a 4-speaker setup on a tablet, you know the advantages. Better sound and more of it.

Even better, ‘Homestar’ will have the ability to swap out the speakers on a whim depending on what orientation you hold the device in. So that sweet stereo output will follow you no matter how you are holding this tablet. Pretty sweet! Oh, and there is evidence of USI support, though this isn’t a surprise at this point.

The display panel referenced in the commit above is hard to pin down, but Kevin managed to find a very similar OLED display from Samsung in the ATNA33xC11, so it’s a good bet this panel is in the same vein. That display comes in at 13-inches in the ASUS Zenbook 13 and boast 422 nits of brightness and hits 100% sRGB, 97.9% AdobeRGB, 99.7% DCI-P3 coverage. While there’s no guarantee that the xC11 and the xC20 are the same in this regard, it is likely a sign that the display panel in ‘Homestar’ will be bright, vibrant, and very color-accurate. All good things to have.

That’s about all we know for now, but it is likely that more details will arrive soon for this upcoming tablet. We’re still eagerly awaiting our first Snapdragon 7c Chromebook to really get a feel for the performance, but assuming it is decent, the external benefits of the device on the way with this chip inside are very impressive. I am sure I’m not the only one who is anxiously awaiting the arrival of these and other ARM-powered Chromebooks as 2021 wears on. We’ll be covering them all, so be sure to get subscribed below so you don’t miss out!