
I’ve been talking a lot about the upcoming Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE, and that’s for a very good reason. Actually, it’s for a host of reasons, and we spent the vast majority of our time on this week’s episode of The Chrome Cast talking about this soon-to-come Chromebook. I have some pretty high hopes for what Acer is set to deliver, and while I’ve outlined my list of upgrades I’d love to see, it seems that at least one of those things is already in the works.
Brighter backlighting is on the way
While I love most aspects of the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, one real gripe I’ve had since launch is the dimness of the RGB keyboard backlighting. Under most lighting conditions, the colors are impossible to see, and it really deflates the experience of having a Chromebook with the ability to color match your wallpaper. What good is RGB lighting if you can’t normally see it?
Thankfully, it appears that limitation is going away with the next version of this Chromebook. Thanks to some pretty clear language in the referenced code change above, we can see that an additional output channel is being enabled to increase the keyboard backlight. Right under, you can see this is being worked on for ‘Osiris’ – the baseboard for both the existing 516 GE and the upcoming Chromebook Plus version.
While I don’t think there’s any way to boost backlighting solely on the software side of things (sorry original 516 GE owners), this bodes well for the newer hardware that should be on the way soon. While the other tweaks I think Acer should make on this device are merely update niceties, the keyboard backlight was a real bummer in the first version that demanded a response. Seeing Acer attend to this oversight is a great sign that some of the other small changes that should be made for the new version of the 516 GE may very well be on the way.
I’m obviously digging around quite a bit to find any other clues that present themselves in the Chromium Repositories, and as soon as I find them, I’ll let you know. I’m sure you can already tell, but I’m very excited for this Chromebook. With the current model being so good (and on sale for just $449 right now), I don’t think I’m getting ahead of myself in thinking this next version could be absolutely stunning. Until we know for sure, I’ll keep searching for more info on what easily become one of the best Chromebooks of 2024.
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