The Chrome Cast 265: In anticipation of the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE

We’re back with another episode of The Chrome Cast podcast and this week we dive into upcoming hardware, our thoughts on the Chromebook market, and how new ARM processors might impact things moving forward. But the bulk of our discussion revolves around Robby’s discovery of a Chromebook Plus branded version of the Acer Chromebook 516 GE. If you’ve listened to the podcast before, you’ve probably heard Robby talk about the 516 GE and his love for this device, so we take some time in this episode to talk through the small tweaks he’d like to see in an upgraded, Chromebook Plus branded version.

For the remainder of the show, we talk through developments in the ARM space, including new benchmarks of MediaTek MT8188 and how Qualcomm’s focus on their Snapdragon X Elite compute platform has us excited for that processor to maybe make it to Chromebooks down the road. We’ve been talking about ARM processors for many years and look forward to seeing how these new chips will push Chromebook innovation.

Show Links

• Acer is about to give us a Chromebook 516 GE Chromebook Plus upgrade
• What I’m hoping for in the new Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE
• The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE will get a brighter RGB keyboard
• Just like that, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE is $200 off again
• Upcoming Chromebook tablet ‘Ciri’ gets impressive Geekbench ML score
• Why a Snapdragon X Plus Chromebook would be amazing