The first Snapdragon X Plus Chromebook in development has a code name: ‘Quenbi’

A few weeks back, we were thrilled to uncover ‘Bluey’, the first development baseboard for Chromebooks that will be powered by Qualcomm’s potent Snapdragon X Plus processor. That discovery was the concrete evidence we’d been waiting for, confirming that more high-performance ARM Chromebooks were officially on the way to take on devices like the new Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 with its MediaTek Kompanio Ultra SoC.

But a baseboard is just the beginning when it comes to Chromebook development. The real excitement begins when we see the first unique devices start to spawn from it. And today, we have our first one. Say hello to ‘Quenbi’.

‘Quenbi’ is the first sign of a real Snapdragon X Plus Chromebook

After digging through the Chromium Gerrit, we’ve found numerous commits referencing ‘Quenbi’ as the first offshoot board being built upon the ‘Bluey’ foundation. For those who don’t follow the development process this closely, this is a significant milestone.

While ‘Bluey’ is the reference platform, ‘Quenbi’ represents the beginning of a specific, unique Chromebook that will one day hopefully end up on store shelves. This is the tangible proof that things are moving along nicely. It’s no longer just a development platform; there is now at least one distinct device in the works.

Why we’re so excited about this

Just as a quick refresher, our anticipation for these Snapdragon X Plus Chromebooks is sky-high for a few key reasons. This isn’t one of Qualcomm’s repurposed mobile chips from years past; the X Plus is a modern SoC designed to compete with the likes of Intel’s Core Ultra and Apple’s M-series chips in both performance and efficiency.

The prospect of having that kind of power in a fanless, ARM-based Chromebook with potentially epic battery life is something we’re only beginning to see with the Kompanio Ultra, and we’re really excited for that chip to have some competition on the way. It has the potential to shake up the high-end ARM Chromebook space while also giving consumers more choice.

The first of hopefully many

With ‘Quenbi’ now on our radar, we have a new name to track and a clear sign that the development of these next-gen ARM Chromebooks is ramping up. Our hope is that ‘Quenbi’ is just the first of many such devices to be born from the ‘Bluey’ baseboard. The more devices that are in development, the more likely we are to see a diverse range of powerful, efficient, and innovative Chromebooks from different manufacturers in the near future.

We’ll be keeping a very close eye on the development of ‘Quenbi’ and will be sure to report back as we unearth more details about what kind of device it will ultimately become. But for now, it’s just exciting to have a name and to know that the first true Snapdragon X Plus Chromebook is officially taking shape.