The laptop for everyone – Top 5 times that Chromebooks have shown up on television

Chromebooks have been tech’s best-kept secret for some time now, but that’s changed dramatically over the past few years. Being lightweight, versatile, and forward-thinking, Google’s laptops have increasingly made their way into schools, homes, and businesses. Chromebooks really are for everyone – even presidents and karate committees.

Today, we’re looking at five times when Chromebooks showed up in pop culture outside of Google’s own commercials! We’ll revisit this often as there are many examples of this occurring, so if you have found a Chromebook in a movie, TV show, or anywhere else in media outside of advertising, let us know in the comments!

Cobra Kai

In season one, episode seven of Cobra Kai – “All Valley”, the City Council were gathered to determine whether or not the team would be allowed back into the tournament after being kicked out. Lo and behold, right there on the desk is what looks like a first or second-generation Samsung Chromebook 3! This was actually the first time I’ve ever seen one of Google’s laptops on screen and was very excited because, well, Chromebooks.

For a businessman who is doing simple data entry regarding the under 18 tournament in All Valley, a durable, inexpensive Chromebook that can get tossed around a bit is a fine choice. If Johnny Lawrence were buying a laptop though, we’d probably recommend an educational one as they’re so durable that you can stand on, or karate chop them!

Designated Survivor

Everyone’s favorite fictional president – Tom Kirkman, played by Kiefer Sutherland, rocked what looks to be a Samsung Chromebook Plus v1 in an episode of Designated Survivor! What’s interesting here is that while a Chromebook is probably secure enough for web browsing, it most certainly couldn’t run the specialized software often required of government employees – let alone the President of the United States – even if those states are only fictionally united under Netflix.

Veronica Mars

In the popular show which began all the way back in 2004, featuring the smart, fearless private investigator, Veronica attends a city council meeting in which she is attempting to bust a serial killer who remains at large and has placed bombs around the city.

Two of the councilwomen in attendance are using the original Samsung Plus v2 – seemingly a popular choice for TV shows, and for good reason – it’s a thin, two-in-one, premium built device with a stylus. Mayor Mark Dobbins sits in the middle with his chunky workhorse of a machine on which he’s presumably just dealing with data entry. In fact, if you see the second screenshot below, you’ll see proof that they’re all performing what looks to be the exact same tasks – reviewing documents.

The funniest part is that while it’s in a context related to the story and not the laptops, he at one point says “I don’t think I’m the only one…” and looks toward the Chromebook owners. Yes…yes, Mayor, you are the only one. What is it with city council members using Chromebooks? These ladies clearly have good taste.

Geico Commercial

In a Geico commercial that began airing last year during Sunday Night Football, everyone’s favorite gecko can be seen talking to an employee of the company that had just finished a presentation on the company’s savings. Upon asking him to email him the slides, the unnamed person is typing on an older Acer Chromebook 14 in what we are to assume is an email body, though it doesn’t resemble Gmail at all. To me, it looks a lot more like the Google Workspace Admin console, but I’m unsure. Perhaps if this guy were using Google Contacts and began typing in ‘M’, then Martin the gecko would have come up after all.

Credit: Miguel Torres

Bull

In the episode “The Great Divide”, Danny James, played by Jaime Lee Kirchner, can be seen rocking Google’s 2017 Pixelbook while she sits thoughtfully staring at the screen in her TAC (Trial Analysis Corporation) room. I seriously wish that we’d get more context into the tasks that these on-screen characters are performing with their laptops, but it’s mostly left up to the imagination.

Chromebooks make for inexpensive devices to buy that are readily available upon a moment’s notice at your local Best Buy when you’ve got filming to do, so it’s no wonder that they go with them. Even the Pixelbook is within budget when you’ve got the budget of CBS. I’ve personally never seen this show, but you can watch the episode here if you want. It’s an interesting show that I’m going to be digging further into thanks to its focus on court drama and psychology.