Tons of entry-level Chromebooks will now get updates until June of 2035

In a bit of surprising news, we’ve learned this morning that it appears all Chromebooks built on the ‘Nissa’ baseboard will be getting yet another 2-year extension on their update cycles. Where Google pushed AUE (automatic update expiration) for all newer Chromebooks out to 10 years starting in September of 2023, it looks like they are pushing out ‘Nissa’-based device support up to 12 full years.

There are a ton of these Chromebooks already out and more on the way, but the quickest one that comes to mind is the excellent Lenovo Flex 3i Chromebook. This device was shown off at CES 2023 and hit store shelves in the late spring that same year. We still have one in the office, and before updating it, I can confirm the AUE showed as June 2033 – 10 years from the mid-2023 release.

After an update, I expected this AUE change to show, but it still shows 2033 for now. I’m not entirely sure how the local image on any Chromebook actually pulls this Update schedule date to display in settings, but I’d expect it to update soon to reflect this new change. For now, we’re referencing the actual update servers, and both Chromium Dash and cros.tech show this device (and all ‘Nissa’-based hardware) to be on schedule for updates until June 2035. That makes the Lenovo Flex 3i Chromebook (and others like it) supported for 12 years from the time of its actual launch. That is just wild.

Why this is a big deal

Obviously, Chromebooks being pushed out to get 12 years of support is massive, but there’s a bigger story with ‘Nissa’. These devices make up the lower price bracket of the Chromebook market, so they sell well. We have ‘Nissa’ devices in schools and on store shelves all over the place, so getting this segment a longer support window is an impressive move from Google and a very good look.

While some baseboards only have a few devices in their family, the ‘Nissa’ baseboard (which is the family of devices that come with the Intel N100, N200, and N305 chips) boasts a whopping 26 total devices under its wings. So, not only is this change great for those on a tight budget trying to buy a great device they can keep for longer, it affects a large swath of Chromebooks across the board.

Will other devices follow? I’m not sure at this point, and we’ve not heard anything official from Google outside of seeing all the ‘Nissa’ devices now listed with a June 2035 AUE on via the ChromeOS update servers. I’d love to see other devices released in the past year or so get the same treatment, but thus far that isn’t the case. I’m sure we’ll hear back from Google on this soon, and I’m really hoping for even more good news!