Upcoming MediaTek MT8196 Chromebook ‘Navi’ will have a 16-inch 4K screen

There’s a lot we already know about the upcoming Chromebook code named ‘Navi’. But there’s a ton we don’t yet know as well, and a bit of that mystery is getting decoded today with some pretty clear evidence that this ARM-powered beast of a Chromebook is set to be on a much larger scale than we previously imagined.

First, however, let’s get in a quick recap of ‘Navi’ and what we know about it thus far. For starters, it houses the upcoming, yet-unnamed MediaTek MT8196 SoC. We’ve uncovered quite a bit on this chip from MediaTek, including the fact that it is wildly powerful and basically matches up to the current high-end Dimensity 9400 from MediaTek. Those are very exciting things, indeed.

We also have a good suspicion that Lenovo may be behind ‘Navi’ and that benchmarks indicate we’ll be looking at a higher end device based on the RAM inclusions alone. With both 8GB and 16GB models being tested, its a fair guess to say that ‘Navi’ will come out of the gates as a top-tier Chromebook: a first for a ChromeOS device running on ARM-based silicon.

Today, we’ve discovered that ‘Navi’ is being developed with a massive 4K display and a 16:10 aspect ratio. If you’ve ever been around the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE or the Lenovo Gaming Chromebook, you know the basic size and feel we’re dealing with here. And I love it!

Those previous devices had QHD screens, and I think that’s plenty, but the move to a 4K display (3840×2400) only ups the ante and makes ‘Navi’ a potentially one-of-a-kind Chromebook. While 4K is largely wasted on 13-14-inch devices, a 16-inch panel can definitely take advantage of all those pixels, and the screen should look razor-sharp.

Searching for the BOE NE160QAM-N61 mentioned in the commit above, the only other things we can glean from the multiple listings for this screen are the brightness – which looks to be a whopping 800 nits – and the fact that it doesn’t seem to be a touchscreen. A variation of the screen could end up shipping, of course, so we can’t yet rule out touch support.

At this point, I’m fully expecting to see ‘Navi’ appear at the (hopeful) Spring Chromebook Showcase. We knew it wasn’t a convertible before now, but I had no idea the first high-end Chromebook Plus with an ARM SoC inside would be so huge. As a big fan of larger Chromebooks for productivity on the go, I’m excited for this one. I wished the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus would have been of the 16:10 variety and a bit higher resolution, and it looks like ‘Navi’ may deliver on that front. Stay tuned!