Chromebooks have been under the dominion of Intel and AMD, with MediaTek appearing only sporadically and, more often than not, disappointingly so. But all is starting to shift. The success of ARM with Macs and its budding presence with Windows PCs may mark the start of a paradigm shift. Lenovo, my personal Chromebook champion, has teamed up with Google to release the ARM-powered contender Chromebook Plus 14, going for an attractive $649 price tag. This is not merely another Chromebook; this is a bold declaration that ARM is here.
MediaTek’s Kompanio Ultra 910 chip offers 50 TOPS for AI processing but Lenovo takes the crown for the battery promise, claiming 17 hours. Those numbers are quite tall to me. Battery life in Chromebooks to date, frankly, has been rather disappointing. Yet this switch to ARM could be something big-the only one left standing while its version with Intel mates is either clinging on or just pacing.
Say goodbye to the brutal Chromebooks. The Chromebook Plus 14 by Lenovo shines as a cool silver mirage under the sun. Think MacBook Pro, pared down, and powered by the Kompanio Ultra 910 chipset. This glinting beauty has muscled out the bulky IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus by tipping the scales at a mere 2.58 pounds and slipping easily into your bag with a set thickness of .62 inches. Inside we talk brawny 12GB or even 16GB of RAM backing up a max of 256GB of storage for your apps and projects. Feast on the gorgeous 14-inch OLED display. Touchscreen? That’s an option. Resolution? Fixed at the brilliant clarity level of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. This Chromebook is a real eye candy.
Lenovo
Any further interest? Consider the extra to be goodies from Lenovo. Ready for this? The Chromebook comes with Dolby Atmos sound, emanating from a quad-speaker array, two down-firing woofers included. Laptop audio is an area that has improved over the last few years, in fact, I can’t wait to hear Lenovo’s take. Subpar video calls? No way. The 5MP webcam completely outdoes all ordinary Chromebook cameras. Oh, and were I to forget to mention: a fingerprint reader for rock-solid security.
Yes, this Chromebook hits the wallet harder than most, but before you balk at the price, consider this: Lenovo might just be crafting a Chromebook crown. On paper, the specs and design already outshine rivals in this price bracket. The real test? Taming that MediaTek chip and squeezing out every last drop of battery life. But given Lenovo’s history, I’m betting we’re about to witness the dawn of a new Chromebook champion.
New AI features
It is clear that the power of AI continues to take more and more control positions, now landing on Chromebooks. Lenovo’s Chromebook Plus 14 will meanwhile be the sole user of the later two AI features of interest: Smart Grouping and AI-aware image editing. Tab chaos got you down? Consider Smart Grouping your digital Marie Kondo; it takes your ragtag tabs and documents, groups them under cleaner virtual desks. Now for the gallery app: prepare for some AI magic! Say goodbye to gunky backgrounds or wiggle a bunch of pics into obnoxious stickers. Chromebook-level creativity just got raised by another notch.
And the Chromebook Plus just got smarter! The laptop is filled with intuitive functions that truly help one in working more efficiently, a trend following the other AI initiatives from Google’s side. The new features really give one freedom of exploration. Ever find yourself wondering what that was on your screen? Just long-press the launcher and select the area for a quick search. Let’s say you saw some super cool sneakers on a blog post? Just circle them, and Google’s magic will find the exact results for you. Results are shown in a sleek window so that you can keep browsing without a pause. Seamless, intuitive, and useful!
Imagine your phone being a culinary wizard. Text Capture does not, just read pictures; it creates shopping lists from pictures of recipes and instantly populates a Google Doc with the names of all ingredients needed. Or consider this: Quick photographic capture of a promotional flyer results in neatly scheduled calendar appointments courtesy of image text analysis.
Lenovo
Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Plus debuted an avant-garde “Quick Insert” key last year, and presently, this key has been endowed with some powerful AI abilities. No photo copying in this system-this key asks for AI to generate an image and insert it into the document, email, or anywhere the cursor blinks. Instant visual content creation. Gmail has enhanced the “help me read” feature with a new “simplify” option. Scientific papers and articles full of jargon are simply not on the menu for this AI-based translator. It takes text that is convoluted beyond measure and rewrites it into the clearest, simplest language. Eventually being able to understand these cumbersome concepts is where “simplify” steps in for you.
Score! Getting a new Chromebook Plus this year? Your Google experience will be enhanced worthily with Google’s offering of 1 full year of the premium Google One AI Pro plan, with 2TB of Drive storage and VIP priority access to Gemini AI powers. Envision it as your digital playground, big time, with the newest AI touch. The price of this bonus is around $20 a month-would-be seriously knocking spots off if you only wanted the storage. It is like a free upgrade to first class.
Note: In the original text “The” in line 3 is in uppercase but is spelled “the” in lowercase in the “rewritten” text because in this context, it seems inappropriate to capitalize.
The thought of Lenovo’s latest hardware really gets me excited! Will that epic battery life and performance they promised with ARM finally come and stay? Here arrives the Chromebook Plus 14, daring you into a plunge. Grab one from Best Buy or from Lenovo’s websiteWHOLESALE. Just a quick heads-up: Best Buy is actually selling the beefed-up version-the touchscreen plus 16GB of RAM. Welcome to Chromebook bliss!
Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14
$749 at Best Buy
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