Google is saying a pair of recent Chromebooks right this moment — Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Plus and Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet 11 — and together with them, a brand-new button. Dubbed the Fast Insert button, it’s designed to offer rapid entry to a few of Google’s newest AI options.
The brand new Fast Insert button will exchange the search / launcher button on some Chromebooks going ahead, beginning with the Galaxy Chromebook Plus. Fast Insert is your one-stop store for a number of recent AI options: press it, and a menu pops up supplying you with fast entry to options like “Assist me write,” which might lend a serving to hand with memos, emails, and ultimately, AI picture era, in accordance with John Maletis, VP of ChromeOS product, engineering, and UX.
The button can also be meant to allow you to entry info extra shortly. It could possibly pull up a listing of lately visited web sites so you’ll be able to insert hyperlinks, search by your photographs, movies, docs, and spreadsheets in Google Drive, or pull up your favourite GIFs and emoji. Microsoft made an identical change earlier this yr, putting a devoted Copilot key on some laptops to supply fast entry to Home windows’ AI characteristic.
Fast Insert joins a number of different AI options rolling out beginning this month to Google’s premium Chromebook Plus lineup. There’s “Assist me learn,” which summarizes no matter you’re studying; Dwell Translate, which creates translated captions in actual time for over 100 languages; and the Recorder app, which might create transcripts from lectures, interviews, or conversations. I noticed the Recorder app in motion throughout a demo and requested the presenter just a few questions concerning the service. The app precisely displayed my phrases and recognized us as separate audio system.
Welcome Recap, which is coming to all Chromebooks, could be probably the most fascinating characteristic within the rollout. When you energy the system again on, it offers an outline of no matter you have been doing earlier than you logged out. Welcome Recap works throughout units and provides recommendations equivalent to reminders for “your subsequent video name, fast entry to a lately opened file, or a clickable suggestion to complete an article began in your Android or iOS telephone.” When you are typically a tab hoarder like myself, this characteristic can turn out to be useful.
Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Plus is Google’s first showcase for these new options. The pocket book’s grayish-blue all-aluminum chassis will certainly flip heads. At 2.58 kilos and 0.46 inches, the laptop computer bears the excellence of being the lightest and thinnest Chromebook both firm has launched.
The Chromebook Plus has a 15.6-inch OLED show that appeared beautiful after I bought to see it in particular person final week, and it’s paired with a fairly good keyboard, full with a full numpad. However for those who’re in search of a powerhouse, this isn’t it. The Chromebook Plus has an Intel Core i3 100U Raptor Lake Refresh processor with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. For battery life, it’s estimated to final 13 hours on a cost.
Though it lacks the Fast Insert button, Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet 11 can nonetheless entry all the new ChromeOS options. A refresh of the favored removable that launched means again in 2020, the 2024 model retains the portability and flexibility of the earlier fashions, with up to date internals. Whenever you’re not utilizing the machine in laptop computer mode, the magnetic keyboard detaches, so the Duet 11 can be utilized as a pill. Or you’ll be able to fold the rear cowl and use it as a kickstand to face it up vertically or horizontally.
Lenovo is touting the ten.9-inch, 1920 x 1200 touchscreen’s superior palm rejection. It’s a good way to make use of the USI Pen 2 that’s included within the bundle. The stylus attaches magnetically to the again.
Sporting a MediaTek Kompanio 838 CPU with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage, the Duet is nice for taking notes and different gentle productiveness and multimedia duties. It has two webcams: an 8MP within the again and a 5MP front-facing shooter. For battery life, Lenovo clocks an estimated 12 hours on a cost. The removable additionally has an schooling version that locations the pill portion in a sturdy case to guard in opposition to inadvertent drops.
Each laptops will likely be accessible this month. The Duet 11 will begin at $340, whereas the extra premium Galaxy Chromebook Plus begins at $699.
Pictures by Sherri Smith
Replace, October 1st: The Duet 11 begins at a lower cost than the $399 determine that Google initially shared.
