Chromebooks often rank among the best laptops in our testing, offering a great blend of portability, speed, and ease-of-use while remaining pretty cheap.
When T3 searched for the best Chromebook, the standout model was the Acer Chromebook Spin 713, a more powerful model in the bunch, albeit at a slightly higher price.
And that's just it: Chromebooks have a lot of virtues but can often feel a little underpowered in comparison to the best Windows laptops and the MacBook Air, especially with Apple's own chips.
All that might be about to change, however, according to a new report from Chrome Unboxed, which suggests Chromebooks are about to get a pretty huge upgrade in the GPU department.
It's fair to say that not many Chromebooks rank among the best gaming laptops and with good reason: gaming hardware is very specific and uses a lot of power. Neither of these things are conducive to a lightweight, long-life laptop.
But the report from Chrome Unboxed suggests that the next generation of Chromebooks, equipped with Steam, could change that by pairing up Intel's 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU and Nvidia's GPU.
Described as "Agah" within snippets of Chrome OS code, which seems to have been in the works for some time. There has never been a Chromebook with a powerful GPU capable of playing AAA titles, so this would mark a pretty significant shift.
Upgrade to smarter living
Get the latest news, reviews, deals and buying guides on gorgeous tech, home and active products straight to your inbox.
Evidence suggests that HP might be on hand to provide the hardware, hopefully in the mould of the excellent HP Pro C640 Chromebook, which we rated as the best premium Chromebook around.
We doubt that the Nvidia GPU is going to the GeForce RTX 3080 or anything close, so don't get your hopes up for 60fps gaming, but for more casual titles, things are looking pretty great.
In terms of the release date, we'd expect to see these Nvidia-powered Chromebooks sometime in 2023, which is when Steam for Chrome OS – currently only in alpha preview – is expected to launch.
- Best student laptops: top laptops for school, college and university
Max Slater-Robins has written for T3 now on and off for over half a decade, with him fitting in serious study at university in between. Max is a tech expert and as such you'll find his words throughout T3.com, appearing in everything from reviews and features, to news and deals. Max is specifically a veteran when it comes round to deal hunting, with him seeing out multiple Black Friday campaigns to date.
-
Acer Chromebook Plus 514 review: going beyond the Chromebook basics
Acer's Chromebook Plus performs well in most areas, without really excelling
By David Nield Published
-
These 3 Google Pixelbook 2 features would make it an instabuy
It's time for Google to set the standard for Chromebooks again
By David Nield Published
-
HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook review: a new ChromeOS champion
HP has managed to pack in just about everything you could want in a Chromebook, and then some
By David Nield Published
-
Early Black Friday Chromebook deal takes up to $300 off the HP Elite Dragonfly
Use this coupon code to take 20% off at HP
By Troy Fleming Published
-
Chromebook owners are getting a cool free ChromeOS video call upgrade
Better video calling is coming with some distinctly Mac-like features
By Carrie Marshall Published
-
Chromebooks just got cool new features as ChromeOS 105 update arrives
You can now grab ChromeOS 105 on Chromebooks
By Robert Jones Published
-
5 things I wish I'd known before I bought a Chromebook
We take a look at five things you need to know before buying one of the best Chromebooks
By Max Slater-Robins Published
-
This brilliant free tool turns your ancient laptop into a Chromebook
Google's free ChromeOS Flex brings old hardware right up to date – and it's completely free
By Carrie Marshall Published