Despite their decision to leave Chrome OS tablets behind after the Pixel Slate, Google is possibly pushing on with Chromebooks of their own, with a new model codenamed ‘Halvor’ possibly set to launch.
The ‘Halvor’ Chromebook was found by the team at Chrome Unboxed who saw mention of the device in the Chrome OS repo which lists the device with a Google Assistant key. This is important as only Google Chrome OS devices (Pixelbook, Pixelbook Go) or their accessories (Google Pixel Slate Keyboard, Brydge G-Type for Pixel Slate & Brydge C-Type) have launched with an Assistant Key.
In terms of specs, the Halvor is running a baseboard (Basically motherboard) codenamed “Volteer” – Spyro fans will be all a buzz with Halvor and Volteer – which uses an Intel Tiger Lake processor built on the 10nm process (better power consumption). The new Tiger Lake processors features Intels new Xe integrated graphics, which supports 4K screens, can mean better webcams, and you’ll get faster peripheral speeds with USB 4.
The laptop is likely to offer different configs, with at least one being offered with 16GB RAM. There will be a 3.5mm headphone jack on-board (yaay!) for all the audiphiles out there, and those USB 4 ports? Well, there’s likely going to be three of them.
When will it launch? This year would be nice, but more likely next year. Still, a nice surprise at the MadebyGoogle event this year would be great.
