Google Turbocharges Chromebook Plus With AI Tricks, Lenovo Pounces

In collaboration with Google, Lenovo has officially launched the Chromebook Plus 14—its "most  advanced Chromebook Plus yet"—integrating powerful innards and more exclusive Google AI capabilities than ever before. The machine boasts a MediaTek Kompanio Ultra processor that can handle up to 50 TOPS, a 14-inch OLED display, 17 hours of battery life, and is targeted towards students, professionals, and creators alike.

The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 is the world's first Chromebook to house the MediaTek Kompanio Ultra processor, which features 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 256GB of internal storage, an Arm Immortalis-G925 MC11 GPU, and MediaTek NPU 890. This combination purportedly adds up to 50 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of AI processing power, which isn't just impressive for a Chromebook, but also serves as a strong platform to integrate cloud-based and on-device Gemini AI.

Some of the exclusive on-device features on the Lenovo model include Smart grouping that intelligently organizes open tabs, documents, and applications into logical clusters based on ongoing tasks. For creatives, the on-device image editing in the Gallery app allows for background removal and sticker creation with a single click, all achievable while offline.

Other Chromebook Plus laptops aren't left out either. Google says that new AI features are launching soon, many of which were already seen on mobile. Users will be able to Select to search with Lens to quickly identify and gather information about anything on their screen, whether it's shopping for a similar item or researching a specific detail. Text capture uses optical character recognition to transform information from images, like receipts or handwritten recipes, into editable text. Additionally, the upgraded Help Me Read feature now does more than summarize; it can simplify complex language, making dense text passages more accessible, and even answer follow-up questions.

Also coming soon is a Quick Insert key that provides on-demand AI image generation and easy insertion of photos and emojis into documents and presentations. Chromebook Plus users will have access to new Gemini and NotebookLM features with the Google AI Pro plan, which includes 2TB of cloud storage and Gemini integration within Google Workspace apps (complimentary for 12 months with the purchase of any new CB Plus).

Back to the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14, it sports a 2.6-pound aluminum chassis, 14-inch 2K OLED display (with 100% DCI-P3 support), quad speakers with Dolby Atmos support, a backlit keyboard, and the ability to run two external 4K displays. For security and privacy, there's an optional fingerprint sensor, while the 5MP webcam has a physical privacy shutter.

Pricing of the Lenovo laptop starts at $650, and is available now (though curiously Lenovo's store is showing the starting price at $749.99).