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Eight new laptops from Acer, ASUS, HP and Lenovo. I feel like pulled off right, this "shared ecosystem" approach across manufacturers can be very strong, and f

Eight new laptops from Acer, ASUS, HP and Lenovo. I feel like pulled off right, this "shared ecosystem" approach across manufacturers can be very strong, and from a competition perspective is probably pretty healthy. That said, the "everything under one roof" pull of the Apple world is pretty strong. I've been pretty happy with my Google hardware so far (Nexus and then Pixel phones, Nest minis, pixel buds), but now that I'm interested in a smart watch, I'm running into a bit of a wall. I want to want a Pixel watch, but it sounds like the integration with the Pixel phone is not all that great, and for a lot of fitness tracking you also need a separate FitBit account, and have to use a separate FitBit app (!) and it doesn't integrate super well with all my existing data in Google's own Google Fit app that I've got. I know it's not fair to compare these ~$400 laptops with Apple's laptops, but it just seems like Apple is better positioned to pull off seamless integration between laptops, phones, watches, earbuds, etc, when they're not working at cross purposes with a dozen other manufacturers. Then again, some people probably actively don't want all this integration? Maybe just a simple, standalone, cheap laptop is ideal for them, and that's who this is targeting.

haunter 3y ago
>pulled off right, this "shared ecosystem" approach across manufacturers can be very strong, and from a competition perspective is probably pretty healthy. I wish the Steam Machines didn't fail, they were pretty much this https://web.archive.org/web/20160303080731/https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines https://web.archive.org/web/20160303080731/https://store.ste... One can say the Steam Deck is a better successor but I think mostly because of Proton itself became mature through the years (compared to 2016)
- nolist_policy 3y ago
  There is Steam for ChromeOS in the Beta channel right now. It's working surprisingly well, running inside a VM with virgl acceleration. I could imagine a gaming Chromebox or Chromebook with dedicated graphics in the future.
  - glenstein 3y ago
    What could be a wonderful asset would be a streaming service for games. Google would just have to make a credible, consistent commitment to such a service, commit to it through its initial wilderness period and not shut it down on a reflex, so customers would have the confidence that their time learning the platform wouldn't be wasted. Then, with something like this launch event for 2x faster Chromebooks, it could emerge as a mature offering whose moment as come. All it would take is discipline not to instantly give up and a willingness to have a vision extending beyond quarter-at-a-time release cycles.
    - hn_go_brrrrr 3y ago
      This is painful to read. Too soon.
- dgunay 3y ago
  My bold prediction is that as consoles become more and more architecturally similar to home computers and MS & Sony continue to port more titles to PC, we will eventually see a unification of sorts where games are by default available on PC, with consoles serving as essentially a consistent and well-tested PC configuration for people who don't want to futz around with PC building. That's the role Steam Machines were supposed to play. They were a little too early IMO but the concept seems solid.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Game companies don't just want consistent and well-tested, they often want to also prevent user tampering. Consoles + iPhone security have long put extra effort into that, and streaming is looking like a viable replacement. Not a good solution for people extremely into video games, but they've got gaming PCs anyway.
    - OJFord 3y ago
      And they want walled garden, subscription fee for network access, etc.
    - fomine3 3y ago
      Yeah now anti-cheat (and lack of moddability) is the most significant difference for PC vs console. Steam Deck is interesting that they want to be a console like experience but it's flexible unlike traditional consoles.
jollyjerry 3y ago
I also love Apple's OS and first-party apps' seamless integration. However, Google has a better story with cloud apps in gsuite. My Mac is overkill hardware for running a browser, but I like the build quality.
- happymellon 3y ago
  > However, Google has a better story with cloud apps in gsuite. Except that they just set a death date for my go to whiteboarding app. It was great to be able to have a dead simple paintbrush level drawing app that was shared in the browser, and I could sketch out on my tablet without dealing with drawing "boxes" and text labels to get an idea across.
freedomben 3y ago
I have the pixel watch and I don't use the Fitbit stuff. Google fit is now first class on it, and it is a super well thought out and polished implementation. I'm really pleased with it
MatthiasPortzel 3y ago
> Laptop shopping is harder than it should be. You can easily get lost in a sea of numbers and technical specs, > We’re launching eight new laptops This reads like satire.
thomastjeffery 3y ago
You can get a 16" 2.5K 120hz 12th-gen i3 Chromebook from 2022 for $430[1]. Are any of these "Chromebook Plus" models better? I don't think so. [1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lenovo-Ideapad-5i-Gaming-Chromebook-16-0-Intel-Core-i3-1215U-8GB-RAM-128GB-eMMC-Storm-Grey-Chrome-OS-82V80009UX/1867344969 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lenovo-Ideapad-5i-Gaming-Chromebo...
- nolist_policy 3y ago
  That's because this one is a Chromebook Plus. > In addition to new Chromebook Plus devices, some existing Chromebooks will qualify for an OS update to include the enhanced features found on Chromebook Plus devices in the coming weeks. > See here for details on eligible devices.[1] [1] https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/14128000?visit_id=638318678668158841-4196691332&rd=1 https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/14128000?visit_...
  - thomastjeffery 3y ago
    Fair enough. Still a bit sneaky with the marketing, but that's par for the course. I'm just over here wishing the "enhanced features" included coreboot support...
    - nolist_policy 3y ago
      It does. This is a Alder Lake device so it's either a Brya or Nissa mainboard. Sourcecode is here[1]. [1] https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/coreboot/+refs https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/cor...
      - thomastjeffery 3y ago
        I stand corrected! Is there a more discoverable way to find this info?
        nolist_policy 3y ago
criddell 3y ago
Do you know of all Chromebooks have cellular modems? It seems like it would be a basic requirement but the article doesn't mention anything.
- jsnell 3y ago
  Why would it be a basic requirement? Cellular modems in laptop are an incredibly niche feature. They're only included in a handful of top-end business laptops and (in my experience) nobody even uses them when present.
  - asdajksah2123 3y ago
    Further to actually use cellular modems you likely need to pay an additional fee every month to a cellphone carrier. That requirement probably makes the already tiny subset of people who could use a cellular modem even smaller.
    - criddell 3y ago
      There is a fee, but typically it’s a data-only plan and isn’t super expensive. I’m on T-Mobile and it’s $20 for unlimited data. You can pay even less for limited data.
      - umeshunni 3y ago
        wouldn't it be easier / cheaper to just tether?
        criddell 3y ago
        Cheaper, probably. Not easier though. After thinking about it a bit more, Chromebooks biggest users seem to be schools and they don’t want 5G modems for everybody. I would guess they would want some for kids who don’t have decent home internet. It makes sense for the default to be Wi-Fi only.
danans 3y ago
> when they're not working at cross purposes with a dozen other manufacturers. Manufacturers of Chromebooks mostly only deal with the outer shell and branding of the device. The computing hardware is controlled by Google, who set strict guidelines for compatibility. The ChromeOS software is of course completely controlled by Google. This announcement sounds like it's basically creating a new brand around an even more restrictive set of higher-performance hardware requirements.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
talkingtab 3y ago
"I've been pretty happy with my Google hardware so far". I have a pixel phone. The hardware is impressive. The software is total junk. Everything is designed for to make you into an obsessive-compulsive phone junky. How many stupid alerts and notifications do I need per second. How many ads must I watch? I went back to an iphone despite feeling like the pixel was actually a really good piece of hardware. And an iPhone is not that much better any more.
- JohnBooty 3y ago
  Everything is designed for to make you into an obsessive-compulsive phone junky. [...] And an iPhone is not that much better any more. Regardless of OS, this seems like it's almost entirely down to the apps you use and the notification settings you pick. No? I rarely use Android so I may just be unfamiliar.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    The defaults are different. I was surprised to find that Android apps didn't have to ask to send notifications, rather you had to turn them off, but this was changed in Android 13 near the end of 2022.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- technothrasher 3y ago
  I switched to an iPhone about a year ago, and got annoyed at the pushy things iOS was doing that Android wasn't. So I switched back to Android recently, only to find that many of the annoying iOS things had now been adopted by Google. Great, thanks. I'll stick with Android for the near future though, as with a custom rooted ROM I can at least remove a lot of 'unremovable' stuff, even if I now have to play annoying cat and mouse games with apps trying to detect my rooted device and disable themselves.
- zik 3y ago
  I'm honestly confused by this comment. I use a Pixel phone and the reason I prefer it over my previous Samsung experiences is the UI is toned back and doesn't hit you with distractions.
hot_gril 3y ago
The generic solutions are cheaper and more flexible, while the special all-included one is more user-friendly and can be better-optimized. It's similar with other products.
jschveibinz 3y ago
Beware? On Amazon, Samsung sellers are advertising their chromebooks as “plus”.
hackernewds 3y ago
> for a lot of fitness tracking you also need a separate FitBit acCount, and have to use a separate FitBit app not for long. you will soon be required to migrate to Google by 2025. new Fitbit comes with controls for YouTube Music and none else. so the integrations are coming, which I absolutely love. don't let Nadella hear you say you're moving from the Microsoft monopoly though ;)
MuffinFlavored 3y ago
> Eight new laptops from Acer, ASUS, HP and Lenovo. From the article: > Laptop shopping is harder than it should be. You can easily get lost in a sea of numbers and technical specs, and it's hard to know what products will actually give you what you need, at the price you want. Kind of funny...

haunter 3y ago

>pulled off right, this "shared ecosystem" approach across manufacturers can be very strong, and from a competition perspective is probably pretty healthy. I wish the Steam Machines didn't fail, they were pretty much this https://web.archive.org/web/20160303080731/https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines https://web.archive.org/web/20160303080731/https://store.ste... One can say the Steam Deck is a better successor but I think mostly because of Proton itself became mature through the years (compared to 2016)

nolist_policy 3y ago
There is Steam for ChromeOS in the Beta channel right now. It's working surprisingly well, running inside a VM with virgl acceleration. I could imagine a gaming Chromebox or Chromebook with dedicated graphics in the future.
- glenstein 3y ago
  What could be a wonderful asset would be a streaming service for games. Google would just have to make a credible, consistent commitment to such a service, commit to it through its initial wilderness period and not shut it down on a reflex, so customers would have the confidence that their time learning the platform wouldn't be wasted. Then, with something like this launch event for 2x faster Chromebooks, it could emerge as a mature offering whose moment as come. All it would take is discipline not to instantly give up and a willingness to have a vision extending beyond quarter-at-a-time release cycles.
  - hn_go_brrrrr 3y ago
    This is painful to read. Too soon.
dgunay 3y ago
My bold prediction is that as consoles become more and more architecturally similar to home computers and MS & Sony continue to port more titles to PC, we will eventually see a unification of sorts where games are by default available on PC, with consoles serving as essentially a consistent and well-tested PC configuration for people who don't want to futz around with PC building. That's the role Steam Machines were supposed to play. They were a little too early IMO but the concept seems solid.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Game companies don't just want consistent and well-tested, they often want to also prevent user tampering. Consoles + iPhone security have long put extra effort into that, and streaming is looking like a viable replacement. Not a good solution for people extremely into video games, but they've got gaming PCs anyway.
  - OJFord 3y ago
    And they want walled garden, subscription fee for network access, etc.
  - fomine3 3y ago
    Yeah now anti-cheat (and lack of moddability) is the most significant difference for PC vs console. Steam Deck is interesting that they want to be a console like experience but it's flexible unlike traditional consoles.

jollyjerry 3y ago

I also love Apple's OS and first-party apps' seamless integration. However, Google has a better story with cloud apps in gsuite. My Mac is overkill hardware for running a browser, but I like the build quality.

happymellon 3y ago
> However, Google has a better story with cloud apps in gsuite. Except that they just set a death date for my go to whiteboarding app. It was great to be able to have a dead simple paintbrush level drawing app that was shared in the browser, and I could sketch out on my tablet without dealing with drawing "boxes" and text labels to get an idea across.

freedomben 3y ago

I have the pixel watch and I don't use the Fitbit stuff. Google fit is now first class on it, and it is a super well thought out and polished implementation. I'm really pleased with it

MatthiasPortzel 3y ago

> Laptop shopping is harder than it should be. You can easily get lost in a sea of numbers and technical specs, > We’re launching eight new laptops This reads like satire.

thomastjeffery 3y ago

You can get a 16" 2.5K 120hz 12th-gen i3 Chromebook from 2022 for $430[1]. Are any of these "Chromebook Plus" models better? I don't think so. [1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lenovo-Ideapad-5i-Gaming-Chromebook-16-0-Intel-Core-i3-1215U-8GB-RAM-128GB-eMMC-Storm-Grey-Chrome-OS-82V80009UX/1867344969 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lenovo-Ideapad-5i-Gaming-Chromebo...

nolist_policy 3y ago
That's because this one is a Chromebook Plus. > In addition to new Chromebook Plus devices, some existing Chromebooks will qualify for an OS update to include the enhanced features found on Chromebook Plus devices in the coming weeks. > See here for details on eligible devices.[1] [1] https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/14128000?visit_id=638318678668158841-4196691332&rd=1 https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/14128000?visit_...
- thomastjeffery 3y ago
  Fair enough. Still a bit sneaky with the marketing, but that's par for the course. I'm just over here wishing the "enhanced features" included coreboot support...
  - nolist_policy 3y ago
    It does. This is a Alder Lake device so it's either a Brya or Nissa mainboard. Sourcecode is here[1]. [1] https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/coreboot/+refs https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/cor...
    - thomastjeffery 3y ago
      I stand corrected! Is there a more discoverable way to find this info?
      - nolist_policy 3y ago

criddell 3y ago

Do you know of all Chromebooks have cellular modems? It seems like it would be a basic requirement but the article doesn't mention anything.

jsnell 3y ago
Why would it be a basic requirement? Cellular modems in laptop are an incredibly niche feature. They're only included in a handful of top-end business laptops and (in my experience) nobody even uses them when present.
- asdajksah2123 3y ago
  Further to actually use cellular modems you likely need to pay an additional fee every month to a cellphone carrier. That requirement probably makes the already tiny subset of people who could use a cellular modem even smaller.
  - criddell 3y ago
    There is a fee, but typically it’s a data-only plan and isn’t super expensive. I’m on T-Mobile and it’s $20 for unlimited data. You can pay even less for limited data.
    - umeshunni 3y ago
      wouldn't it be easier / cheaper to just tether?
      - criddell 3y ago
        Cheaper, probably. Not easier though. After thinking about it a bit more, Chromebooks biggest users seem to be schools and they don’t want 5G modems for everybody. I would guess they would want some for kids who don’t have decent home internet. It makes sense for the default to be Wi-Fi only.

danans 3y ago

> when they're not working at cross purposes with a dozen other manufacturers. Manufacturers of Chromebooks mostly only deal with the outer shell and branding of the device. The computing hardware is controlled by Google, who set strict guidelines for compatibility. The ChromeOS software is of course completely controlled by Google. This announcement sounds like it's basically creating a new brand around an even more restrictive set of higher-performance hardware requirements.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

talkingtab 3y ago

"I've been pretty happy with my Google hardware so far". I have a pixel phone. The hardware is impressive. The software is total junk. Everything is designed for to make you into an obsessive-compulsive phone junky. How many stupid alerts and notifications do I need per second. How many ads must I watch? I went back to an iphone despite feeling like the pixel was actually a really good piece of hardware. And an iPhone is not that much better any more.

JohnBooty 3y ago
Everything is designed for to make you into an obsessive-compulsive phone junky. [...] And an iPhone is not that much better any more. Regardless of OS, this seems like it's almost entirely down to the apps you use and the notification settings you pick. No? I rarely use Android so I may just be unfamiliar.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  The defaults are different. I was surprised to find that Android apps didn't have to ask to send notifications, rather you had to turn them off, but this was changed in Android 13 near the end of 2022.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
technothrasher 3y ago
I switched to an iPhone about a year ago, and got annoyed at the pushy things iOS was doing that Android wasn't. So I switched back to Android recently, only to find that many of the annoying iOS things had now been adopted by Google. Great, thanks. I'll stick with Android for the near future though, as with a custom rooted ROM I can at least remove a lot of 'unremovable' stuff, even if I now have to play annoying cat and mouse games with apps trying to detect my rooted device and disable themselves.
zik 3y ago
I'm honestly confused by this comment. I use a Pixel phone and the reason I prefer it over my previous Samsung experiences is the UI is toned back and doesn't hit you with distractions.

hot_gril 3y ago

The generic solutions are cheaper and more flexible, while the special all-included one is more user-friendly and can be better-optimized. It's similar with other products.

jschveibinz 3y ago

Beware? On Amazon, Samsung sellers are advertising their chromebooks as “plus”.

hackernewds 3y ago

> for a lot of fitness tracking you also need a separate FitBit acCount, and have to use a separate FitBit app not for long. you will soon be required to migrate to Google by 2025. new Fitbit comes with controls for YouTube Music and none else. so the integrations are coming, which I absolutely love. don't let Nadella hear you say you're moving from the Microsoft monopoly though ;)

MuffinFlavored 3y ago

> Eight new laptops from Acer, ASUS, HP and Lenovo. From the article: > Laptop shopping is harder than it should be. You can easily get lost in a sea of numbers and technical specs, and it's hard to know what products will actually give you what you need, at the price you want. Kind of funny...