Lenovo's new Chromebook has a 120Hz refresh rate

Source: Lenovo

Lenovo is dipping its toes in the 16-inch Chromebook segment with the new IdeaPad 5i Chromebook. Its biggest selling point is that 2.5K display with an extremely fast 120Hz refresh rate, 16:10 aspect ratio, and a maximum brightness of 350 nits. There will be a 60Hz, 300-nit FHD version, which we assume would cost less. This Chromebook will retail in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa this month with a starting price of €549 (around CA$717).

The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i gets a 12-hour battery life, but we aren't sure if that'll translate with that high-resolution, high-refresh-rate display. It has a keyboard with 1.5mm travel, WavesMaxxAudio tuned speakers, FHD camera with a physical shutter, Intel Pentium 8505 or Intel Core i3-1215U, up to 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

Source

'Game of Thrones' White Walkers demo productivity and multitasking on the Pixelbook

In the most unlikely team-up the Night King and his fellow White Walkers demo the capabilities of the Google Pixelbook (and all recent Chromebooks, for that matter). Focusing on productivity, multitaksing, multimedia and getting things done. The caper is conquering Westeros' and serves as a useful recap of where we left off in Game of Thrones which feels like it has been off the air for years.

Once an also see this ad as a hint that Chromebooks, like the White Walkers, are a force of nature and will eventually take over the personal computing and their time has come.

HP announces three education focused Chromebook devices

HP announced three new Chrome OS devices that take advantage of the latest enhancements to the Google for Education ecosystem: the HP Chromebook 11 G6 Education Edition, the HP Chromebook 14 G5 and the HP Chromebox G2.

"The historic rise of Chromebook adoption in schools has driven more equitable access to technology for students, offering a simple and manageable solution for digital education transformation. In fact, Chromebooks accounted for an astonishing 58% of mobile PC device shipments to K-12 schools (not including desktops) in the United States last year and now lead school markets in Canada and Sweden^{," says Gus Schmedien, who is VP of Worldwide Education for HP.}

The sixth-generation HP Chromebook 11 G6 EE is purpose-built for the daily demands of students. With industrial co-molded rubber, reinforced corners and a unique impact dispersion pattern on the internal chassis to protect hinges, the device can withstand bumps and drops from 70 cm onto bare concrete surfaces and designed to pass MIL-STD 810g testing.

Click to read more ...

Microsoft Office comes to all Chromebooks

One of the things possibly hampering the adoption of Chromebooks is the fact that it still couldn’t be considered as much as a laptop or desktop alternative for the lack of things like Microsoft’s Office suite. It was available for some but not for everyone. That is about to change though. Chrome Unboxed discovered that Microsoft Office apps have started to show up in the Play Store for all the Chromebooks they have, including the Samsung Chromebook Pro, Pixelbook, Acer C771, and two Chromebook 15 models.

So if you own a Chromebook with a display larger than 10.1 inches, you can download Word, Excel, and PowerPoint now. You will, however, need an Office 365 subscription to be able to edit files on these apps.