It’s a Chromebook thing: Hands-on with new Chromeos Ai features

As a older member of Gen-Z, each screen in my life has its purpose. My little screen (my phone) is there for personal communication, ordering food and thoughtless rolls memes on the internet. My big screen (my TV) takes on the role of home entertainment, whether it is a giant Spotify hub, a way to follow the club’s World Cup, or endless streaming runs on Letterkenny.

To the left in the mushy center between the two, however, is room for a medium screen, such as a laptop or tablet. These medium screens have always been the hard work, big buying screens – the ones I turn to when the case feels too serious for a phone. And now it looks like Google is agreeing. It is trying to make more tasks feel that they were meant to be done at ChromebooksAnd here’s how it works so far.

I’ve been a supporter of Chromebooks – especially Chromebook Plus models – for a while now, and I’ve noticed where the classic pitfalls are. For many, Chromebooks still feel like the light, walking-to-students for students or the people who want to browse Youtube and check their emails. Unfortunately, it means ignoring some of the cooler AI-driven features Google has added over the last two years.

Now, however, I have to think that the new things are inevitable. Each time Google rolls out a major Chrome os Update, it adds a handful of new AI-driven features, many of which feel like scaled out versions of things I love about the Google Pixel series. Today, some of these additions include Select to Search and Text Capture, which act as screens combined with the ever -present circle to search Android. You are a little more limited in having to drag and drop a square over what you want to search for, but it feels like a pretty reasonable approach when not all Chromebook Plus has a touch screen.

Google also brings some new functionality to the quick insert menu that it added to the Chromebook Plus devices a few months back. You can already use it to insert GIFs, links and more quick items without jumping between too many tabs, but now Google has also added the opportunity to generate and insert photos, a la The La The Pixel studioone of my favorite exclusive Android -apps. I like that it feels like a faster, more effective way to plan things with friends, since a customized image is much more attention-digging than a simple mass text-drawn me how I know.

Of course, there are still a few new Chromebooks plus wrinkles that feel tailor made for students, or at least those who love to learn. This time, the main addition is a new segment of Help Me Read Dubbed Simplify. It works pretty much how it sounds, so you can highlight a large part of the text and let Gemini boil it down in more digestible bites for you, not quite the same as the Summarize feature, as it doesn’t change sections for bullet points as much as makes the section easier to understand.

Google’s latest announcement also includes the fact that Notebooklm now comes pre -installed on each Chromebook Plus, and the previous free year of Google One Ai Premium Has been upgraded to a year of Google One Ai Pro, which provides access to Gemini 2.5 Pro and limited access to Veo 3 FAST to generate videos.

I also expected a brand new Chromebook Plus or two from almost all major Chrome OS announcements. Usually, they almost check all the necessary boxes, offering sharp enough webcams, decent RAM and processors that make the character, but this time Google aimed a little higher. For the first time, a partner brought on stage at the Chromebook exhibition window, and after Lenovo launches its brand new Chromebook plus 14.

And to hear Google and Lenovo say it, this seems like the flagship Chromebook plus design they have wanted all the time. It is just the right size of 14 inches, offers plenty of power thanks to the mix of a MediaTek Kompanio Elite processor and up to 16 GB of RAM, and offers up to 17 hours of battery life with a quiet, fanless design. I’ll admit that I only had a few minutes with the light laptop, so I can’t talk to the validity of most of these claims, but my short session felt like a bright start. Besides, the rubberized bottom panel reminds me a lot of Google’s old Pixelbook goSo much that I’m ready to start beg for an update.

If the Lenovo Chromebook plus 14 was just a pretty face, I don’t know if I had too much to say about it. After all, Samsungs Galaxy Chromebook Plus Was already impressive with its elegant metal body and physical quick insert, but functionally it was the same as any other Chromebook Plus. This time, however, some exclusive software features hold my attention.

As the top dog in the Google Chromebook Plus lineup, the Chromebook Plus 14 benefits from Smart Grouping, which uses AI to organize the Chrome tabs and documents in related groups that you can then send from one desk to another. If you, for example, training for an autumn marathon, but also try to research the club’s World Cup, Chromebook Plus 14 could divide them into two well -organized desktops that you can easily jump between with minimal distractions.

The other currently exclusive wrinkle is the ability to edit photos in the Gallery app, which feels like Magic Editor on a much larger scale. It allows you to use AI to remove the background of your image and quickly create stickers that you can then create in other images and save for later use. I didn’t have a chance to try this too thoroughly since I checked out one of Google’s demo devices, but I would be curious to see how quickly it treats through my extensive gallery, especially since I’ve already made so many stickers lately.

If there is a disadvantage with the new flagship of the Chromebook Plus fleet, it is that it comes with a flagship price. Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 will set you back $ 649 for its base configuration with 12 GB of RAM or $ 749 for 16 GB of RAM, which is not a small sum. I generally think that the power and the total specifications justify the entry price as well, even though I decide to buy one acts as a medium screen decision – a chromebook thing, if you will.