The best Chromebooks are all physically different from Windows laptops in one important way: they all have Google’s iconic “All” button. It’s essentially a search button that can be used to access everything on your laptop and beyond; from your own files and apps to online search results.
However, a new, unique button could soon appear on Chromebooks everywhere: a special key for that Google Assistant. As noted by ChromeUnboxeda file found in the Chromium Repositories (an open-source code base behind many of the features of ChromeOS and the Chrome browser) references an upcoming Chromebook model with a hardware-assigned assistant key.
The new Chromebook, codenamed ‘Xol’ – a rather oblique reference to Lot 2, while previous codenames have openly referenced everything from The Witcher to Skyrim – there’s little other information about it, only that it will apparently run on one of Intel’s 13th generation CPUs. That’s a strange move, considering that Intel’s 14th generation ‘Core Ultra’ chips are already on the table. But as ChromeUnboxed points out, we may not have seen the last of Intel’s 13th generation.
Return of the king?
Even more intriguing is the fact that we to have I’ve seen a dedicated Assistant button before, but only ever on Google’s own Chromebooks, the venerable Pixelbooks. The Pixelbook Go remained in several of our laptop rankings even after Google dropped the product line, and even I praying for a Pixelbook revival unfortunately that didn’t materialize at last year’s Google I/O event.
Does this mean ‘Xol’ could be a new Pixelbook? Unfortunately, the answer is ‘probably not’ – Google seemed pretty determined to move away from first-party Chromebooks when it retired the Pixelbook in 2022, completely disbanding the team responsible for it and encouraging third-party laptop makers to do whatever it takes. on ChromeOS with the recent Chromebook Plus initiative. There is probably a much simpler explanation: artificial intelligence.
Now that AI is on the rise pretty much everywhere, from OpenAI’s new Sora video generator to the seemingly ever-present ChatGPTit makes sense that Google (and other Chromebook makers) would want to promote AI features as a key selling point for new laptops.
A dedicated button to access your built-in AI companion is the logical conclusion; And if you look at that, Google has a new set of AI tools that we can play with.
AI for the Google guy
Yes, Google Gemini is here, a powerful selection of AI software (some new, some renamed from Google’s own previous Duet and Bard AI models) that seems right at home on a new AI-focused Chromebook. Google promises that Gemini can do all kinds of things, from simple chatbot functionality to… writing tools that rival Microsoft Copilot.
Most importantly, Gemini will replace Google Assistant, but that’s not the case yet. It appears there are still some teething problems to be ironed out, and Assistant remains present on all compatible devices as of this writing. But for a Chromebook in early development, the inclusion of an Assistant key as Google prepares to do away with the virtual helper feels… strange.
So, could this be a Gemini bud instead? ‘Gemini Key’ sounds nice. Combined with the All button for accessing all your stuff, a dedicated key to instantly summon the full power of Google’s AI software suite could be a worthy addition to the ChromeOS roster. Google has consistently put ease of use at the forefront when it comes to Chromebooks, so this could prove to be a good way to introduce less tech-savvy users to AI tools.
There’s only one problem.
As I mentioned above, ‘Xol’ runs on a 13th generation Intel CPU – meaning it doesn’t have access to the powerful Neural Processing Units (NPUs) found in Intel’s new Ultra processors. You can click that link for the full overview, but an NPU is essentially a dedicated chip for running local AI workloads; that’s something you’d probably want in an exciting new AI-focused Chromebook Plus, right?
Whatever ‘Xol’ is, it may never see the light of day; Chromebooks flagged this way don’t always make it to final production, so this could simply be a half-finished project. Regardless, I’m still excited to see what Gemini means for ChromeOS – and I’m not the only one.