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Title: Lenovo promises 17 hours of battery life on its new Chromebook Plus 14

Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2025 13:00:18 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/le...

For years now, most Chromebooks have run some variety of Intel or AMD
processor. The occasional device used a MediaTek chip, but they were often
underpowered and cheap devices that were hard to recommend. ARM-based
processors have worked tremendously well for Apple on the Mac, and theyΓÇÖre
being used in more and more Windows PCs as well. Now, Lenovo (makers of my
favorite Chromebook) and Google are giving ARM a real shot with the $649
Chromebook Plus 14.

The companies say the MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 chip and its AI NPU can
handle up to 50 TOPS ΓÇö but more intriguing to me, Lenovo is also promising
up to 17 hours of battery life. IΓÇÖll believe that claim when I see it;
mediocre at best battery life has plagued nearly every Chromebook IΓÇÖve used
in recent years. But switching to ARM could improve on what Intel-powered
Chromebooks have delivered, both in terms of battery life and overall
performance.

Time for the nitty-gritty specs. LenovoΓÇÖs Chromebook Plus 14 is, as youΓÇÖd
expect, a 14-inch laptop that looks quite similar to a silver MacBook Pro.
ItΓÇÖs certainly more stylish and sleek than LenovoΓÇÖs more utilitarian (and
awkwardly-named) IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus. It weighs only 2.58 pounds
(about a pound less than the Flex 5i) and is just over .62 inches thick. In
addition to the Kompanio Ultra 910 chip, Lenovo is including either 12GB or
16GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. Lenovo isnΓÇÖt skimping on the
screen, either. The 14-inch OLED panel can be outfitted with a touchscreen
and has a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. The resolution is relatively modest, but
totally in line with what youΓÇÖd expect for the price.

Lenovo

There are a few other nice touches throughout. LenovoΓÇÖs latest is the first
Chromebook with Dolby Atmos sound via a quad-speaker system that includes two
downward-firing woofers. Audio quality on laptops has increased significantly
in recent years, so IΓÇÖm looking forward to hearing what Lenovo can deliver.
The 5-megapixel webcam has a much higher resolution than most other
Chromebooks, and thereΓÇÖs also a fingerprint reader for secure logins.

All told, this Chromebook is on the more expensive side compared to many
other options. But when you compare its specs and design with other
Chromebooks in this price range, LenovoΓÇÖs latest comes out looking pretty
good. Of course, weΓÇÖll need to make sure the MediaTek chip is powerful
enough and also see what battery life is like, but LenovoΓÇÖs track record is
strong enough that IΓÇÖm looking forward to seeing if we have a new king of
the Chromebooks.

New AI features

Given that Google is relentlessly focused on adding AI features everywhere
you turn, itΓÇÖs no surprise that there are a handful of new AI tricks here.
First are two that are currently exclusive to LenovoΓÇÖs Chromebook Plus 14:
Smart Grouping and AI image editing in the ChromebookΓÇÖs Gallery app. Google
has been teasing Smart Grouping for a while now; itΓÇÖll look at your open
tabs and documents and ask if you want to organize them into a separate
virtual desk. And the Gallery app now has some AI-powered editing features
like removing backgrounds or turning your images into stickers.

Beyond these are a bunch of AI features that are coming to all Chromebook
Plus laptops, many of which will feel familiar if youΓÇÖve paid attention to
what Google has released to other platforms in recent months. For example,
you can now long-press the launcher and select an area of the screen to run a
search. As usual, the default example is shopping ΓÇö see a pair of shoes you
want, highlight it and let Google find them for you. The integration does
look nice, though, with a pop-over window showing you results so you donΓÇÖt
have to leave the app youΓÇÖre using.

Similarly, Text Capture analyzes text in an image and suggests things like
calendar appointments based on what it reads. Or highlighting an image of a
recipe can pull all of the items you need for it into a Google Docs list.

Lenovo

The Quick Insert key, which was first introduced last year on SamsungΓÇÖs
Galaxy Chromebook Plus, can now be used to generate and insert AI images into
anywhere your text cursor is pointing ΓÇö itΓÇÖs not just limited to Google
apps. Finally, GoogleΓÇÖs ΓÇ£help me readΓÇ¥ tool has a new ΓÇ£simplifyΓÇ¥
option that can take complex language (think scientific explanations) and put
it in plain language to make it easier to understand.

Anyone buying a Chromebook Plus this year will get a solid perk that Google
first introduced last year: a full 12 months of the Google One AI Pro plan,
which includes 2TB of Google Drive storage and access to more advanced Gemini
features (you can find all the exact details here). Given that this is a $20
per month plan, itΓÇÖs a solid additional value ΓÇö at the very least for the
storage, if youΓÇÖre not all that interested in Gemini.

As for LenovoΓÇÖs new hardware, IΓÇÖm looking forward to trying it soon to
see if the ARM architecture can deliver the massive battery life and
performance improvements that the company is promising. But if you want to
throw down your cash now, LenovoΓÇÖs Chromebook Plus 14 is available at Best
Buy and on LenovoΓÇÖs site to order as of today. (Note that, at least for
now, only the more expensive version of the Chromebook Plus 14, with a
touchscreen at 16GB of RAM, is available at Best Buy.)

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/le...
battery-life-on-its-new-chromebook-plus-14-130018894.html?src=rss

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