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Google Said to Be Working on Gaming Chromebooks

By Laura Tucker
Gaming Chromebooks Featured

Chromebooks are great, inexpensive machines that work via a connection to Google services and seem like the perfect platform for game streaming. That’s why it’s not too much of a surprise that the rumor mill is suggesting that Google is working on gaming Chromebooks.

Also read: What You Need to Know About Your Chromebook Expiration Date

The Perfect Platform for Gaming?

Truthfully, Chromebooks are already capable of gaming. They can take advantage of Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now, but could they go even further than that?

Chrome OS is known to stretch beyond Google. It already supports apps for Linux and Android, so stretching to support a more full-featured gaming experience doesn’t seem too far-fetched.

Gaming Chromebook Chrome Os

It’s known that there is a project code-named Borealis to bring Steam and Linux-compatible PC games to Chromebook via a virtual machine. However, there’s never been an acknowledgment from Google that Borealis exists or what its objective is.

Three Models of Gaming Chromebooks

As evidence that Google is working toward releasing gaming Chromebooks, changes in OS code are showing support for full-color RGB keyboards – and we all know what those are good for.

According to a report, users will be able to create different colors of lighting from the red, green, and blue and also adjust the brightness of the backlight. This would be an upgrade on the system that currently only allows developers to make those adjustments.

Instead of just being a support feature for connected keyboards with RGB lighting, it appears three projects are being developed: Vell, Taniks, and Ripple.

Gaming Chromebooks Keyboard

Reports say that Vell is being created by Quanta, a company that already manufactures other Chromebooks. The employee spending the most time on Vell also created new devices for HP. Vell is based on the 12th generation of Gen Alder Lake laptop processors, as is Taniks.

LCFC is creating Taniks, and it appears the company is a spinoff of Lenovo. It’s been suggested that a new Chromebook could join Lenovo’s Legion series that includes gaming computers, so it seems a gaming Chromebook would fit right in.

Ripple isn’t a Chromebook and is instead just a detachable keyboard. But there’s a chance that it would be connecting to a gaming Chrome OS tablet instead of a Chromebook. So it seems the focus, at least at this stage, is on the lighting and how that works in with gaming on Chromebooks or a potential tablet.

Not much else is known about the Chromebooks being developed. It’s anyone’s guess when one or more will be released and what brands they would carry upon that release. Mostly, we’re just waiting for Google to make a formal announcement to clear all this up, but that could be a long time coming.

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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