It’s been a while since Google dabbled in laptops with any measure of success; the Google Pixelbook was – by most acceptable measures – a pretty decent device, and then last year, Google went a bit sideways and introduced something a little less successful. Some people bought them – not quite sure why – but most sat back and waited, hoping Google would again do something a bit more useful.
When Google’s Rick Osterloh came out and confirmed that Google’s hardware division would abandon all work on tablets (thank goodness), he also confirmed that the company would focus its efforts on laptops, and we’ve been waiting since.
Hey, it's true…Google's HARDWARE team will be solely focused on building laptops moving forward, but make no mistake, Android & Chrome OS teams are 100% committed for the long-run on working with our partners on tablets for all segments of the market (consumer, enterprise, edu)
— Rick Osterloh (@rosterloh) June 20, 2019
Well, it seems that wait might be over next month, with rumours suggesting that Google will hatch a new Pixelbook at next month’s Made by Google event.
It’s been a long time coming; last November, in fact, we first saw some hint that Google was working on a new first-party Chromebook, and now, a device known as ‘Hatch’ has hit Geekbench, confirming the inclusion of an Intel Comet Lake chipset.
MySmartPrice reports that the ‘Hatch’ is likely to be entry level; according to the Geekbench entry, it’s powered by a 10th Gen Intel Core i3-10110U dual-core chipset. For those who don’t play much in the computing sphere, an i3 is not an impressive processor – it’s definitely entry level. However, for its first party tech, Google’s not new to releasing a few variants, and it’s likely any new Pixelbook entry would feature Core i5 and i7 models as well.
Not too much else is known about Hatch, except it has 8GB of RAM, and a 2400 x 1600 display (that golden 3:2 ratio first shown in the original Pixelbook). Whether Hatch actually will be a Pixelbook, or whether it’ll even see public release, are things to be answered at next month’s MBG event, but it seems quite likely.
With an event tipped to land around October 15, we don’t have too long to wait. Just over four weeks, in fact. Hopefully Google will release a new Pixelbook, and we’ll get to meet it soon!
“When Google’s Rick Osterloh came out and confirmed that Google’s hardware division would abandon all work on tablets (thank goodness)”
Wrong.
When he did that, he was throwing Android tablet users into Google’s corporate mass grave, simply because Google never put any effort into trying to make tablets a success.