With Stadia dead, Google shifts its interest in gaming toward Chromebooks. Google teams up with several laptop manufacturers to embark on its new endeavor: gaming Chromebooks. You now have an option to choose from three gaming Chromebooks: Acer Chromebook 516 GE, Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook, and Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip.
Besides this new hardware, Google also partnered with Nvidia, Xbox, and Amazon Luna for cloud gaming services on these devices. Nvidia GeForce Now lets you play games at 1600p resolution and 120FPS. If you’ve never purchased this service before, you can avail of a free three months trial of Nvidia GeForce Now and Amazon Luna+. Folks with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate can manually install the Xbox Cloud Gaming web app to access the Xbox Game Pass library.
GeForce Now comes pre-installed on these devices. Google says it has performed some optimization to ChromeOS for these gaming Chromebooks. You can find the games you want to play by pressing the Everything key on your keyboard and then simply searching for them in the ChromeOS launcher.
Coming this month in October, you can buy the Acer Chromebook 516 GE at $649.99 and Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook at $599. Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip’s price is still under wraps.
Acer Chromebook 516 GE
Acer Chromebook 516 GE flaunts a 16-inch IPS 120Hz display that supports 2560x1600p resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio. The laptop’s heart is the latest 12th-generation Intel processor, which you can get up to i7-1260P. There’s an 8GB dual-channel LPDDR4X SDRAM, 256GB PCIe Gen 2 storage, and an RGB keyboard with anti-ghosting technology.
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook sports a 16-inch 120Hz display with 2560x1600p resolution support. Powering the device is a 71Whr battery with up to Intel Core i5-1235U processor, 8GB RAM, and up to 512GB PCIe SSD storage. It has an RGB keyboard with a four-zone backlight.
Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip
Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip offers the highest refresh rate among these new Chromebooks. It packs a 1920x1080p Full-HD display that supports a 144Hz refresh rate. While the laptop’s keyboard is backlit, it’s not RGB lighting. You can get up to i7-11g5G7 CPU, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD storage on Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip.