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The curiously missing piece in Google’s Chromebook puzzle


2019 has already shown itself to be the year of funky phones with Android — foldable phones, sliding phones, and even phones with hidden screens on their backs (for some reason). For all the wild experimentation in the phone arena, though, there’s one area where we aren’t seeing enough willingness to do something different.

I’m talking about the Chromebook — and specifically, the Chromebook designed to function as a tablet. We’ve been talking for well over a year now about how Google is positioning Chromebooks to effectively take over the role of the Android tablet, and with each passing month, that reality only becomes more apparent. Just this week, in fact, a report came out suggesting Asus — a long-time Android tablet maker and regular Chromebook creator as well — is pulling out of the traditional Android tablet market entirely.

And it’s no wonder: Google has made it abundantly clear that traditional Android tablets are the past. Demand for Android tablets has never been especially high nor has the experience of using ’em ever been particularly exceptional, while Chrome OS has seen near-constant growth in both adoption and attention — much of it focused on the area of optimization and “Androidification” of its tablet experience. Slowly but surely, the ecosystem of Chrome OS hardware is catching up, too, as fully detachable Chromebook slates become increasingly common companions to the already-prevalent swiveling-screen convertible setups.

There’s one thing that’s still missing from the picture, though — and it’s something Chrome OS needs if it wants to become a fully realized tablet platform. It’s something I hear about from folks practically every time we talk about the Chromebook’s emerging role as an Android tablet replacement, in fact, and yet it’s something that’s thus far remained conspicuously unaddressed.

What we need next is a small Chromebook tablet — one that can fill the void of Kindles, Fire tablets, and other in-between-style devices. The reason is simple: Despite such products’ limited application for productivity, plenty of folks still like to use ’em as larger-than-phone alternatives for reading, in-bed browsing, or other one-handed activities. And as it stands now, there’s nothing in the Chrome OS ecosystem that even comes close to fulfilling that role.

When people ask me for a recommendation for a tablet-like device in that department — something small, light, and well-suited to single-handed use — I’ve got no good answer. The smallest Chromebooks out there right now are in the 10-in. range, which seems tiny by laptop standards but is actually still quite bulky when you think of the device next to a Kindle sort of product.



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