Lenovo shows what a Chromebook packing a MediaTek Kompanio Ultra can do

Lenovo has released the first Chromebook Plus packing MediaTek’s Kompanio Ultra, the system-on-chip that includes a 50 TOPS neural processing unit, and at first glance it looks speedy and includes some AI features but is otherwise mundane. The machine is called the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 and includes a 14.0-inch OLED …

[Ken G]

I hate it already!

“intelligently understands and organizes your open tabs and documents into logical groups based on your current tasks, so you can manage multiple projects in a snap.”

Because what I really need is to have my screen moved around randomly by a delusional algorithm instead of staying where I left it.

[blu3b3rry]

Re: I hate it already!

Windows 10 does that anyway without the help of AI.

[anthonyhegedus]

Re: I hate it already!

I came here to say exactly that!

[elsergiovolador]

Calculator

The machine is called the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 and includes a 14.0-inch OLED display at 1920×1200, up to 16GB of LPDDR5 memory and 256GB of solid state storage, a pair of USB-C ports, a single USB-A slot, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4. Lenovo reckons the 60Wh battery can keep the machine running for up to 17 hours.

That's more like specs of a calculator than a laptop in 2025.

[alkasetzer]

Re: Calculator

It can be specs like a calculator but if it's close to the 650€ mark it beats all Qualcom stuff because:

* It's already Linux and everything works out of the box (camera, touchpad, wifi, etc)

* Vulkan (venus) and OpenGL (zink) will allow decent performance with either box64 or fex for some light gaming

* The native screen resolution is something that the graphics card can actually drive at a good pace (even if you have to apply scaling to read anything from the screen)

* ChromeOS actually works as an OS (it's your choice of Web, Android and/or Linux apps)

On the other hand, Google is know to bork updates at a good pace, plus it's Google so your data is yours..

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Calculator

That's a 10 years old tech though. 1080p screen in 2025? You'll be better off buying post-lease Thinkpad for a fraction of the price.

[Neil Barnes]

Re: Calculator

Quickly checks resolution of this seven year old Dell Latitude: yup, 1920/1080... and to be fair, it's starting to struggle with a second 4k screen with stuff like PCB layout tasks. But on the other hand, it has no AI bollocks...

Obligatory question though: how easy is it to nuke the Chrome and put a default Linux on it?

[mark l 2]

Re: Calculator

It Isn't 1080p, 1080p referrers to the number of pixels in the vertical resolution, so as the specs says it has a 1920×1200 display that would make it 1200p.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Calculator

1080p + extra margin.

[localzuk]

Re: Calculator

Show me a laptop that has a 4k range resolution at the same price point...

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Calculator

https://www.amazon.co.uk/UDKED-Fingerprint-Keyboard-Lightweight-Portable/dp/B0F2H7BGHP

[anthonyhegedus]

Re: Calculator

Yeah, you really, er, know your stuff.

No.

That's a crock of shit pure Chinesium laptop replete with fake or inconsistent reviews. And it has a Celeron processor! It apparently comes with Windows pre-logged in(!) and Office 2019 pre-installed. That alone would cost well over £100. This is utter garbage, totally not comparable to that Lenovo Chromebook. The market for this kind of crap is not the same as that of a Lenovo Chromebook.

Oh, and it's a 4K IPS screen? in a laptop costing £300?!

[LybsterRoy]

Re: Calculator

Or something to answer the question "I know that actor but who is he" whilst watching TV

[anthonyhegedus]

Re: Calculator

What are you wittering on about? Most business laptops are 1920 x 1080 or 1920 x 1200. Unless you start to spend more than £1000. These are perfectly ordinary specs for a regular workhorse machine.

[John Robson]

Otherwise mundane?

It's not a glowing recommendation when the best bits of the device are described as mundane...

[ecofeco]

OK specs

This is not meant to be anything more than what we call the business basic laptop. And for that its specs are indeed decent. And for the price? Good value as new.

And while not a fan of Chromebook for my personal use, I HAVE worked with them in a very large deployment (10s of thousands all at once) and the Chromebook administration at that scale is stupid dirt easy.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: OK specs

That just invites employees to move data to their personal devices to get work done.

[HuBo]

Re: OK specs

Looks like one can get a (proper?) laptop with similar specs in this $650-$700 range ... I think the Chromebook version should cost less (maybe $350-$400) to make it interesting.

[Anonymous Coward]

50 TOPS neural processing unit

Was a bit hazy what a TOPS might be. Apparently tera (10¹²) operations per second with the actual operations unspecified ... 2 bit floating point?

An NPU might be useful for non LLM applications but I will wait for the refurbished AI PCs to appear in the market once business and government departments start turfing them out which I suspect will be from late 2027.

[druck]

Killer... something

The presence of Google’s Gemini AI is said to be the killer app...

Yes, killed my interest straight away.

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Lenovo shows what a Chromebook packing a MediaTek Kompanio Ultra can do

What can it do?