Chromebooks powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset may be on their way , II Future Chromebooks could make use of the Snapdragon 845 processor

We know Qualcomm's powerhouse next-generation chip, the Snapdragon 845, is going to be fitted inside many an Android flagship of 2018, as well as a host of always connected laptops, but it sounds like the silicon could be making its way into Chromebooks too.

That's according to the folks over at XDA Developers, who have spotted some hints inside the Chrome OS code that suggest it's being prepped to run on the mobile chip. Some Chromebooks already run on chips designed for phones, including the Samsung Chromebook Plus, but this would be another step up in performance.

Of course the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 is a very good fit for Chromebooks, offering decent performance alongside excellent battery life, plus some extra AI smarts. Your 2018 Chrome OS-powered laptop would run longer than ever between charges.

Problem solving

Attempts have been made to get Chromebooks running on Qualcomm processors in the past, but there have been problems getting the necessary drivers working properly with Linux. It would appear those problems are about to be resolved.

This year we saw Google up the Chromebook stakes with the Pixelbook, a premium Chromebook running on i5 and i7 chips from Intel, but these lightweight laptops have had most success down at the less expensive end of the market.

Exactly where the new Snapdragon 845-powered Chromebooks would fit into the various ranges, and who is going to make them, remains to be seen - but if this development does turn out to be real, you've got another bunch of reasons to make a Chromebook your next laptop.

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Few weeks ago, Qualcomm launched its latest chipset – the Snapdragon 845 – in an event in Hawaii. As announced, the chipset features eight semi-custom Kryo cores, the new Adreno 630 GPU, the company’s second-generation Spectra 280 ISP, and the Hexagon 685 DSP. The chipset is fabricated on a 10nm FinFET process.

So far, Xiaomi confirmed that the Mi 7 is coming with the chipset, and the next year’s Galaxy S9-duo and Sony Xperia XZ2 have been rumored for the same as well. But, instead of mobiles, a major chunk of focus during the event was on always connected PCs. And as it turns out, Chromebook devices powered by the Snapdragon 845 may already be on the way.

According to an XDA report, as per two commits that have recently surfaced, add support for a generic board running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. “The first commit we discovered simply adds a new board called “cheza” though there is no further information in this particular commit. However, a follow-up commit shows that “cheza” is actually a board overlay for a reference device powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC. The several references to the name “chipset-qc845” are a big clue that this board overlay is for the latest Qualcomm SoC in question. Furthermore, we can also see a reference to Qualcomm in the make.defaults file.”

 

Now a natural doubt that pops up in your head right here, is why wasn’t there a Qualcomm running Chromebook till now? Well, last year two ex-Googlers addressed this issue. They revealed that this problem is owed to “Qualcomm’s reluctance to open-source and upstream the various drivers that make up Linux support for the embedded devices.” Since these comments were made last year, it’s possible that Qualcomm has changed their stance and is working to upstream the necessary drivers.