Stadia’s Wind down and closure announcement is now two weeks old and while Google hasn't publicly acknowledged that they give up on gaming, practically they did and also did in-house production of Chromebook as recent rumors state that the next generation of Pixelbook got canceled as cost-cutting measures.
And here goes partners all right as Google announced that a new family of Cloud Gaming centric Chromebooks will be the new consideration for gamers on the go.
It is a new offering from Acer, ASUS and Lenovo being respectively the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip and the Ideapad Gaming Chromebook.
Let’s start talking of spec with the Acer Chromebook 516 GE and will include a WQXGA 2K Display with 120Hz, Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, WiFi-6E, RGB anti-ghosting keyboard, DTS and Force-canceling speakers.
The ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip includes a Full HD Display with 144Hz 2-in1- convertible, Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, 128GB/256GB/512GB SSD, WiFi-6E, anti-ghosting keyboard, DTS and Harmon Kardon certified speakers.
Finally, the Lenovo Ideapad Gaming includes includes a WQXGA Display with 120Hz, Intel Core i3 CPU 12th Gen, 8GB RAM, 256GB/512GB SSD; 128GB eMMC, WiFi-6E, RGB anti-ghosting keyboard, DTS and a 4 speaker system with auto tuning.
Along with its partners, Google touts this new Chromebook family to be ideal for having Cloud Gaming big players like Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon Luna GeForce NOW in days after giving up on their own Cloud Gaming service Stadia.
Google claims that all cLoud Gaming ready Chromebooks consistently deliver a smooth, responsive gaming experience with 120 frames per second and console-class input latency of under 85ms, using a 1080p settings on both Fortnite and Destiny 2 while device were plugged-in so, results may vary if you are using on battery.
As ironic as its sound, Stadia's main competitor, Xbox Game Pass Cloud, will gain a Progressive Web App done by NONE OTHER THAN Google and of course, Stadia’ side of social media are not taking the news well.
As part of this new marketing, Google announced that buying any of these three Chromebooks, with a three-month trial to Amazon Luna+ and NVIDIA GeForce NOW’s RTX3080 tier, is claimable via the Chromebook Perks page.
Prices will vary depending on the storage capacity that you want for each Chromebook model but will start at $399 and could go as high as $799 with availability varying per manufacturer.