Google is making some big changes that could impact the lifespan of your Chromebook. The company says that starting in 2024, all new Chromebooks will automatically get 10 years of updates after release.
Google announced a few new Chromebook-related features that now make these inexpensive machines an attractive proposition, even for people who didn’t consider them an option before.
The most notable announcement is that any Chromebook manufactured in 2021 or later will receive regular automatic updates for the first 10 years of its life. The same extension will also be applied to models released in 2019 and 2020according to a statement given to Android Police.
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From next year, Chromebooks released from 2019 will benefit from 10 years of updates “ after the release of the platform “. Automatic update expiration (AUE) was last increased in 2020, with Google saying a decade is “longer than any other operating system commits to today”.
Any Chromebook released between 2019 and today will therefore benefit from two additional years of updates. In other words, this means that your Pixelbook Go’s Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date will move from June 2026 to June 2028. Meanwhile, the Acer Chromebook Vero 514 (2023) moves from 2030 to 2032.
Hopefully, Google will update its support page which allows you to check until when your device will receive automatic updates. In 2020, Google has announced eight years of software updates for the newest Chromebooks.
Previously, Chromebooks typically only got five to six years of software updates, which could lead to many premature upgrades due to the security risk these devices pose over the years – they were practically as long as the shortest life of all existing computers.
With this change, Google therefore ranks among the good students in the industry. Apple’s Mac computers typically receive feature updates for only six to eight years, while Windows 10 is maintained for approximately 10 years. Chromebooks already sell twice as many as Macs, so this figure could increase in the future.
Another good news is that Google is currently finishing a big project that separates Chrome and ChromeOS, allowing them to be updated and maintained independently. Theoretically, this would get security and feature updates for the Chrome browser on your Chromebook, even though it no longer receives updates from ChromeOS.
Google announces other new features for its Chomebooks
In addition to expanding support, Google is introducing expedited Chromebook repairs for educational institutions and introducing power-saving features to ChromeOS. Google notably aims to speed up software repairs by 50%allowing authorized repair centers to resolve Chromebook issues without the need for a USB drive.
When it comes to energy efficiency aspects in ChromeOS, these are: adaptive charging, which helps maintain battery health, and Battery Saver, which extends battery life by minimizing power-intensive processes. With adaptive charging, your Chromebook will stay at 80% to extend battery life. He ” will fully recharge before you log out usually “, for example when you leave for the day. In the Settings > Devices > Power menu, you’ll find an on/off button for “adaptive charging”. Administrators can enable it by default on managed devices.