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The Chromebook™ cloud-centric laptops that connect to the Internet and run Google’s Chrome™ operating system, is getting a reboot this fall.

The affordable, bare-bones devices are starting to take on some higher-end features, to help boost their usefulness for students, road warriors and anyone whose work depends upon being ultra-mobile, browser-based and ability to cloud compute.

Today HP announced the Chromebook 11 G5 with an available touchscreen. With a redesigned chassis, the G5 features a slimmed-down design with a narrower display bezels, thinner and lighter dimensions than previous generations, and promises a game-changing up to 12.5 hours of battery life¹(based on Google Chrome OS™ power_LoadTest)— at a budget-friendly starting price of $189.

The release comes on the heels of the HP Chromebook 13, a higher-end device launched in April. It touts a 13.3-inch diagonal screen with a QHD+ (3200 x 1800) resolution IPS display, and it was the first Chromebook to use the sixth-generation Intel® Core™ M processor² and enable docking station compatibility³.

The new HP Chromebook 11 G5 is the first of HP’s 11.6” diagonal Chromebooks to offer a touchscreen—an inviting new experience for the many touch-enabled Chrome and Android™ applications in the Google Play™ Store that is planned to be compatible with Chrome OS™ later this year.

Although feather-light starting at just 2.51 lbs., the 11 G5 speeds through spreadsheets, videos and Hangouts with the power from an Intel® Celeron® N3060 processor that quickly launches apps, allows for speedy web browsing, and efficiently manages the battery for up to 11 hours on a touchscreen and up to 12.5 hours⁴ a non-touchscreen device, based on Chrome power_LoadTest.

Chromebook lineup grows

HP’s expansion of its Chrome OS lineup—the family includes the Chromebook 11, Chromebook 11 EE, Chromebook 14 and Chromebook 13— comes at an inflection point in the market.

For the first time ever, Chromebooks represented a larger portion of market share than Apple® Mac® computers in the U.S. during the first quarter of the year, according to data from IDC . The research firm pegs U.S. Mac shipments to be around 1.76 million in the first quarter, with a hair fewer than 2 million Chromebooks sold during that period.  

In addition to their astronomic growth in the market, more big changes are ahead for Google’s OS, which is expected to enable apps from the Google Play Store later this year.

The move, which could bring some 2 million Android apps to Chrome users in more than 40 countries, is expected to be “a huge advantage for Chromebooks going forward,” according to a report last month on tech news site The Verge. 

“If the full Play Store is opened up to it, Chromebooks will become far more capable laptops,” the report showed. “And if use of Android apps on Chrome OS becomes common, it'll likely encourage developers to improve their apps' support for large screen sizes.”