Soon after the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 was made official, we discovered some commits which suggested that a Chromebook powered by that system-on-chip was in the works. Codenamed “cheza,” we knew nothing about the device other than the SoC powering it, but now we may know more thanks to a report from AboutChromebooks. A lot more work has taken place since those initial commits, which provides us with even more information about the device.
First and foremost, some of the newest code commits suggest what kind of display the first Snapdragon 845-based Chromebook will have. It appears it will have a 2560×1440 display, which is the same resolution as many other Snapdragon 845 smartphones. The Adreno 630 is more than capable of handling that resolution. As pointed out by /u/VictoryGoth on Reddit, however, that resolution could just be being used for testing.
Now, even more interesting, this commit suggests that the screen will be detachable from the keyboard base just like on the recently-launched HP Chromebook X2. That means as well that the screen should actually be a touchscreen, as if it’s detachable then it will need to enter tablet mode to be used. That’s pretty cool as it can be great for multimedia usage as a tablet if you’re not doing work or are just looking for an entertainment device. There are also USB-C, USB 3.0, and DisplayPort references in the code too.
This final commit was spotted by our own Kieran Miyamoto and relates to the fact that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 also has an X20 modem built-in. A code commit references supporting an eSIM, something that currently very few devices outside of the Google Pixels support. Because of that, it may be possible that cheza will support Project Fi (one of the few eSIM providers currently). It’s an interesting thought, and if so, it may make it one of the very few Chromebooks that actually supports mobile networks.
Via: AboutChromebooks