Summary

  • MediaTek announced the powerful Kompanio Ultra SoC for Chromebooks today.
  • The new chipset, built on an efficient 2nd gen TSMC 3nm process, features NPU 890 silicon for AI tasks.
  • Chromebook Plus devices with the MediaTek Kompanio Ultra chipset are set to be released in the coming months.

Over the past few months, Windows and Macs have adopted powerful AI chips, leaving Chromebooks behind. However, that’s set to change. MediaTek has now announced its plans to give an AI boost to upcoming Chromebooks with its new Kompanio Ultra SoC.

Given that Chromebooks aren't traditionally meant for power users and are typically seen as devices for basic tasks, this marks a significant shift.​​​​​​

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Chromebooks Plus devices are set to get a massive power boost

The new Kompanio Ultra, announced today via a press release, is built on an efficient 2nd gen TSMC 3nm process. The company claims it's the best of the best in the Chromebook market currently and is MediaTek's most powerful Chromebook processor to date.

The chipset is equipped with an "all-big-core CPU architecture," featuring one Cortex-X925 at 3.62GHz, three Cortex-X4 cores, and four Cortex-A720 cores. This is essentially identical to the Dimensity 9400 mobile chipset, just in a Chromebook. Unlike the Dimensity, which has a 12-core configuration for the Immortalis-G925 GPU, the Kompanio Ultra has an 11-core configuration instead.

This boosts performance by up to 18% compared to the competition, according to the company, and uses only half the power. This could potentially enable all-day battery life on Chromebooks without sacrificing performance, which is a change we're sure everyone will welcome with open arms. MediaTek claims that with the Kompanio Ultra chip, you can expect up to 29% longer battery life than the Intel Core Ultra 5 115U, all while using the same 60Wh battery.

Image Credit: MediaTek

With the NPU 890 silicon capable of 50 TOPs, the Ultra chip will handle all on-device AI tasks, meaning it'll work seamlessly with Google Gemini models. Given how closely Gemini has been integrated into Google Workspace and the fact that AI capabilities for Chromebooks haven't been highlighted much, this is certainly great news.

The chip supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 and features multi-display support for up to two external 4K displays. It can also handle 60fps gaming for top Android titles, so you can rest easy if you enjoy a bit of gaming on the side.

New Chromebook Plus devices are set to be equipped with the new MediaTek Kompanio Ultra chipset, which will be available in the coming months. While this does mean you'll have to wait a couple of months, the wait definitely seems worth it.