Right off the bat, let’s categorize this one as unconfirmed but likely. While I’m quite confident that the information we have leads us to the end result of a Chromebox or Chromebase AIO (all-in-one) made by Samsung, we can’t be 100% sure. . The most debatable part of this upcoming device is the trick up the sleeve I mentioned in the title: built-in Qi wireless charging. I have no doubt that this feature will be incoming, but I have absolutely no idea what it will be used for.
12th Gen Intel-powered Chromebox or Chromebase
Let’s start with the device, shall we? Codenamed “Gaelin”, this new ChromeOS hardware appears to belong to the “Brask” family of devices built off of the “Brya” baseboard. If you’re not following tables, code names, etc., let me clarify. “Brya” is the main board from which all 12th Gen Intel ChromeOS devices are built and “Brask” is the “Brya” board from which all Chromebox-like devices will be built as a reference.
Why we think it’s made by Samsung
As we saw with the HP Chromebase 22, AIO devices fall under the same development family as Chromeboxes, so “Gaelin” could become a Chromebase. For the moment, I have no tangible proof of this. All I know is that it’s not a Chromebook and will have some form of 12th Gen Intel silicon powering it. Oh, and we can assume it’s made by Samsung thanks to a single email: [email protected].
Throughout the initial development of “Gaelin”, we see this same email address attached, and when you search for this address in the Chromium repositories, you find a developer who has been tied almost exclusively to Samsung products. It makes an appearance on the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2, Galaxy Chromebook Go, and Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 without really contributing much else. It’s clear that his involvement goes back to Samsung in most cases, so it’s reasonable to assume that ‘Gaelin’ will also be a Samsung product.
Qi wireless charging
Finally, we have the neat trick that this device will come with: Qi wireless charging. What will it be used for? I have no idea at this point, but we’ve seen it a few times in Chromebooks at this point and it’s always been tied to charging a USI stylus. With devices like the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook and HP Chromebook x2 11 using this kind of wireless charging to charge a snap-on stylus, it might be easy to imagine “Gaelin” doing something similar.
But if “Gaelin” is configured to be a Chromebox, what sense would that make? I guess charging a USI pen to my Chromebox would be a neat trick, but Chromeboxes are usually hooked up to screens that most users already have. And these screens usually don’t have USI pen input available. Maybe that means the top of the Chromebox will be a place to charge your phone or headphones, and I think that could be a really cool feature.
Or, maybe Samsung actually makes some sort of Chromebase AIO that supports USI Pen with a magnetically attached stylus that clips and charges to the side of the device’s screen. This makes the most sense to me, but I have absolutely no evidence that ‘Gaelin’ has a built-in screen at this point. Since it’s only been in development for a few months, it’s time to shake things up in the coming weeks and maybe we’ll have a better idea of what this Chromebox/Chromebase will become. Until then, we’re gathering what we have and letting you know when we find more.