Frequently, running Android apps on your Chromebook may require a specific version of Android installed, and if you happen to have an older version, many app updates not work with your Chromebook. So, it’s important to have the latest Android and Chrome OS versional installed in order to stay clear for App compatibility.

With the latest Chrome OS 90 update, your Chromebook will automatically support Android 11 paving the way for most compatible apps and services. Currently, the update is still in development mode and nearing its public release timeline, but as per the rumour mill, most Chromebooks will be compatible and get Android 11 support once updated.

Notable brands include Samsung, Dell, Asus, Acer, HP, Lenovo, among others, all of which will be compatible with the new Chrome OS 90 and Android 11 update. For now, a full list of Chromebooks that can update to the latest Chrome OS 90 and support Android 11 desktop features has been revealed, and here are the full models per brand.

List of Chromebooks eligible for Android 11 and Chrome OS 90 updates

Acer Chromebooks

• Acer Chromebook 11 C670
• Acer Chromebook 11 C732
• Acer Chromebook 11 C732L
• Acer Chromebook 11 C732LT
• Acer Chromebook 11 C732T
• Acer Chromebook 11 CB311-8H
• Acer Chromebook 11 CB311-8HT
• Acer Chromebook 13
• Acer Chromebook 14 CB3-431
• Acer Chromebook 14 CP5-471
• Acer Chromebook 15 C910
• Acer Chromebook 15 CB3-532
• Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1H
• Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT
• Acer Chromebook 311
• Acer Chromebook 314 (C933L)
• Acer Chromebook 314 (C933LT)
• Acer Chromebook 314 (CB314-1H)
• Acer Chromebook 314 (CB314-1HT)
• Acer Chromebook 315
• Acer Chromebook 315 (CB315-3H)
• Acer Chromebook 315 (CB315-3HT)
• Acer Chromebook 512 C851
• Acer Chromebook 512 C851T
• Acer Chromebook 712 (C871)
• Acer Chromebook CXI3
• Acer Chromebook R11
• Acer Chromebook R13
• Acer Chromebook Spin 11 CP311-1H
• Acer Chromebook Spin 11 CP311-1HN
• Acer Chromebook Spin 11 R751T
• Acer Chromebook Spin 13
• Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CB311-2H)
• Acer Chromebook Spin 311 CP311-3H
• Acer Chromebook Spin 511
• Acer Chromebook Spin 512 R851TN
• Acer Chromebook Spin 513
• Acer Chromebook Spin 514
• Acer Chromebook Spin 712
• Acer Chromebook Spin 713
• Acer Chromebox CXI4

Asus Chromebooks

• Asus Chromebook C202SA
• Asus Chromebook C300SA
• Asus Chromebook C425
• Asus Chromebook Flip C100PA
• Asus Chromebook Flip C101PA
• Asus Chromebook Flip C204
• Asus Chromebook Flip C214
• Asus Chromebook Flip C302
• Asus Chromebook Flip C434
• Asus Chromebook Flip C436FA
• Asus Chromebook Tablet CT100
• Asus Chromebox 3
• Asus Chromebox 4
• Asus Fanless Chromebox

Dell Chromebooks

• Dell Chromebook 11 3380
• Dell Chromebook 13 3380
• Dell Chromebook 13 7310
• Dell Chromebook Enterprise Latitude 7410

Samsung Chromebooks

• Samsung Chromebook 3
• Samsung Chromebook 4
• Samsung Chromebook Plus
• Samsung Chromebook Plus V2
• Samsung Chromebook Pro
• Samsung Chromebook+
• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook
• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2

Google Chromeboooks

• Google Chromebook Pixel
• Google Pixel Slate
• Google Pixelbook
• Google Pixelbook Go

Lenovo Chromebooks

• Lenovo Chromebook 100e
• Lenovo Chromebook 100e (2nd Gen)
• Lenovo Chromebook 11
• Lenovo Chromebook 300e (2nd Gen)
• Lenovo Chromebook 500e
• Lenovo Chromebook 500e (2nd Gen)
• Lenovo Chromebook C340-11
• Lenovo Chromebook S340-14
• Lenovo Chromebook Tablet 10e
• Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Chromebook
• Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Duet
• Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 51 Chromebook
• Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebook 11e
• Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebook 11e (3rd gen)
• Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebook 13
• Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga Chromebook 11e
• Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga Chromebook C13
• Lenovo Yoga Chromebook N23

For the past few months, Chrome OS has shipped new features provided through upgrades with new features like read later, clipboard history, phone hub, and now, Dark mode.

Well, to conveniently switch between light mode and dark mode on your Chromebook, a new toggle will be activated in your quick settings menu from which you can switch dark mode on-off.

But first, with ChromeOS 86.0.4240.183 as the latest update available, you can switch to Beta channel as a starter switch to getting the dark mode tab in your quick settings menu.

Turn on your Chrome OS Beta Channel

To switch to a Beta channel away from your current Chrome OS stable channel, you need to visit the settings panel, and access the About Chrome OS sub-menu, then additional details and change current channel to beta.

Settings -> About Chrome OS -> Additional Details -> Change Channel -> Beta

Once changed, hover back to the about Chrome OS settings tab and check for updates, then download and install the currently available Beta channel version, ‘at the moment 88.0.4324.22’ in order to fully use dark mode. Next up, a switch will be added to your quick settings pane to switch modes.

Turn On Dark Mode on your Chromebook through the Quick Settings Pane

• First, open chrome://flags from your browser
• Then input “Dark mode” as your search query
• OR chrome://flags/#dark-light-mode for direct switch to the option

• A dark/light mode of system UI option will be displayed, then, click enabled from its drop-down list of options
• Restart your Chromebook for changes to take effect
• Once Rebooted, open your quick settings menu in the top right corner
• From the menu, a Dark theme option will be displayed

• Toggle the Dark theme option to ON for a change as your systemwide display mode
• DONE: To switch back to light theme, simply toggle the dark theme option to OFF

Popular Chromebook keyboard shortcuts borrow trails from standard Windows shortcuts including Ctrl + C for copy, Ctrl + V for paste, Ctrl + S for save, Ctrl + P for print, among others that help you bump tasks on a sleek rate.

However, some shortcuts Involve special keys like the Show Windows/switch key, settings key, among others, that are centric to Chromebook keyboards, and laptops running Chrome Os, but miss the original Chromebook sensation have to ride with special keys like F5 and F6.

List of Chromebook Keyboard Shortcuts

Best Use cases for Chromebook shortcuts

Chromebooks are sleek and fast for Internet connectivity and snipping browser related tasks, this means, a majority of available shortcuts can all be used in your Internet browser which may share the same shortcut as a system setting.

Likely, special functions like taking a screenshot require you to use shortcuts, with no access to direct mouse interactions.

For the case of access all shortcuts with ease, you can always trigger Ctrl + Alt + / for a full list of all available Chromebook keyboard shortcuts. Nonetheless, with keyboard shortcuts, you are able to do more, the same way you would with a Mac or Linux powered Laptop.

Well, once you buy a Chromebook, the next step is trying out its cool features benchmarking Google Chrome excellence. Among these, running Windows Apps/software is a top priority and Taking a screenshot on your Chromebook follows as a suitable sized slide.

To take a screenshot on a Chromebook, you need to master Chromebook keyboard shortcuts with focus on the Switch button—the alternative on prnt scrn on a Windows-centric keyboard.

Capture Full Screen Screenshots on a Chromebook

1. Press Ctrl + Show Windows  (For Chrome OS keyboards).
2. For non-Chrome OS keyboards, press Ctrl + F5        
3. Once captured, your screenshot will be saved in the Downloads folder as a .PNG
4. Done: You can then open your captured screenshot for post-editing

Capture Partial Screenshots on a Chromebook (Specific area on the Screen)

1. Press  Shift + Ctrl + Show Windows .
2. For non-Chrome OS keyboards, Press Shift + Ctrl + F5.
3. Then, Click and drag angles to your preferred Screenshot area.
4. Once selected, Click Capture or Press Enter to take the Screenshot.
5. Done: Your captured screenshot will be saved in the Downloads folder in .PNG format.

For Chromebook keyboards, keep note of the Switch/Show Windows button on your Keyboard to capture screenshots, While for a computer running Chrome OS, but don’t have a Chromebook layout, you then have to utilize F5 as the master key after the Ctrl button.

Either way, for Chromebook tablets, you can take a screenshot by holding down the Power key + Volume down to capture in a fashion similar to that of Smartphones. So, just like that, you can capture and store Screenshots with ease, the same way you can on a Windows Laptop or Mac.

All Chromebooks run on Google’s Linux kernel based operating system__Chrome OS from which the Chromebook codename is actually derived from. By having a unix component, Chrome Os gives chromebooks a MacOs-like base. This means, security is key, But that’s just one of the reasons your next PC should be a ChromeBook.

Security

Operating systems based on the Linux Kernel are known to be the most secure systems of this century. From powering the world’s giantic servers, to powering the highest percentage of website backends on the Internet. Linux distributions like ChromeOS are regarded secure far better than Windows.

Since Linux is based on Unix just like macOS, using an operating system like ChromeOS doubles the same feeling as that on any other Unix based system. However, with more tweaks developed by Google, Chrome OS ranks more secure than any Windows operating system since you don’t need to install any antivirus software.

Blazing fast Performance

The more popular manufacturers release Chromebooks. It’s the more they gain performance with the latest chips like processors. However, since ChromeOS software requires fewer resources on runtime, Chromebooks are faster due to low RAM and Swap disk usage

However, for a Windows Laptop, a pile of backhrpiunf taks continue running even when you iniatiallu close them. This is due to the fact that quitting a running Application is regarded as a soft close and a hard quit would come from the Windows Task Manager.

This makes a Windows computer slow on top of heavy system and application files compared to Chrome OS. Hence, with amazing performance speeds, buying a ChromeBook is comes at a Prize of having a fast PC to execute your tasks with ease.

Ability to run Android apps

Chrome OS runs Android Apps, the operating system allows you to install apps that initially run on the Android kernel with ease. Although google Chrome can run apps on any operating system, with Chrome Os the Apps run swiftly with no resource and compatibility issues.

On Windows, you’d need a 3^rd party application like Bluestacks to smoothly run Android Apps which could comes at a cost of resources making a laptop slow. So, with the ability to run Android Apps smoothly, Chrome Os becomes you 2^nd Smartphone accessible on a PC.

Google Assistant

Hello Mr. Google Sir? In the family of voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa,Cortana, Siri, among others. Google Assistant ranks as the most poular with more user adoption. ChromeBooks have core Google Assistant support and the service receives commands the same way you would on an Android Smartphone.

In a battle for dominanace, ChromeBooks now ship wuith a dedicated Voice Assistant button to quick launch the service. Google Assistant allows you to take control of your ChromeBook and execute tasks even without trembling with the keyboard or launching Applications.

On Windows, Cortana is the default voice assiatnt, but its not as popular and effective and Google Assistant. So, given the fact that Google Assistant is a default on ChromeBooks, this makes it easy to perfom quick functions and browse the Google with your Voice.

Pricing

As compared to Windows Laptops, ChromeBooks are way to cheap and are come in sleek designs due to their compatibility with new compact components.

Chromebook prices start from as $300 while for a good Windows Laptop you’d need $500 or more.Among the brands currently making Good Chromebooks include Asus, Hp, Dell, among others.

This means, the pricing competition makes ChromeBooks pricing sweeter than buying a Windows laptop whose operating system license increases a Laptop’s overall price.