That’s because it’s unlike any ARM chip designed by MediaTek, Qualcomm, Samsung and others who might (or have) put their silicon into a Chromebook. This is the second part of my reasoning, which will require a little deeper dive into the M1 chip itself. What’s different about the M1 and current ARM options for Chromebooks I’d take an educated guess that a custom ARM processor built like the M1 would do well, however. I can say that it performs extremely well with iOS and iPadOS apps, but while similar to Android apps, its an entirely different framework and coding approach.
I can’t comment on how well a chip similar to the Apple M1 would handle Android or Linux. But for all but some edge case users, a Chromebook is typically used for web browsing and web apps. Sure there are other use-cases such as Android apps and the Linux experience. Why? Because the entire user experience is built around the browser. And the M1 handles all of the ones I need equally as fast.įor Chromebook users though, browser performance is the key factor. Obviously, there’s more than just browsing capabilities on any modern computing device. And for the morbidly curious, Apple’s own Safari browser on the MacBook Air scored nearly as high as Chrome did: Why does Octane (or any other browser benchmark) matter? The company quickly offered a build that boosted performance over the existing x86 build for Intel-powered Macs. It wouldn’t be a 20,000 point jump, in other words.īy the way, I should note that Google quickly did a nice job in optimizing Chrome for macOS to run natively on the Apple M1-powered laptops. Granted a Core i7 Chromebook would likely offer an even larger number but likely around another few thousand points. And that was on a then-recent Intel Core i5 processor. I’ve run this benchmark on dozens of Chromebooks through the years and about the highest score I’ve ever seen is around 45,000 points. Take a look at this Octane benchmark, for example, using the ARM version of the Chrome browser on the MacBook Air:
While I can’t compare apples to apples between devices running Chrome OS and macOS, I can share a few key performance measures. The M1 blows away Intel-powered devices in browser benchmarksįirst, is the overall responsiveness the M1 provides. Let me elaborate on two key points as to why I think that. And after using the M1 MacBook Air, I’m more convinced than ever that Google should design a custom ARM processor for Chromebooks. Although I mainly use a Chromebook, I use various devices and operating systems to keep some perspective on the overall market. I replaced it with a MacBook Air powered by Apple’s M1 processor that I bought for $899 after a student discount. A few weeks ago, I sold an old 2016 MacBook Pro that I wasn’t using much.
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