First Snapdragon 845 Chromebook may support Project Fi and have UFS

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The first Qualcomm Snapdragon 845-powered Chromebook, codenamed “Cheza,” is becoming more enticing with each passing day. We’ve discovered it’s likely one of the very few detachable Chromebooks (like the HP Chromebook X2), and that it will likely have a built-in stylus. Now we’ve discovered even more information about the device from the Chromium Gerrit. Not only does it look like cheza will support an eSIM for Project Fi, but it also looks like it will have storage based on the UFS standard. While it seems to be dual-lane UFS 2.1 storage, we can’t confirm that yet.

cheza looks like it could very well be the most Android-like experience on a Chromebook to date. UFS 2.1 is the storage technology used in most flagship Android smartphones, and a dual-lane configuration can reach up to 1200MB/s. It can hit some crazy fast speeds. The inclusion of UFS in cheza makes it the first Chromebook to use the technology—even the high-end Google Pixelbook doesn’t offer it. Couple this fact with the latest Qualcomm chipset, Android application support, an improved tablet mode, and this device suddenly starts to look very appealing for those looking for a new tablet. It’s got all the main features you’d want from one, and the performance to back it up. If that’s not enough, it’s also likely you’ll be able to run Linux applications on it as well.

As for Project Fi support, Google is testing Project Hermes on the device. Hermes is the codename for the implementation and testing of eSIM cards on Chromebooks. It aims to have seamless integration with Project Fi and an easy-to-use API for porting to other hardware. Seeing that here means not only is it likely that Project Fi will be supported on cheza, but also it will also be one of the few Chromebooks that actually supports mobile data.