Chromebook Plus is Google’s new certification for premium Chromebooks

Google has introduced Chromebook Plus, a new certification that’s meant to help shoppers identify high-quality Chromebooks to buy. Much like Intel’s Evo program for Windows PCs, the Chromebook Plus branding will be awarded to laptops that meet a set of minimum requirements. The idea is that even a shopper who’s not familiar with PC specs can see the “Chromebook Plus” label on a product and be assured that Google thinks it’s a good product.

Chromebook Plus devices must have:

There’s an interesting absence here: battery life. In fact, the phrase “battery life” does not appear once in Google’s press release. Curious! I asked Google spokesperson Peter Du about this, and he provided the following statement: “All Chromebooks are required to meet a 10 hours battery life requirement based on internal testing standards. While not a new requirement for Chromebook Plus like the 1080p screen or 8GB of RAM, Chromebook Plus laptops must also adhere to this.”

I mean, I suppose. I’d love to know what these internal testing standards are. Regardless, Chromebooks are generally thought of as portable devices, battery life contributes heavily to a product’s viability as an on-the-go driver, and I have to wonder why it wasn’t any sort of priority here.

Some of the first devices to be announced include:

Keep an eye out for Chromebook Plus laptops hitting shelves over the next few weeks. (We’ll be reviewing some, as well.)

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge