Standalone Acer Chrome OS Tablet Spotted At Bett Show 2018

A bunch of new Chrome OS computers were announced by Dell, Lenovo and Acer during the Bett 2018 education tradeshow in London. However, there’s one from Acer that wasn’t a Chromebook or a Chromebox, but a tablet running Chrome OS.

Bett Show 2018 attendee, Alister Payne, was able to take a photo of the Acer Chrome OS tablet and shared the image on Twitter (tweet has already been deleted). The device seems to have an 8-inch or 10-inch size with chunky bezels. There’s also a front-facing camera on the top bezel, while the Acer logo is present on the bottom chin.

Payne also mentioned in a tweet that the new Acer tablet is intended for grade 1, 2 and 3 students. Android Police points out that Payne may possibly be referring to students in South Africa, where Grades 1-3 are part of the “Foundation Phase.” Payne also mentioned that the device hasn’t officially been released yet.

Chrome Unbox has been tracking these types of Chrome OS devices since last year and claims that this Chormebook tablet is codenamed “Scarlet.” Devices like these are said to feature 1,024 x 768 resolution displays and will pack the same internals as the Samsung Chromebook Plus, which is powered by a RockChip OP1 processor. Chrome Unbox claims that this new Acer Chrome OS tablet will have a companion stylus from Staedtler. The image shared by Payne does show that the tablet comes with the standard menu with additional pen tools, as pointed out by 9To5Google.

Unfortunately, there’s no information yet on the other specs of this new Acer Chrome OS tablet. What’s clear, however, is that Acer isn’t officially releasing the tablet just yet. The company didn’t even make a big deal out of it during Bett Show 2018.

Early last year, Google said that it was planning to bring Chrome OS to other device form factors. A standalone tablet device seems to be the only thing that’s missing from its line of Chrome OS devices. With Android tablet sales at a steady decline, it just makes sense for the company to bring Chrome OS to tablets.

“The Chromebook is going from being just a laptop to something that is a lot more versatile and dynamic ... such that OEMs can produce many great devices,” Google’s director of product for Android and Chrome for education and enterprise Rajen Sheth told The Verge during CES 2017.

“We have put a lot of investment into the touch UI and making touch a great experience on the Chromebook. You're going to continue to see that happen. And what that's going to do is it's going to open up the possibilities for OEMs to have an even wider variety of form factors. You may expect everything from detachables to tablets based on Chrome OS down the line.”