What happens when your Chromebook gets old? How long will you get regular Chrome OS upgrades? Google Chromebook End of Life Policy answers all those questions.
This version of the End of Life Policy is applicable to Chromebooks marketed to Education and Enterprise customers. You can read the complete policy here.
” This document provides advanced notice of the End of Life date for specific Google approved Chrome devices and is currently applicable only to Chrome OS for Enterprise and Education customers.”
Hence, you may not see a few popular Chromebook devices on this list. Even Cr48 is not listed here. Now, here is the latest list and end of life dates:
How Long Will My Chromebook Get Updates?
| Manufacturer | Product | End of Life date |
|---|---|---|
| Acer | AC700 | July 2015 |
| Acer | C720-2800 | November 2017 |
| Acer | C720P-2800 | November 2017 |
| Dell | Chromebook 11 | January 2018 |
| Chromebook Pixel | April 2017 | |
| HP | Chromebook 11 | October 2017 |
| HP | Chromebook 14 | November 2017 |
| HP | Chromebook Pavilion | February 2017 |
| Lenovo | x131e | February 2017 |
| Samsung | Series 3 Chromebook (XE303C12) | October 2016 |
| Samsung | Series 3 Chromebox (XE300M22) | March 2017 |
| Samsung | Series 5 (XE500C21) | January 20162 |
| Samsung | Series 5 550 (XE550C22) | May 2016 |
| Toshiba | Chromebook | February 2018 |
The first Chromebook that is going to hit End of Life is Acer AC700 according to this list. My Chromebook, the series 5 550 can live happily till May 2016!
via Carol LaRow
What does this mean for average consumer? Do our devices also have an end of life date?
Given that they still support updates for the CR-48 – which was a consumer only model – and are still updating the earliest Samsung and Acer Chromebooks, it looks like this policy has more to do with how Google provides technical support to its Enterprise and Education customers as part of the acquisition package, as these products are sold in a different way to schools and businesses than to the consumer, i.e. they include support for 3 years (http://goo.gl/GIZcXk). Given that the costs of providing technical support to older devices (like cars) increase with age, it’s not surprising that Google wants to limit how long it provides support to devices in the rough and tumble world of schools and businesses.
The CR-48 was never a consumer device, it was the first Chromebook ever made by Google and only ever given away to developers as a gift to those that registered.. It was never sold to the public.
But the fact that Google are showing support for even the first Samsung Series 5 consumer device for the next couple of years shows how well Chromebooks last and stay up to date.
As they say “The Always New Computer”.
I don’t know about any one else but I find it difficult to fathem how long a Chromebook has left of its 5 years of life. How can you find out a Chromebooks official lunch date and why don’t Google publish these official lunch dates so we can see when a Chromebooks 5 years of updates will end. For eample Toshiba CB2 has been out for over 6 months so why can we not be told its end of life date? Another thing whilst I’m having a moan. It may look a good deal when a Chromebook has £40 off but if it has lost over a year of its life and it originally cost £250 it isn’t cheaper than if you brought it when it was first released but more expensive going on cost per year. As end of life policy relates to each individual Chromebook I think the launch date of each model should be shown at the point of sale so we can see how long left it has before the Google updates are likely to end. What do you all think our there?