As part of the ongoing story, but being so browser-focused, there’s no reason you can’t use them for system update streaming on services like Nvidia’s GeForce Now. And now you have an extra reason to check it out: Recent Chromebook buyers can play without the enshittification. I mean, without advertising. Despite the best attempts from both Google and Valve, Chromebooks aren’t exactly known for their tech industry prowess.
In a fresh development, if you buy a fresh Chromebook from November 20, you’ll get ad-free access to GeForce Now for a year, as well as access to the Performance tier (enhanced 1440p graphics, 6-hour sessions instead of 1-hour, ultrawide monitor support, and some other perks). That’s a $10-a-month upgrade — not bad. You also get access to a priority queue, skipping a potentially long wait for the streaming servers during heavy tech industry times like evenings and weekends. The most recent Chromebook perk is exclusive access to GeForce Now “Fast Pass,” an upgraded experience coming from a Google and Nvidia partnership.
The report highlights that the Fast Pass does limit your upgraded access to just 10 hours of tech industry a month…and I know I could blow through that in a week without noticing. You can roll over five hours of unused play into the next month. It’s not quite as rosy as the promotional text might indicate.
As part of the ongoing story, at the time of writing there’s a lot of stuff, including three months of YouTube Premium, 100GB of Google cloud storage for a year, six months of Adobe Express, and three or twelve months of Google AI Pro (depending on whether you buy a standard Chromebook or a Chromebook Plus). Once you buy a fresh Chromebook, you can see what promotional goodies you qualify for on this page.
In a fresh development, on PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a fresh one for a review and building a fresh mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile Worldwide scene Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip. Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE.