ASUS Chromebook with a 17.3-inch screen might be in the works

There is no shortage of Chromebooks in the market, as evidenced by recent figures from market analysis companies. Despite different brands or even form factors, most of them share similar traits with few exceptions. Most Chromebooks come with rather modest specs and conventional screen sizes. ASUS has been tipped to be preparing a Chromebook that diverges from at least one of those and could be one of the biggest Chromebooks, at least the ones that come in a laptop form.

While Chromebooks are the most common devices bearing Chrome OS, there are, of course, other incarnations that go beyond the clamshell. There are Chromeboxes, for example, that are coincidentally made by ASUS as well, and some all-in-one or AIO PCs with large screens. As far Chromebooks are concerned, however, most max out at around 15 inches to maximize portability but that might actually be small for some people.

Although not a fan of that large size, Chrome Unboxed predicted that a company would eventually come out with a large-screen Chromebook. Perhaps responding to that, the site received a tip that ASUS will indeed be making one that could even be launched in August. This ASUS CX1700 Chromebook will apparently boast a large 17.3-inch screen to have enough room for all the productivity and office apps that today's workers need.

They say bigger doesn't always mean better and this might be a good example of that. That large 17.3-inch screen will only have a Full HD resolution, so be prepared to notice pixels. It might be powered either by a Celeron N5100 or Pentium Silver N6000 from Intel's Jasper Lake generation which, while an upgrade, is still a Celeron or a Pentium. Rounding up the leaked specs are 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

ASUS is clearly still aiming for a mid-range or entry-level Chromebook market and it's a bit questionable whether there is actually a need for such a large device. Then again, such diversity could also be good for Chromebooks, especially now that it has been revealed to be one of the fastest-growing segments in the PC market.