ASUS added two new ChromeOS devices to its US lineup this week: the budget-friendly Chromebook CM15 and the 2-in-1 Chromebook CM32 Detachable. Both run the same MediaTek Kompanio 540 processor and are aimed at students and anyone who wants a Chromebook built to survive daily wear without costing much.
What ASUS just launched
The Chromebook CM15 (model CM1505CM4A) is a 15.6-inch laptop with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, weighing 3.26 pounds. It has a 180-degree lay-flat hinge, a webcam privacy shutter, HDMI plus dual USB-C ports, and MIL-STD-810H durability testing behind it. ASUS also moved the I/O ports up along the left edge of the deck, which keeps cables out of the way of the trackpad and mouse hand, a small but genuinely useful layout change. It’s built with 30% recycled plastics and starts at $269.99 on Amazon.
The Chromebook CM32 Detachable (model CM3206DM4A) is a different animal: a 1.41-pound 2-in-1 with a 12.1-inch, 2.5K, 120Hz touchscreen protected by Corning Gorilla Glass, plus a detachable keyboard and a magnetic kickstand. It packs the same Kompanio 540 chip, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and 5MP front and rear cameras, and it’s priced at $579 at Best Buy. A cheaper 4GB/64GB configuration is expected at Walmart sometime in mid-Q3 2026.
Why the timing matters
Both machines land in mid-July, right as back-to-school shopping ramps up, and both come with a three-month trial of Google AI Pro (a $59.97 value) that unlocks Gemini in Gmail and Docs, Nano Banana image generation, and 5TB of cloud storage. That’s a meaningful sweetener at this price tier, since Chromebook Plus-level AI features are usually reserved for pricier hardware.
It’s also worth noting what these devices are not. With Google’s Googlebook and Aluminium OS still rumored for a fall 2026 launch, it would be easy to assume every new ChromeOS announcement is somehow tied to that transition. The CM15 and CM32 Detachable aren’t: they’re standard ChromeOS hardware running on the update and support terms Chromebooks have always shipped with, not a preview of what comes next.
What Chromebook owners should do
If you’re shopping for a student this back-to-school season, the CM15 is worth cross-checking against our back-to-school Chromebook picks, since $269.99 sits right in the sweet spot most families are shopping in. Before buying either model, look up its specific Auto Update Expiration date rather than assuming a brand-new release means years of runway automatically, and if you’re unsure whether 4GB or 8GB of RAM will hold up for your use case, our RAM, storage, and CPU guide breaks down what each spec tier actually feels like day to day.
The claimed 12-hour battery life also deserves a grain of salt until independent reviews land. If battery runtime is your main deciding factor, compare these numbers against the models in our best Chromebooks for battery life roundup, several of which are independently tested closer to 13-14 hours. And if neither ASUS model quite fits, our best Chromebooks overall guide covers the rest of the current lineup by budget and use case.
If you already own a Chromebook, there’s nothing to do here. This is simply new hardware entering the market, not a change to how your current device works or how long it will keep receiving updates.
