As an elder member of Gen-Z, every screen in my life has its purpose. My small screen (my phone) is there for personal communication, ordering food, and mindlessly scrolling memes on the internet. My big screen (my TV) takes on the role of in-home entertainment, whether it’s a giant Spotify hub, a way to keep up with the Club World Cup, or endlessly streaming reruns of Letterkenny.
Left in the mushy middle between the two, however, is room for a medium screen, like a laptop or a tablet. These medium screens have always been the hard work, big purchase screens — the ones I turn to when the matter feels too serious for a phone. And now, Google seems to agree. It’s trying to make more tasks feel like they were meant to be done on Chromebooks, and here’s how that’s working out so far.