A powerful MediaTek MT8196 Chromebook tablet appears to be in development

We just started our modern Chromebook tablet journey with the new Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11-inch. Here we see a real possibility that another MediaTek-powered device is in the works, possibly becoming a much more powerful Chromebook tablet. Scheduled to arrive in 2025. Let’s combine this.

“Rauru” will be available from the second half of 2023

Although we only started noticing “Rauru” in mid-2024, this reference board for the MediaTek MT8196 has been in development since December 2023. Since finding it, we’ve also seen this SoC run on Geekbench at least once. The results are surprisingly fast.

These scores may improve by the time the MT8196 actually ships, but even in this initial run it’s on par with the 12th Gen Core i3 found in things like the ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34. We’re talking about legitimate processing power here.

The development cycle for ‘Rauru’ started almost a year ago, so it’s natural to think that the device will actually hit retail sales at Google’s next Chromebook showcase. Assuming we continue the scheduling trends created in the past, about 2020.

“Hylia” is a device of the “Raul” family

I recently discovered a new Chromebook in development based on the Rauru baseboard called the Hylia, but I didn’t know much about it until today. There are very few commits at this point (which is quite normal for MediaTek device development), and most development work is being done directly for “Rauru” instead.

But the new commit that came in just last week had some files associated with it that are a little different than what we normally see. This clearly piqued my interest so I looked into it a little more closely. When you open it, 0002-add-config-info.patch Looking at the file, I saw something that immediately made me sit up and take notice – a reference to “Spiky Rock”:

What is “spiky lock”?

So, to be fair, I had no idea what “Spikyrock” was at first. I had seen it here and there during a session walking around Crom Gerrit, but I only vaguely remembered seeing it in connection with “Roach” – There was another thing that I had misunderstood until today.

“Roach” was added a long time ago and every time I come across it it’s always been discussed with reference to “Zephyr” (the new EC for all ChromeOS, you can learn more about it here) Ta. Given this, I tend to be less excited about Chromebook EC (embedded controller) commits. These are absolutely necessary, but not very newsworthy.

When I looked into “Spikyrock” a little more closely, I noticed a few things. First of all, “Spikyrock” is 100% the code name for the Chromebook tablet keyboard. It comes with an unreleased MediaTek Kompanio 520 tablet codenamed “Wugtrio,” but that part isn’t important for now. What you need to know is that “Spikyrock” is a detachable keyboard attached to a ChromeOS tablet. In this file below you can find a list of all Chromebook tablets over the years, their code names, and keyboard code names.

Early references, tablet hopes

I hope you put this together the same way I put it together this morning. If files referencing “Spikyrock” are added to “Hylia”, it is reasonable to assume that they were added for some reason. And the reason for this is very likely that “Hylia” is being developed as a tablet.

However, it is too early to say that there is clear evidence. However, I would like to continue researching Hylia in this way. The idea of ​​a perhaps larger and much more powerful Chromebook tablet is very appealing to me. And I think many people will find it equally great. Please stay tuned for more on this. I’m sure a lot of information about Hylia will be revealed in the coming weeks.