Soon Your Chromebook Won’t Blind You Every Time You Turn On
If you’re a fan of Chromebooks And A dark theme stan, then you might be particularly excited to hear that a dark boot screen for Chrome OS has been spotted in a recent dev-channel release. The facelift for devices like the Pixelbook and Lenovo Duet running the latest Dev Channel Chrome OS 101 release started showing up late last week. However, reports indicate some subtle differences between the devices.
One of two boot screen reports indicate that Chrome OS is being tested in 101
are at least two Versions of the new dark theme boot screen: monochromatic as you can see above and a version that uses chrome colors for the logo, seemingly varies between devices. Except for the differences, it’s exactly what you’d expect, with a black background and a brighter, contrasting logo that appears when the device boots up. It is not yet clear whether this is tied to other settings and may be dynamic, as there are some bugs with Dark Mode in the current Chrome OS Dev Channel release.
Dark themes are popular with tech enthusiasts (including most Android Police employees), providing an experience that’s easy on the eyes at night while maintaining contrast. This can introduce some design challenges, but Google has documentation on how developers can best implement it, often preferring dark gray to pure black for the background. Dark themes can also reduce power consumption on OLED displays, but most Chromebooks use TN or IPS displays, which don’t have the same benefits—though there are exceptions like the Lenovo Duet 5 and Galaxy Chromebook.
We know that Google is working to implement dark themed parts on Chrome OS recovery and boot screen from 2020 onwards, but there were some technical challenges associated with some of the changes. But the long-time dream of a complete and complete Chrome OS dark theme is drawing closer to reality.
Some customers report that the same release that enabled the new dark boot screen has also disabled dark theme support in other regions, but that seems to differ. As one of the more bleeding-edge update paths, dev channel releases often enable and disable features as changes are tested, so this is not the case. Very Extraordinary. Per recent commitments, Google Chrome OS failed to extend the flag for Dark Mode prior to v100, and there are indications that it will be re-enabled soon.
This feature may come with Chrome OS 101 as this is the release in which it is currently being tested. As per the current schedule, that version is expected to be stable around April 28. However, Google may push it back later or bring it to an earlier release, as it sometimes does for Dev Channel features. If and when it reaches the beta channel, that will give us a better idea of the time frame.
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