Honestly, if you look at the sleek, aluminum-clad Chromebooks of 2026, it is almost impossible to imagine the clunky, experimental "science projects" that started it all. People often think Google just woke up one day and decided to kill the hard drive. But the road to that first release was weird, risky, and full of matte-black plastic.
The short answer? The first commercial Chromebooks were released on June 15, 2011.
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But that isn't the whole story. Not even close. Before you could buy one at a Best Buy, there was a ghost machine that only a few thousand people ever touched. It was called the Cr-48, and it changed everything.
The Pilot That Started It All: The Cr-48
In December 2010, Google did something very "Google." They announced a pilot program. They didn't sell a product; they shipped out 60,000 unbranded, matte-black laptops to developers and "test pilots" for free.
This was the Cr-48.
It didn't have a logo. No stickers. No "Intel Inside." It was just a slab of rubberized plastic. If you were one of the lucky ones who got that box with the "mouse test pilot" artwork on it, you were holding the true ancestor of the modern Chromebook.
The Cr-48 was a bit of a nightmare by today's standards. It used a single-core Intel Atom processor that struggled with basically any video that wasn't on YouTube. Flash playback was a disaster. There was no file manager. If you wanted to see a photo you just downloaded, you had to open a new tab and hope for the best.
But it proved a point: a computer could boot in eight seconds.
When Was the First Chromebook Released for Everyone?
After the Cr-48 pilot wrapped up, Google was ready for the big stage. On May 11, 2011, at the Google I/O conference, Sundar Pichai (who was then just the VP of Product Management) took the stage to announce that "Chromebooks" were finally coming to the masses.
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Two companies took the plunge first: Samsung and Acer.
The Samsung Series 5
This was the flagship. It had a 12.1-inch screen and a sleek (for the time) white or silver chassis. It cost $429 for the Wi-Fi model and $499 if you wanted 3G. Yes, 3G—remember that? It even came with a tiny bit of free data from Verizon every month.
The Acer AC700
Acer went for the budget crowd. The AC700 was smaller, with an 11.6-inch screen, and felt a bit more like the "netbooks" that were popular back then. It launched at $349.
Both of these hit the shelves on June 15, 2011.
The reviews? They were brutal. Tech critics couldn't understand why anyone would pay $500 for a laptop that "only ran a browser." One famous review even called it "a shiny brick" when it wasn't connected to the internet.
Why 2011 Was Such a Weird Time for Laptops
You have to remember what the world looked like in 2011. Windows 7 was king. The MacBook Air had just started getting popular. "The Cloud" was still a buzzword that most people didn't really trust.
Google’s pitch was basically: "Hey, give us your money for a computer that can't run Photoshop, can't play Minecraft (the original version), and loses half its features if your Wi-Fi drops."
It sounds like a terrible sales pitch. And yet, it worked.
The breakthrough didn't happen in living rooms; it happened in classrooms. Because these early 2011 models were so limited, they were also incredibly easy to manage. A school IT guy could set up 100 of them in the time it took to update one Windows laptop. By 2012, Google was piloting these in schools, and by 2014, they were outselling iPads in the education sector.
Surprising Facts About the 2011 Launch
People forget how much of the "Chromebook DNA" was established right at the start.
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- The Search Key: Google famously replaced the Caps Lock key with a Search key (the "Everything Button"). They said they wanted to discourage people from typing in all caps. It’s still there today.
- The Lowercase Keyboard: The Cr-48 and early Samsung models had lowercase letters on the keys. Google thought it looked friendlier.
- No Function Keys: The F1-F12 keys were banished in favor of dedicated "Back," "Forward," and "Refresh" buttons.
- The "HaaS" Model: At launch, Google tried to sell Chromebooks as a "Hardware as a Service" subscription for $28 a month for businesses. It didn't really take off, but it showed they were thinking about the long game.
What Most People Get Wrong
There’s a common misconception that the Pixelbook was the first Chromebook.
Nope. The Pixelbook didn't arrive until much later. Even the original "Chromebook Pixel" (the one with the crazy high-res screen) didn't show up until 2013. For the first two years, Chromebooks were strictly budget devices meant to be "second computers" for the home or tools for students.
Google didn't even make their own hardware at first. They relied entirely on Samsung and Acer to prove the concept was viable.
Actionable Takeaways for Today
If you are looking back at the history of when the first Chromebook was released, it's likely because you’re trying to decide if these devices have finally "grown up."
Here is the reality of where we are now compared to 2011:
- Offline Is No Longer an Issue: Almost every major "web" app (Google Docs, Pocket, various note-takers) has a robust offline mode now. The "shiny brick" argument is dead.
- Android Integration: Since 2016, Chromebooks have been able to run apps from the Google Play Store. This fixed the "no apps" problem that haunted the 2011 Series 5.
- Linux Support: If you're a developer, modern ChromeOS allows you to run a full Linux terminal. The Cr-48 testers would have killed for that.
- Hardware Longevity: Check the "Auto Update Expiration" (AUE) date before you buy. Unlike the 2011 models that stopped getting updates years ago, modern Chromebooks often get 10 years of support.
If you find an old Samsung Series 5 in a thrift store, it’s a cool piece of history, but it probably won't even load a modern webpage properly. The web has grown up, and luckily, the Chromebook grew up with it.
To see how far things have come, you should check your current laptop's "End of Life" date in the ChromeOS settings menu to ensure you're still getting the latest security patches. If your device was made after 2024, you're likely set until the mid-2030s.