Google and Dell team up to unveil Latitude enterprise-grade Chromebooks, with 8th-gen Intel Core i7 CPUs, available to order from August 27, starting at $699
Context & Ripple Effects
Chrome OS has been climbing Dell's lineup for years: the $399 Dell Chromebook 13 was Google's first serious push into business in 2015, followed by school-focused Latitude and Chromebook 11 convertibles in 2017 and the premium $599 Inspiron Chromebook 14 for consumers in 2018.
The new Latitude line closes the loop by putting top-tier 8th-gen Core i7 silicon under an enterprise brand, at $699 — double the entry price of that 2015 business Chromebook — signaling that Chrome OS is no longer pitched as a budget alternative but as corporate fleet hardware.
First-order effects
- Enterprise IT buyers get a Chromebook carrying the Latitude brand — Dell's established corporate line — with workstation-class i7 CPUs, removing the 'underpowered toy' objection that kept Chrome OS out of many business deployments.
Second-order effects
- Rival OEMs shipping Windows laptops in the $699–$1,000 corporate range now face a Chrome OS option with comparable specs, pressuring them to field their own premium enterprise Chromebooks or defend Windows on software lock-in alone.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — each generation of Dell's Chromebooks priced higher and aimed further upmarket — corporate laptop procurement splits between Windows incumbency and a Chrome OS tier backed by Google's management tooling, eroding the default status of Windows in enterprise refresh cycles.
The trend: Chrome OS is migrating up the price and prestige ladder from classroom hardware to enterprise fleets, with Dell using its trusted Latitude brand as the vehicle.