I love my Chromebooks. In many cases, Chromebooks are very cheap and cheerful laptops that have everything you need to get everyday tasks done, with few bugs, glitches, or crashes to fuss over. But unless you do cloud streaming or play simple Android games, the Chromebook is not a good choice for gaming. [According to Android Police, Chrome OS may support Valve's Steam gaming platform. Yes, Steam gaming may indeed become a reality on Chromebooks.

We've already heard that the Google Chrome team is working to bring Steam to Chrome OS. And now, perhaps with the help of Valve, it appears that some progress has been made. [Android Police has discovered a system flag that will be used in the upcoming Chrome OS 98.0.4736.0 detail Borealis. This version of Chrome OS is expected to be a testing "canary" beta rather than a full release, but will likely allow Chromebooks to run Steam in the near future.

But "what's the point?" you might ask. After all, Chromebooks aren't built to be gaming laptops; with the rare exception of the Google Pixelbook Go, which can be configured with an Intel Core i7 laptop CPU, they don't have powerful processors.

However, I think there is reason for interest here. Thanks to advances in onboard graphics, laptop chips like the Intel Tiger Lake processor have built-in GPUs powerful enough to run games, albeit at low settings and with significant limitations on the games that can be run.

The same could be said for a Chromebook with a Core i5 chip and 8GB of RAM, like the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, which we chose as one of the best Chromebooks. A Windows laptop with similar specs can manage to run Steam games, as long as they are not graphically demanding titles.

So while Chromebooks will not suddenly become gaming laptops overnight, Steam support on the Chrome OS could provide a solid native platform for playing older classic games and indie games that do not require much graphics performance or processor power. Steam support on Chrome OS could make it a solid native platform for playing older classics and indie games that don't require a lot of graphics performance or processor power.

We also see Valve's upcoming "Steam Deck," a collaboration between Valve and graphics processor maker AMD to bring Steam-based games to handhelds. There's no reason why Google and other Chromebook makers can't incorporate some of this technology into their Chrome OS machines; combined with Steam support, we may see a future where Chromebooks actually offer a decent gaming experience.

I'd love to pull out my Chromebook on a train trip and play semi-modern classics like "Half-Life 2," "Bioshock," "Company of Heroes," "Rome: Total War. Limbo," "Bastion," "Braid," "Gunpoint," and other great titles that are all fairly easy to execute but offer surprisingly deep gameplay mechanics.

Chromebooks, of course, support game streaming via Google Stadia and other cloud services. However, in the UK, where internet connectivity is spotty, especially in my recent apartment, being able to game natively away from a Wi-Fi connection is still very appealing.

Steam Deck promises to offer even more power to these gaming opportunities. However, prices range from $399 up to $649, with Chromebooks available for less than $200.

In a world where gadgets seem to be getting more expensive and more elusive, it's nice to get the impression that more affordable devices are not neglected when it comes to functionality. And I can't wait to try out Steam games on my old but still underappreciated Chromebook. And at least Chrome is introducing a new feature to help you save money when shopping online.