HP and Google have rolled out an intriguing
Chromebook today -- the 11-inch HP Chromebook
Chromebooks, as you may recall, run Google's
web-centric Chrome Operating System consisting mainly of a web browser and
promising simplicity and security.
If you spend all your time in a web browser and
don't want to spend much on a typical computer, a Chromebook would be worth a
closer look. I've used several of them, I own one for quick tasks, my mom has
one, Jared has one, Harry's mom has one. You get the idea. They make for good
secondary machines or as main machines for basic web browsing.
There's been a tradeoff between price -- Chromebooks
start at around $200 -- and specs, but HP's latest offering sets it apart from
earlier Chromebooks in a few ways.
For starters, while many other cheap Chromebooks
feature so-so screens, HP's model sports a nice-ish IPS (in-plane switching)
screen for better viewing angles and more vivid color reproduction.
Second, the Chromebook can be charged with a
micro-USB cable -- the same kind used for most non-Apple smartphones. If you've
a got an Android phone, for instance, you could get away with packing a single
charger before you leave the house. And finally, there will be a model
available later this year with a built-in 4G/LTE cellular connection.
With the exception of the $1,300-and-up Chromebook
Pixel, previous Chromebooks have only had a cellular option that used aging 3G
networks.
Design-wise, the HP Chromebook 11 sports similar
internal specs to an earlier $250 Samsung model; both feature a mobile
processor more commonly found in smartphones and tablets than portable
computers.
The idea is to offer better battery life, but
there's an associated performance tradeoff. The machine has a 16-gigabyte solid
state drive, two gigabytes of memory and HP claims battery life will last up to
six hours. Weight is 2.3 pounds.
HP's Chromebook is available now in a Wi-Fi-only
version for $279. The 4G/LTE model will be available later this year. That's
the one I'm most interested in for use a mobile reporting computer. Hopefully
the price is right and the cellular data plan options aren't too outrageous.
From cnn
