HP Chromebook 11 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 15, 2013 2:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- HP
- Chrome OS
- Chromebook
The Display
Although the 11.6-inch display boasts a pedestrian 1366 x 768 resolution, it’s an IPS panel devoid of the sort of color/contrast shift at off-center angles you normally get with a cheap PC notebook. I remember being in a meeting with a bunch of traditional PC OEMs talking about battery life. I was advocating for displays to be tested at 200 nits when one OEM turned to me and said that there are some notebooks in their lineup that won't even get that bright. Thankfully, the Chromebook 11 helps to push the low end of the PC industry forward. The display doesn't get incredibly bright by high-end mobile display standards, but it has excellent black levels and thus delivers a compelling 1088:1 max contrast ratio.
Color accuracy isn’t anything to write home about compared to the new wave of factory calibrated panels, but for the price it’s awesome. Hilariously enough, the Chromebook 11’s display is about as accurate as the first generation Surface Pro from Microsoft, and in many cases offers better color reproduction than the panel used on the more expensive Chromebook Pixel. Compared to other notebooks in its price class (or even those twice its price), you’re talking about a very good display.
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lightsout565 - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
Yes, I believe you can.https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/18310...
lightsout565 - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
If only it had Bay Trail... Sigh.I was very disappointed by the batter life figures. The HP Chromebook 11 and the Asus T100 both have nearly identical battery sizes (30 Wh vs 31Wh respectively) but the Asus has a reported 11 hours of battery life. Clearly Windows 8/BayTrail just blow the ChromeOS/Exynos away when it comes to power managment.
Do you plan on reviewing the Asus T100? Thanks and awesome review!
shwetshkla - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
I have a genuine question.. why don't chromebooks use amd chips?? It might further lower the costs. :/shwetshkla - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
and have enough power for chromeOS.DanNeely - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
The same reason AMD has such a tiny mobile share in general. Their chips need significantly more power for a given performance level.Krysto - Thursday, October 17, 2013 - link
I would go for AMD chips, if they move to 14nm FinFET, as soon as it's available in 2015 (or even next year if that Samsung 14nm chip is real for 2014, but I doubt it).epr118 - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
Why didn't you have the Samsung Chromebook from last year in the comparison? You say this is the successor to it, so I would like to see how favorably/unfavorably in performs. I can assume the display and build quality are better, with the performance around the same.jaydee - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
It's an interesting device, but for someone like me, who has an iPad, I don't really see much that a Chromebook can do that I can't with a tablet+bluetooth keyboard. Sure there are a few applications where you can really use the touchpad, and there are certain apps that you just can't do on a mobile OS, but going to my desktop isn't that inconvenient for those things.If you don't have a tablet already, then I can see the draw, but for a household that has a tablet, a laptop and a desktop, I'm not sure where this fits in. A real laptop is much powerful and has 90% of the mobility of a Chromebook at maybe 150% of the price (~$450 is a decent base price for a basic i3 laptop). A real tablet is much more mobile, with the same amount of power, 90% of the application at about the same price. I can maybe see this in a household that has a desktop and wants something to blur the lines between laptop/tablet at a low price point, but I don't think there's that much of a market.
kyuu - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
ChromeOS is less fully featured than any OS, whether you're talking full Windows, Windows RT, iOS, or Android. It really has no reason to exist other than to push Google's cloud services.mschira - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
Yea Chrome OS is an odd beast. I wonder if the same hardware with android installed would be a better choice?Then again lack of features is the point of Chrome OS. Less features means less can go wrong.
Good for grannies I guess.
M.