HP Chromebook 11 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 15, 2013 2:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- HP
- Chrome OS
- Chromebook
Final Words
A company that can very easily be held as complicit in the mismanagement and decline of the mainstream PC industry, HP did nothing short of a tremendous job with the Chromebook 11.
Under Google’s influence, HP has built a near perfect example of what an entry level PC should be. It boots fast (< 13 seconds even in dev mode), has a great display, comes with dual-band 2-stream 802.11n WiFi, has good sounding speakers, looks stylish, is light and feels well built. The keyboard is great and even the clickpad isn’t as bad as it is on far more expensive PCs. You honestly get one of the best examples of a portable machine for $279, and that’s without even relying on the benefits of Chrome OS to help sell the bundle. Anyone looking for a glorified web browsing, email checking, internet terminal will be right at home with Chrome OS. Flash works and you obviously get what’s arguably the world’s best web browser. You don’t have to worry about updates, malware or viruses, all of that is taken care of for you. It’s the modern typewriter equivalent, a true entry level computer, and HP/Google have done an excellent job in bringing this to market.
Chrome OS is extremely purpose built and it is something that should bring about great concern to those at Microsoft. I personally don’t have a problem with Windows 8, but purpose built is hardly a phrase that applies to the OS - at least if you’re talking about it on a more traditional PC. I suspect by the time we get to Windows 9, Microsoft will have a better answer to the critics of 8/8.1, but that gives Google and its Chrome OS partners at least another year of marketshare erosion. At the beginning of this mobile journey I remember x86 being an advantage for Intel, and we all know what happened to that. Similarly, I remember Windows/Office being advantages for Microsoft. If Microsoft doesn’t find a quick solution for making low cost Windows PCs just as well executed as Chrome OS devices, it’ll find itself in a world where Windows no longer matters to entry-level/mainstream users.
My only complaint about the Chromebook 11 really boils down to silicon selection. Samsung’s Exynos 5250 is just too slow. A pair of Cortex A15s running at up to 1.7GHz draws too much power and doesn’t deliver the sort of multitasking performance that we’ve come to expect in 2013. You can forget about having a good experience multitasking while playing YouTube videos. Streaming music in the background while you surf the web is about as far as you’re going to be able to push the Chromebook 11 without incurring significant lag. There are clearly better options on the market today, either Snapdragon 800, a quad-core A15 based design or my personal pick for this type of a machine: Intel’s Bay Trail.
If you’re looking for the Chromebook 11 to last you for 5 years, I’d be very concerned about you running out of CPU power well before then. For lighter use you’ll be fine, but with things like the Haswell Celeron based Acer C720 selling for $250 it’s clear that HP went a little too slow on the CPU front. I haven’t seen the C720 in person but my guess is you’re sacrificing display for CPU performance. HP got the mix nearly perfect with the Chromebook 11, with a faster CPU this wouldn’t just be a great machine for light use but likely the perfect entry-level notebook.
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wsjudd - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
I agree completely with the concluding remarks - this looks like the perfect machine, save for the lack of CPU power. Perhaps we'll see a Bay Trail version sometime down the line, and then I'll be quite tempted. For now though, I'll be giving this one a miss.psychobriggsy - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
It's a lot easier to create an "Acer 720+" with an IPS screen for $299 than it is to create a "HP Chromebook 11+" with a faster, more efficient CPU.Sadly at the moment you can choose crap screen and enough performance for $250, or great (screen, keyboard, trackpad) and low performance for $280.
Was YouTube HD tested in Flash or HTML5 mode - the SoC really should support 1080p decode so it sounds like a driver issue.
Wait for the HP Chromebook 11 to drop in price, or for a CPU upgrade. Where's that Exynos Octa when you need it?
AgeOfPanic - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
I am another happy ChromeOS user. I use it a lot in conjunction with a desktop running Chrome on Windows 8. I never expected to use it for photoshop or gaming and I never understood why people hold it against ChromeOS that it cannot do these tasks. No Windows 8 netbook performs these tasks well anyways. Just because you can install it, doesn't mean it works.I won't be buying this Chromebook over my Samsung though. As Anand states, the SoC just isn't very fast and I don't understand why HP releases a product that doesn't have a significant advantage over last years product (like battery life or CPU). If I would buy my first Chromebook now, I would probably wait to see what Samsung releases next or how the Acer is tested.
Qwertilot - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
I doubt if there's a big upgrade market for these things like with phones. Brought to a job at a price, and probably kept while they can still do it.So worth HP getting into the market, and the screen (and maybe other little bits) is certainly a non trivial upgrade over the Samsung at the same price. Interesting to see what Samsung do in response.
kenthaman - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
Have they enabled the remote assistance feature for inbound assistance yet? I know the utility can be used to assist others, but as Anand and others have mentioned, this platform is great for individuals who may not be as tech savvy and the less complicated the process of offering assistance the better.jrs77 - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
All people who think that ChromeOS is a real option should make a reality-check.ChromeOS can't do nothing without an internet-connection, so if you're somewhere in the outskirts you can't do jack with this device.
Anyone who thinks that cloudservices are the future should take a reality-check aswell, because you need to ask yourselves, what happens when they decide to out the service to rest, or start charging insane amounts of money etc.
Sorry, I'd rather pay $1000 for a MBA then for a crippled joke like the Chromebook.
jt122333221 - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
You missed the part where ChromeOS now can edit/modify documents offline and run apps offline (and outside of the browser environment). You really should try harder next time you decide to drop in on something you don't care about as much as it seems. That or just stay out of the comments and save the effort.Krysto - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
So why are you complaining on a $280 Chromebook post, then?mkumar12345 - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
I wonder why such a barebones OS has such low battery life and poor performance. With the upcoming onslaught of cheap x86 convertible notebooks that run Windows and Android that can do so much more, I don't see these Chrome OS notebooks as a better value.The only positives that I can see reviewers noting is the simplicity and security, but how important is that nowadays, when Windows 8 comes included with a pretty good anti-virus, does automatic updates etc and even Android is secure enough if one doesn't install apps from unknown sources and only from the marketplace. Plus these Windows 8 and Android convertibles offer amazing power, multitasking and close to 10 hrs of battery life.
Chrome OS has its work cut out if it wants to catch up and not the other way around.
agent2099 - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
Being that this has to be always on, is the media player one of the apps that allows for offline use.What I'm getting at is, can I load a few movies on a Chromebook and watch them on a 5 hour flight where I don't have an internet connection.