I really wish i could find a use for the chromebooks for my family, but i failed. This one seems similar to the samsung chromebook, which i tried for a while (also lending it to mother, sister, children) but we all found it basically useless for any everyday task.<p>Surely one can blame the ecosystem; but still the conclusion does not change, and as a comparison, tablets and phones had a more successful approach at adapting or modifying the ecosystem and become usable.<p>You cannot use an arm chromebook as laptop because of lack of storage, applications, limited options to connect peripherals (no drivers for anything except storage). No way to print that occasional document or boarding pass (unless you have another computer or perhaps network enabled printer); no way to scan a document. The samsung had an SD slot (this one does not); but you could not show videos from your camera because of unavailable codecs (and no way to install them, despite plenty of android apps for arm that play the same formats).<p>Casual browsing also fails a lot because of unsupported codecs (flash, silverlight); a lot of chrome extensions do not work for arm. Apps, almost non existing.<p>Compared to a tablet, you get a keyboard and the ability to display multiple windows on screen; but in exchange you lose almost every other sensor or peripheral (accelerometer, gps, camera, light) which make the device useful.<p>Now if there were at least a sandbox to run android apps, one could (temporarily ?) address the lack of applications.
Ordered. I absolutely love my ARM-based Chromebook, and have wished for the same specs with a bit better construction and build quality. This is absolutely perfect for my needs, and the keyboard looks to be marginally better as well.<p>I've hardly touched my MB Air (2012 refurb) since I got the Chromebook. Small and light enough to throw in any bag/backpack without care, cheap enough to not worry about theft.<p>I don't mind it being the same CPU and RAM specs as the original; I don't need much for the Chrome browser and a SSH session to the beefy server where I do most of my work.<p>Also owned the C7 Chromebook for a while; upgraded it to SSD and 8G of RAM, but it felt like an abomination with the fans, heat it put out, etc. Sold it to a friend, who absolutely loves it.
Took me awhile for find - but full specs:<p>Full specs<p>Screen<p>* 11.6" display with 16:9 aspect ratio (IPS Panel)<p>* 1366 x 768<p>* 60% Color Gamut<p>* 300 nit screen<p>* Wide viewing angle (176 degree)<p>Inputs<p>* Chrome keyboard<p>* Fine-tuned, clickable touchpad<p>* VGA Webcam<p>Ports<p>* 2 x USB 2.0<p>* Micro-SIM slot (3G and 4G/LTE model only)<p>* Micro USB for 15.75W charging and SlimPort video out<p>Industrial design<p>* Magnesium chassis for strength<p>* Available in black or white with a choice of 4 accent colors<p>* Silent, fanless design<p>* No visible screws, vents, or speakers<p>Size<p>* 297 x 192 x 17.6 mm<p>Weight<p>* 2.3lb / 1.04kg<p>CPU<p>* Exynos 5250 GAIA Application Processor<p>Memory<p>* 2GB (4x 4Gbit) DDR3 RAM<p>* 16GB Solid State Drive1<p>Audio<p>* Combined headphone / microphone jack<p>* Digitally-tuned speakers with sound ported up through the keyboard<p>Battery<p>* Up to 6 hours of active use (30 Wh battery)2<p>Network<p>* Dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n<p>* Bluetooth® 4.0<p>* Verizon LTE connectivity (optional and coming soon)<p>Goodies<p>* 100 GB Google Drive cloud storage, free for two years3<p>* 60-day free trial with Google Play Music All Access, and $9.99/month pricing after that4<p>* 12 free sessions of GoGo® Inflight Internet5<p><a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/hp-chromebook-11/#full-specs-content" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/hp-chromebook-1...</a>
I'm so frustrated by these chromebooks.<p>On one hand, the form factor and aesthetics are great. The price/power engineering is great. The mission/concept is fantastic.<p>On the other hand, we've learned something from Android/IOS. We need apps and they do not necessarily lead to a computer that cannot be managed by a below average user. Even the average 'your mother' has some needs that aren't well met by this machine. Skype. Fill out this (Word) form and email it back to me.<p>I really want android/ios-like (ideally iOS simplicity with chromebook prices/hardware) computers to come out and solve computing for the many many people poorly served by cheap clunky windows laptops.
Hemingway said that one goes broke "gradually, then suddenly."<p>I hope the same thing is happening to Windows marketshare.<p>I hope the same thing is happening to iOS.<p>edit: Note that I said "marketshare." I'm not wishing bankruptcy on Apple and Microsoft. It would be a weird desire.
This thing being blatantly aimed at the education market, Google really need to do the unthinkable and let people host their own server backends to support these devices, otherwise they're simply data sucking machines. That their own educational programming environment runs on a RaspPi and can't be hosted on a Chromebook speaks volumes.<p>And I have a Chromebook, which I'll freely admit is brilliant for many things, but they're always going to be slightly useless until running server apps on them is supported out of the box.<p>The whole thing is remarkably similar to the model Acorn, Sun and Oracle were aiming for with the NC back in the 90s.
Awesome little machine but this brings up questions for me:<p>1. Do consumers want what is essentially a modern netbook? Didn't this market die once the iPad and tablets took hold?<p>It would seem from recent consumer buying trends that most prefer a touch screen/tablet form factor at this price point/screen size.<p>2. How does this compare to an Android tablet (Nexus 10) with a high quality keyboard? Or even some of the "transformer" products with keyboards/additional ports already available?<p>It seems you pay quite a premium for touch, I wonder if this machine will help sway people back into this form factor without touch/tablet mode.
This is interesting timing, as I am really considering purchasing a chromebook. There are a few things that I am still curious about:<p>1. does netflix work ? I know that there was some chromebooks that it did not work on.
2. Any one have any experience with playing flash videos?
3. If linux is put onto it using crouton or similar, is it a severly limit set of packages due to the architecture or does it run quiet well.<p>I want a very casual system that I can occasionally use for some writing/coding. I also have a VPS which I would ssh into for most (if not all) coding.
Woah, this is the kind of developing book I'd like:
6 hrs battery life
IPS viewing display (without 1080p!)
Mirousb universal charging cable
11 inch portability, weighing only 2lbs.<p>I have the acer c7 chromebook, and am really fustrated I can't simply trade it in for this chromebook. It really is one of the most appealing deals.<p>HN has also recently been talking about crouton, which I found very usable.<p>The biggest issues I see in this is 2.0 usb and that non-celeron processor.<p>For anybody considering developing on a chromebook, this looks like one of the most efficient chromebooks for you. A shame it doens't have a celeron though...<p>(Side note. I await installation for that IPS onto the acer. I may not be able to turn in the acer c7 for the hp, but if I can get ahold of that 11 inch IPS, I'm game for that :)
These things are getting increasingly more tempting. I'm actually in the market for something to give my parents, but I actually think an 11" screen is too small for them. 13" might be more like it, but in all honesty they probably still need a 15" machine.<p>But I'm getting increasingly close to picking up one of these just for the hell of it.
Initial impressions (probably all negative): What's the deal with "Just because it looks cool?" A 640x480 webcam in 2013 seems kinda sad (people have become obsessed with video chats these days, quality matters). Using stylized curse words in the copy? Childish. The font on the page is way too small—people have big screens and bad eyes (plus, lots of words/details/reading trying to figure out what/why this things exists).<p>What's the advantage of this thing over a tablet with an external keyboard?
Only available in the UK and US. How unfortunate.<p>Following the link for the US to Amazon, the HP Chromebook is nowhere to be seen on the resulting page.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=2858603011" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=2858603011</a>
I like the fact it uses a microusb charger but they removed all the other ports I wanted, like HDMI, Ethernet, VGA and sd. I was planning on getting an Acer C7 and this won't change that.
If you are from UK then you can buy this from pcworld, the first 30 pre-orders are also sent a 4G PAYG Mobile Wi-Fi, which sells for ~£90 on it's own.<p>Or Use code LAPT20 to make it £209.<p><a href="http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/chromebooks/hp-11-wifi-chromebook-white-blue-21774144-pdt.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/chrom...</a><p>Please make this comment come on top so that people will save some money. Thanks
I have a personal distrust towards HP products. Their customer service has always been good to me, but I've owned 3 separate HP laptops (from before and after the Compaq merger) and all three have essentially fallen apart after the first 12 - 18 months. Same goes for Toshiba (2 laptops). In comparison, every thinkpad I've owned (3) has always outlasted my need for them due to outdated specs over time.
Strange that Samsung hasn't released their new ARM Chromebook yet, but this looks pretty good either way. I would've expected a quad core A15, bigger battery, and 4 GB of RAM at this point, though, for that price. Hopefully next year we can see some 1080p IPS panels, in there, too, for sub $300.
The GPU is still an ARM Mali T6xx which is mostly unsupported, i.e. removing Chrome OS and running "pure" linux is going to be dreadfully slow for lack of 2D/3D acceleration. It's a shame that ARM hasn't released any technical datasheets for their Mali GPUs.
FYI, this page only links to Amazon which says shipping on the 20th - but if you go to the Google Play Store and Devices, it's there in multiple colors (black, or white w/accents) and ships by the 11th.
Would be interesting to give one of these a go as my daily driver, getting sick of lugging around a heavy 2011 Macbook Pro!<p>I wonder what the options are like out of the box for development, or if this will work <a href="http://afaqdar.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/5-different-chromebook-developer-setups.html" rel="nofollow">http://afaqdar.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/5-different-chromebook...</a>
Has anybody used Evernote on Chrome OS at all? I see so many people in lectures with a Macbook solely to use Evernote, and I can see why - it's great for notes on that platform at least. I don't want to take my laptop because it's too heavy and slow, but this (or some other Chrome OS device) looks great if Evernote does well on it - student price, light and fast.
Does '2GB (4x 4Gbit) DDR3 RAM' mean that it can grow to 16gb of ram? Under those conditions I would seriously consider getting it and running crouton.
The thing I love about this device is that it charges off a micro-USB port -- buying a spare charger for my Samsung Chromebook was an expensive ordeal.
<p><pre><code> *100GB of free storage for two years, starting on the date you redeem the Drive offer.
Some things like Hangouts, voice search and auto updates obviously require internet.
Screen images simulated. Color availability may vary.
</code></pre>
I like the "obviously". :)
my problem is still that (absent paying exorbanent fees for 3G/LTE data), I still can't guarantee that I will be able to get online every time I want to use my computer.