Despite the fact that the Slatebook 14 is not an official product from HP, we know a lot about it already. Essentially what is an HP Chromebook 14 with Android running on it instead of Chrome OS, the Slatebook 14 leaked out some time ago and had a lot of us scratching our heads. Sure, an Android laptop might work in a smaller netbook-sized sort of way for a lower price tag, but a premium laptop running Android? Is Google’s mobile OS ready for such a thing? Well, regardless of whether or not it is, it looks like HP is inching closer and closer to launching the product. More details have crept out thanks to HP’s own website and retailers all over the Internet. The good news is that this guy is kind of easy to repair, the bad news is that this isn’t going to be cheap.
OMGChrome has been scouring the Internet for more info and they’ve come across a number of retailers listing a pre-order, or placeholder price tag, with the lowest being around $420, with most of them hovering around the $450 mark. In comparison to the HP Chromebook 14, this is expensive. HP’s own-designed Chromebook costs just $299 for 2GB of RAM and $349 for 4GB of RAM (which I am typing on right now). However, it would – bizarrely – seem that the Slatebook 14 has somewhat better specs than the Chromebook 14.
As OMGChrome is reporting, specs throughout the internet are reporting a 14-inch HD display at 1920 x 1080, a quad-core Tegra 4 clocked at 1.9 Ghz with 2GB of RAM onboard. There’s an HD webcam onboard as well as Beats Audio, too. Keeping the same sort of layout as the Chromebook 14, this Slatebook 14 looks just like a Chromebook 14, but it’s been spotted in different colors. The recently spotted repair guide on HP’s own website shows off a hot pink Slatebook 14 with black trim on the inside, and the first time we saw this strange device it leaked out in a yellow color with black trim.
We now know quite a bit more about the Slatebook 14, but with more info comes the disappointing news that this is running Android 4.3 and not Android 4.4 KitKat. It seems like HP have been working on this for some time now, but we’ve yet to hear anything really official from HP themselves, even though references of the device are littered throughout their own website. I, personally, am a little skeptical that this will even get released as we’ve seen Android laptops and hybrids – like ASUS’ Transformer Book Duet – be announced and then fade away, reportedly due to Google’s own meddling. If something like this were to make it to market, would any of you buy something like this? Let us know in the comments!
