Chromebooks have become a great alternative to a laptop for the light user. They are essentially a device that land somewhere in between a full blown laptop and a tablet. They are smaller and lighter, though they run on Chrome OS. Chromebooks have been made by a few different manufacturers like Samsung, Acer, Toshiba and HP. Recently a mysterious HP Chromebook hit the web, and was found out to be the next gen HP Chromebook in Australia. Now we know this new HP Chromebook is headed to the US and the UK. While the appearance of this mysterious Chromebook, essentially a smaller version of HP’s Chromebook 14 was a shock, it seems that this is the next Chromebook to come from PC maker HP.
Chrome OS has been mocked by Microsoft as lacking in the basic needs of a computer. Though many users who have one are satisfied with it’s capabilities-especially with the average price point of Chromebooks being around $350. They have offline capabilities and access to all of Google’s applications like Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Hangouts. Everything is saved to the web, so as long as you log into your Google account you can access anything from your Chromebook on any computer. Essentially anything Google is available on these Chromebooks, and it is a nice way to keep yourself connected. Working with Google, HP did a great job on their generation one Chromebook. Though the next generation HP Chromebook has a little less influence from Google, but similar designs with a few changes.
HP’s Chromebook Generation 2 has apparent changes to the design especially when it comes to the display. On the first generation there was an 11.6” IPS display on the second generation they have changed the display. You will find that they went a cheaper route using an 11.6” matte display, much like the one found on Samsung’s version of the Chromebook. The matte display doesn’t add much to the resolution actually it keeps it the same with a resolution of 1366 x 768. The rest of the specs also stay relatively similar with a Samsung Exynos 5250 ARM processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB SSD. The amount of ports also stays the same-2 USB 2.0 ports, a Micro-USB charging port and a headphone/microphone jack. Which leaves some with the question, why get this variation?
The overall design seems to be the biggest reason that some may like this version better than the older one. The design also changed the dimensions a bit, adding .30kg to the weight and .2” to the height when closed. So it all comes down to aesthetics really, and if you are a fan of the matte display and the new look than this Chromebook is aimed at you. The HP Chromebook Generation 2 doesn’t have a launch date for the US and the UK though we expect it to launch very soon. It is already available in Australia and when it does come to the US, UK and Canada, we are expecting to see it competitively priced against the first generation. The first generation came in at $279 for the 11” variant. Since this bizarre Chromebook was found by YouTuber, Lachan, he’s produced a hands-on video for those curious.