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HP Chromebook 11

07 Jan 2014

I’ve had my eye on the Google/HP Chromebook 11 ever since it was announced and launched late 2013. In December, however, the device was recalled due to reports of the charger overheating, melting, and in some cases burning users. So of course, being the impatient guy I am, I bought a “used for one week” Chromebook with a faulty charger from eBay for the steal price of £190 (RRP is £229 and, as of writing, is still not available). Being away from University over the holidays means I’ve been away from my gaming PC, leading the Chromebook to be my main machine for the past week or so; so I thought it’d be good to offload some details/feelings about the device.

This is the best screen on any device I’ve used.

Hands down, the 1366x768 IPS display is the best screen on any device I’ve ever used. Ever. I’m still not used to how high the pixel density is, nor am I used to the incredible brightness (I have to have the device at 80% brightness even when plugged in). Small text is clear, fonts are beautifully rendered, blacks are black and colours are bright and vibrant. You’d be looking at paying for a retina Macbook or iPad for screen quality this good on any other device.

The year old Exynos 5 still screams

The Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core ARMv7 processor the Chromebook contains is the exact same chip that’s inside the Samsung Series 3 from 2012 (which is still on sale at a slightly lower price today), and it’s performance shows why Google chose it over putting something newer (and therefore, more expensive) inside the 11. As of writing, I have a Chrome port of Brackets, the code editor I use, called Tailor running, Spotify playing, and 4 other tabs open in Chrome. Many times I can have two Twitch streams playing at “source” resolution (generally 1080p) without the Chromebook skipping a beat. This is insane, my mother’s £600 Pavillion laptop running Windows 8.1 can’t do this, my £550 year old gaming rig can barely do this, I don’t know if it’s down to Windows vs Chrome OS or just the ability of the CPU, but this is insanity. Strangely, the Chromebook does struggle when playing audio with Google Play Music’s flash player when scrolling through heavy sites like The Verge, but a couple of seconds of stuttering isn’t annoying enough to warrant a rant.

The speakers for the device are under the keyboard, and produce pretty solid stereo sound, on a par with a cheap set of external speakers, but far better than any previous laptop/phone I’ve used.

The inputs

Dual microphone/headphone jacks are something I’m not used to on laptops, they’re more akin to a tablet or a smartphone, but then again, this laptop is basically a Nexus 10 inside a laptop shell, this means I’m also not as surprised that the Chromebook 11 supports micro-usb charging. At times, USB charging is incredibly handy: every friends or family members house I go to has a micro-USB cable lying around so I’m never without juice, but anything less than a 3 amp charger produces a warning on the device that more power will be used than can be provided, so charging will only occur when it’s turned off. Other than that, the device sports two USB 2.0 ports. And that’s it. HDMI output is possible via the micro-USB port, but dual power/video splitters cost in the region of £20, so unless I become desperate to stream South Park onto a bigger monitor, I won’t be investing in that.

If the display weren’t so incredible, I would spend hours raving about this keyboard. Full size, chicklet style keys (a la Macbook) and lacking keys I never use (search replaces caps lock, Chrome specific keys replace F1-12), I can comfortably write for hours on the device. But therein can lie a problem.

Juice may be an issue

If you’re like me and can type consistently for several hours, you may hit a snag on a coach or train trip. Google specifies “up to 6 hours of active use”. I can manage 7 at a pinch, but this isn’t a device that could, say, go days without a charge like a Nexus 7. The charger being micro-USB also produces an issue since charging to full from 10-20% can take up to 4 hours with the device on, so I’ve found myself using my Nexus 4 charger overnight with the device off.

There is no longer such a thing as “offline”

The biggest argument against Chromebooks it seems is a mystical condition known as “offline syndrome”. While the OS and its various apps now sport offline support/modes, I simply cannot think of a situation where I am offline for more than 30 minutes in a position I might want to use my laptop. With unlimited data on my phone and bluetooth/WiFi tethering, unless I’m headed through a tunnel or travelling to remote Cumbria, in 2014 I think there’s seldom a place you can be without data/WiFi (and if you are, a Starbucks/McDonalds with free WiFi is never far away).

This is my usage, yours may vary

It is difficult to tell someone a Chromebook would work for them, because it depends on your use case. In my case, I needed a laptop that could use torrents, git (included in Tailor), some form of document editor (included with Google Docs), the web, and last at least 6 hours without juice (since I have a gaming PC for the rest) and the Chromebook 11 hits all these points. So, go Scroogle yourself Microsoft.