Monday, February 4, 2013

Hewlett-Packard joins Chromebook fray with 14-inch browser-based laptop


PCWorld - Hewlett-Packard on Monday said it’s officially jumping into the Chromebook fray after persistent rumors about the company launching one surfaced in late January. HP joins Samsung, Acer, and Lenovo selling PCs loaded with Google’s browser-as-OS.

The HP Chromebook features a 14-inch display with 1366-by-768 resolution, step up from most Chromebooks that feature 11.6-inch displays. You also get a 1.1GHz Intel Celeron processor, 16GB solid-state drive, 2GB RAM, and 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. For ports, the device offers 3 x USB 2.0, HDMI, Ethernet, headphone/microphone combo jack, and a media card reader.

HP is promising a paltry 4 hours and 15 minutes for battery life, and the laptop is also a little heavy at just under four pounds, and measures 0.83 inches thick. The Chromebook 14 is available now from HP and sells for $330, but you also get 100GB of free Google Drive storage for two years--usually an extra $120.

It’s not clear how well Chromebooks are selling overall, but there are indications that the concept is catching on with American PC users as more people move their digital lives online. Acer recently told Bloomberg that Chromebooks have, since November, accounted for 5 to 10 percent of Acer’s U.S. shipments . Samsung’s 11.6-inch Chromebook is currently the top-selling laptop on Amazon , and Lenovo believes its $429 ThinkPad-branded Chromebook will appeal to schools looking to make bulk purchases.

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