Gadgetory


All Cool Mind-blowing Gadgets You Love in One Place

HP Chromebook 14 - REVIEW

2014-02-07
hey everyone and welcome to another review by James review room today we'll be looking at the HP Chromebook 14 and the one I have here is priced at 299 dollars while the 11-inch model retails for 250 and instead of explaining in detail on every Chromebook review that I do if you're not too familiar with Chromebooks I do suggest watching my video what's a Chromebook on my channel or clicking this video if you're watching this on your desktop now the video will show and explain the Google operating software and its benefits and limitations so without further ado we'll get started on this particular model now all Chromebooks are known for their low price and slim profile the HP Chromebook 14 and 11 are no exception the entire unit is made of plastic with the bottom having a very thin silicone or rubber like material which I really do enjoy whenever I grab this it really feels secure and more secure than any other Chromebook I've reviewed so far in regards to design in my opinion this is the best-looking Chromebook with the acer c720 coming in second place it's a very modern looking design with an all white exterior and a HP chromed out logo red and milled LED in the Hewlett Packard wording on the rear of the unit now at least on the 14-inch models the Chromebook is very rugged feeling there's very minimal to no flex at all and when working in carrying this Chromebook around physically felt more like a seven hundred to eight hundred dollar laptop actually now HP really did a good job just to have it feel like a real quality oriented product the measurements are on your screen with the unit being thirteen point five six inches wide nine point four four inches deep I'm sorry ten point eight six inches thick with the lid closed and it weighs in at four point one nine pounds and it's obviously not as light as the 11 inch models that weighs in about 2.2 pounds or so but compared to other 14 inch laptops this Chromebook is slightly lighter now connectivity is on par with other Chromebooks on the market there's no connections on the front or the rear of the Chromebook but on the right side does include a USB 2.0 port with a built-in SD card reader and the input for the supplied power cable now while rotating to the left side here yield a three-and-a-half millimeter microphone slash headset combination port 2 of the newest USB standards which is USB 3.0 and an HDMI port to connect to your TV or monitor now the last physical feature is the built-in webcam which like most Chromebooks has VGA quality it's an older technology and as you can see on your screen isn't the most crisp image available but do keep in mind Chromebooks are a budget laptop so to keep prices down they do have to put some subpar items in there now in regards to screen size HP currently offers the biggest screen for Chromebooks at 14 inches with a resolution of 1366 by 768 now the resolution is actually on par with other low to mid grade laptops only when you start to head around the $800 price point is when you do see a higher resolution being offered in turn providing more crisp and detailed images and lettering and as much as I like the compact 11-inch model Chromebooks and the higher pixel density the 14 inch just makes everything easier to read with bigger icons and text and as for contrast for a budget-conscious laptop the colors are fine and is enough to have an enjoyable experience while watching movies now the screen is not a matte finish so there is some glare if you do have recessed lighting or a ceiling light light bulb will basically reflect onto your screen now moving on internally Chromebooks in general uses low power consumption processors in this case all of HP 14 inch models uses the latest Intel Celeron processor running a 1.4 gigahertz dual-core chip with 2 gigs of RAM on board now 4 gig versions are available directly from HP's website for just about 30 to 60 dollars more which I do recommend for a bit more multitasking performance now also built in is a 16 gig solid state hard drive which means a very fast performance and with very minimal boot up time now the 11 inch version / HP websites still uses the Samsung Exynos 5 processor which is the same processor in the samsung series 3 Chromebook which I also reviewed a few weeks back that's an old processor and when compared to the new Intel ones the Exynos was not as fluid in performance and the battery life wasn't as good so just be aware of that now other notable features are Wireless ABG and n connections with Bluetooth connectivity to all your Bluetooth enabled devices and the battery claims off to a huge nine and a half hours of news however during my tests of mixin use that includes web browsing and typing my narrative with the occasional YouTube videos there I was able to obtain on average about eight to nine hours of news that's not bad at all that's actually pretty good now lastly regarding the actual performance my tests yielded perfectly fine for everyday casual news now these new processors do make normal actions feel smooth and perform as it should compared to the older generation Chromebooks pulling up email going onto Facebook browsing photos went without a hitch watching youtube videos in high definition wasn't a problem at all and of course the Netflix ran smooth now as for gaming I do not recommend the Chromebook at all now although some games can be found in the Google store some were just not compatible with Chromebook and required either Windows or Java no games that were playable weren't any 3d heavy-hitting games more two-dimensional games were found and they ran perfectly fine games like Angry Birds to cut the rope may be the latest in gone viral flappy birds but even the more demanding games that's still on a 2d platformer but has more on physics calculations like happy wheels ran perfectly fine as well running about an average 30 frames per second and not sure if you notice so far but every application opened has opened in a web browser now Google doesn't run on programs but everything is web driven and this being a Chromebook developed by Google there's nearly if not all of Google services available we're speaking of Google Hangouts Google Docs Google Maps Gmail Google Drive etc you name it now what are the limitations on the operating software is again not being able to use programs that you wouldn't normally install so if you're not too familiar with Chromebook or how it works I highly suggest watching again my video called what is Chromebook and it explains the Chromebooks operating software and what it offers so to wrap things up for only 299 dollars you can get a 14 inch laptop little tentacle a Chromebook with the build quality that feels like a moderately priced laptop the battery life is on the top tier of Chromebooks and laptops alike the only downfalls I can see is of course the gaming department or in general anything too demanding but as long as you understand this is a budget laptop then this laptop will possibly work out for you so I hope this review helped you in some way and if you have not please take your time to like and subscribe to this video for future alerts to new products and be sure to visit my Facebook and Google+ pages this is Jimmy from Jim's review room take care everyone fine
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.